North Saanich Middle School
10400 McDonald Park Road,
North Saanich, British Columbia, V8L 0A3
Tel: 250-656-1129 Fax: 250-656-2759
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Nov. 30, 2015
Dear Parent and Guardians:
Re: WiFi at School
We are exploring the opportunity to increase the WiFi at North Saanich Middle School. Currently we have a small percentage of the school with access to WiFi. Middle school staff in Saanich recognize that the use of technology supports student learning in a variety of important ways. Consequently, we are advocating increasing Wifi access to 70% in all three Saanich middle schools for the following three reasons:
1. Wifi allows students to have timely access to information that supports their inquiry and research projects.
2. Wifi increases the use of relevant technologies in the classroom that meet the goals of the new curriculum.
3. Wifi allows access to assistive technology that gives students more independence with their learning.
* Please note that if we move forward with increasing Wifi, we will commit to providing a Wifi free environment for students who request it.
In order for you to make an informed decision, we are including two links with relevant research on the topic from both sides of the debate.
Here is the link to Health Canada:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/radiation/cons/wifi/faq-eng.php#a2
Here is the link to information from Canadians for Safe Technology:
We also ask you to familiarize yourself with School District 63 Policy 3130 which pertains to wifi use in schools.
As part of the process of getting the school districts approval the school is required to survey the parents. Here is the link to the survey.
The survey will be active from Nov 30th @ 9am to Dec 11 at 3 pm.
Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes to complete it.
Sincerely,
K. Russell
Principal
(Edited by Pascal Raven - original submission Monday, 30 November 2015, 10:20 AM)