In light of the continued escalation of the coronavirus situation and in line with the guidance from the local authorities, our schools will remain closed until further notice.
Furthermore, all staff and students will be required to be quarantined at home, in Beijing, and virus free for 14 days prior to returning to school. For this reason, teachers will be requesting daily updates about your child’s whereabouts and their health condition. We thank you in advance, for your cooperation with this important daily task.
Please know that the HoK leadership place the utmost importance on the safety and welfare of the students and staff at our schools. We understand that this is an anxious and uncertain time for many of our HoK family. We share in the range of emotions many are experiencing, and we are confident in the ability of our community to be resilient and to have the resolve to overcome this current challenge and emerge stronger and closer as a result.
I would like to thank those who have shared their concerns with us about this situation. Please know that we are keenly listening, and we empathize with each of your unique situations. We are committed to being here to support you and your children through this time.
Our teachers will be working remotely in order to maintain the learning programs for you children until such time as we are given permission from the local authorities to reopen our schools.
Your class teachers will be in touch with you via email on Monday morning to give you more details about the planned learning program for the following week. Teachers will be available to respond to parent or student requests or questions during normal school business hours (8.00am – 3.30pm Beijing time).
While HoK schools have a clear policy about the use of WeChat, we understand that for many parents this is the most convenient way to communicate. It also has the advantage of having a built-in translator function. Therefore, during this time, we will allow teachers to create WeChat groups for students and parents in their classes.
Once we return to school, we will delete these groups and block parent contacts. We request that parents and students respect that teachers are giving their personal contact details during this time. Please ensure that you only send school related messages and only send them during school business hours.
Your health and confidence are important to us, so we are reaching out to you with the following update. We recommend the following practices to all families and faculty.
- Increase prevention and self-protection. Keep good hygiene by washing your hands often with soap or alcohol-based sanitizer. Cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or your flexed elbow. No spitting. Dispose of used masks appropriately. Maintain proper ventilation and keep rooms clean. Avoid close contact with wild animals or birds; eggs and meat must be thoroughly cooked before consumption.
- The general guidelines for avoiding cold viruses apply to coronavirus: get enough sleep, drink plenty of water, and exercise regularly to maintain your health.
- Minimize outdoor activities. Avoid crowded places, parties and group activities. Correctly wear a mask (preferably, a surgical mask) if you have to go and attend one. Wear a surgical mask when going out and change it every four hours. If you have mild to severe respiratory symptoms of fever, cough, breathing difficulty, or fatigue, please go to a designated hospital with a mask on.
- Join in our mass prevention and control efforts. If you have been to the infected areas and returned to Beijing; within 14 days, or if you contacted people who are from the epidemic area, please monitor your health condition closely, stay at home, and timely report to local Disease Control authorities or designated departments. Please cooperate with government or community personnel or medical staff if they inquire about your condition.
- If you have a fever, you must go to one of these Fever Clinics as designated by the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality (beijing.gov.cn). Going to just any hospital or clinic will result in you being referred to one of the below.
- If you use Baidu Maps, an easy way to find the nearest one to your current location is to do a search in Chinese for 发热门诊 (fārè ménzhěn, fever clinic). For a list of the 101 designated fever clinics in Beijing please follow this link https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jiJk4L_zg8Z5yySq5ab9Dw
- Keep a positive attitude. What we can promise you, is that we will continue to be vigilant in our efforts to get confirmed and accurate information about this developing situation and communicate it to you on a regular basis.
Kindest regards,
Group Education Director