This refers to the first six weeks of our spring semester (January 20 - March 5), wherein we invite our boarding and day students to commit to a robust and rewarding in-person, on-campus learning experience. Students choosing to be in person and on campus for these six weeks must understand that the combined impact of eliminating close contact situations while being fiercely protective of our community’s protocols is critical for success. Therefore, students and families must commit to full compliance with all health and safety protocols, including the School’s expectations regarding mask usage and physical distancing. 

All boarding students (domestic, international, and day students who have selected the option to board) are scheduled to return to campus on Wednesday, January 20, between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Upon arrival, students must go directly to Copley Library in Steele Hall, where: 1) the Health Center will confirm receipt of each student’s first PCR test result, 2) the Health Center will administer a second PCR test for each student, and 3) students will receive a pass permitting entrance to their dorm. Student medications may also be dropped off to Health Center staff in the Library at this time. Please be reminded that only students are permitted inside campus buildings; parents/guardians may not accompany their child in the Library or inside dormitories. 

Day students will report to in-person classes beginning January 25.   

Key spring semester dates are as follows:

No, we will not lose any academic days during the spring semester. We will make up five class days by holding classes on select Saturdays: January 30, February 13, February 27, and additional Saturdays after our return from spring break (dates to be announced).

Students will depart campus after their last afternoon commitment on Friday, March 5, and we hope to welcome all students back to campus for in-person classes on March 23. Details regarding the date for boarding students to return to campus and our re-entry protocols following spring break will be shared in February. Families should assume that we will call for the same testing and quarantine measures that were required in January. 

No.

No.  Upon arrival, students must go directly to Copley Library in Steele Hall, where: 1) receipt of first PCR test results will be confirmed, 2) second PCR tests will be administered, and 3) students will receive a pass permitting entrance to the dormitories. Student medications may also be dropped off to Health Center staff in the Library at this time. Only students are permitted inside campus buildings; parents/guardians should stay in their car and may not accompany their child in the Library or inside dormitories.

All domestic and international boarding students are asked to return to campus between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM on January 20.  If a delayed arrival cannot be avoided, families must communicate in advance with Director of Health Services Colleen Cook. 

Boarding students arriving to campus after January 20 will have their quarantine extended (due to delayed testing) and will be required to quarantine in a space other than their dorm room until the results of a negative PCR test (administered by Canterbury’s Health Center) are returned. This includes boarding students who arrive after 4:00 PM on January 20.

Only students are permitted inside campus buildings; parents/guardians should stay in their car and may not accompany their child inside the dorm.

All students who have opted into the Saints Six-Week Stretch (in-person learning) are required to undergo three rounds of COVID-19 PCR testing:

First Test
All boarding and day students will obtain their first round of PCR testing at a facility close to home. Tests should be administered between January 13-15 (and not before).  

Local area students have the option to have their first test administered by Canterbury’s Health Center; costs will be billed through insurance/at the family’s expense.
January 12       7:00–9:00 PM
January 13       9:00–11:00 AM

Test results must be submitted to Health Center by January 20. Results can be uploaded to Magnus, emailed to Director of Health Services Colleen Cook, R.N., or faxed to the Canterbury Health Center at 860-210-3988. 

IMPORTANT: If your first PCR test result is positive, please communicate with Canterbury’s Health Center immediately, as you will be required to delay your return to campus. Likewise, if you have a negative test result but are feeling ill in the days preceding your return, please communicate with the Health Center before coming to campus. 

Second Test
Boarding students will have their second PCR test administered by Canterbury's Health Center in the Copley Library upon arrival to campus on January 20. 

Day students have the option to have their second PCR tests administered by Canterbury’s Health Center in the Copley Library:
January 19       7:00–9:00 PM
January 20       9:00–11:00 AM

IMPORTANT: Day students may only come to campus if the Health Center is in receipt of negative results from the first PCR test or if these results can be furnished upon arrival. 

Day students who opt to use a testing facility close to home must have their second test administered on January 19 or 20 (and not before) and submit a copy of the results to the Health Center no later than January 24.

Quarantine
Boarding and day students are required to quarantine until the results of their second PCR tests are returned.  Boarding students will quarantine in the dorms, and day students will quarantine at home. Day students are not permitted on campus during this quarantine period. 

IMPORTANT: Any boarding or day student whose second PCR test results are not received by the Health Center by January 24 will be required to extend their quarantine period. Therefore, although in-person classes are scheduled to resume on January 25, these students will be required to continue accessing classes remotely, will not be permitted to participate in athletics or activities, and will not be able to have meals in the dining hall or be present in any communal spaces on campus. 

Third Test
All boarding and day students will undergo a third round of COVID-19 PCR testing on Friday, January 22, which will be administered on campus by Canterbury’s Health Center. 

Click here to download a copy of our January return calendar.

Starting January 11, all students (and faculty and staff) are once again expected to adhere to a “quiet” period in the 10 days leading up to our community’s return to campus. To be clear, this means that students should remain at home with no interaction beyond immediate family starting no later than January 11. Likewise, by January 11, students must end any participation in sports or other comparable activities (e.g., weekend showcases, travel teams, club athletic practices, dance classes, etc.). 

Following their arrival on campus, all boarding students will quarantine in their dorms while awaiting the results of the second round of PCR tests administered on January 20.  During the short quarantine period, students should expect to spend a majority of their time in their individual rooms; however, students will have opportunities to spend time outdoors, get exercise, and socialize with a small group of other students who live on their floor. Of course, meals will be provided, but we encourage students to bring back snacks and drinks for the quarantine period. Please check back soon for more detailed instructions for students during the brief on-campus quarantine period. 

Day students are required to quarantine at home immediately following their second PCR test and until those test results are returned. 

Weekly surveillance testing will resume during the week of February 1, wherein a random sample of our community will undergo COVID-19 PCR testing as a means of monitoring the overall health of our campus.

Additionally, with the increase in COVID-19 positive cases in Connecticut and our surrounding areas, all day students choosing to attend in-person classes will undergo PCR surveillance testing on campus every week.

Details regarding our re-entry protocols following spring break will be shared in February. Families should assume that we will call for the same testing and quarantine measures that we required in January. 

The protocols that will be in place as we start the spring semester will be the very same as those that allowed our community to stay healthy and safe on campus this fall. Both then and now, the heart of our safety protocols are: mask wearing, physical distancing (keeping 6 feet apart whenever possible), and frequent hand washing. These mitigation strategies are put forward by the State of Connecticut and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and as we did in the fall, our success wholly depends on our community’s compliance. 

State of Connecticut guidelines for congregate living settings (dormitories) are being followed in full. Students rooming in doubles are viewed as a “family unit.” Hallways, common areas, and bathrooms are being managed so as to ensure physical distancing necessary to maintain a healthy and safe space. Common rooms have specific guidelines to allow for their safe use. Students are not required to wear a mask in their own room, but masks are required in all common areas and when walking to and from the bathroom. Students are not allowed in dorm rooms other than their own. The start of dorm visitation (allowing boarding students to visit other dorms) has been delayed until the school is able to deem it safe. Similarly, day students are not permitted inside dorms.

Day students and their families are essential to keeping the Canterbury community healthy and safe. We are upholding the expectation that day families consider their homes an extension of our campus “bubble” and abide by the same protocols that support our efforts to protect the health of our community. 

All members of a day student family are asked to comply with keeping their circles of potential exposure small—limiting the people they come in contact with who are not wearing masks and/or are within six feet; we require the same of our faculty and staff who leave campus each day. Day students are not permitted to attend small or large gatherings in or outside the home, visit colleges, and participate in off-campus sports and activities. We also ask day students to refrain from working their part-time jobs off campus. Any student found to be in violation of these expectations will be required to shift to remote learning.

All day students choosing to attend in-person classes will undergo PCR surveillance testing on campus every week for the first six weeks of the spring semester.  We will evaluate the continued need for this weekly testing following spring break in March. 

Day students (along with all other non-residential community members) also submit an electronic health survey each day and are directed to stay home and see their physician should they exhibit any symptoms. 

Our approach to the spring semester must account for the fact that COVID-19 is more prevalent now than in September and the odds are greater that a member of our community may come into contact with the virus. Therefore, we acknowledge the need to start the spring semester with our most stringent protocols in place. That said, we also continue to prioritize our students’ emotional well-being and know how important it is to create and sustain a sense of family, connectedness, and belonging on our campus. Please know that it is our sincere hope to once again adopt a staged approach, as we did in the fall, allowing us to make adjustments to protocols as conditions of the pandemic and our community’s cooperation and compliance permit. 

Masks are our greatest defense against the spread of the virus, therefore, masks are required on campus in all common spaces, including hallways, classrooms, and when entering the dining hall until seated at a table. Teachers and administrators will hold students accountable should they fail to follow physical distancing and mask-wearing requirements.

All boarding and day students have the option to choose between six weeks of attending classes in person/on campus or a remote access alternative. Our reasoning to broadly offer a remote learning option reflects a number of factors; most importantly, the current prevalence of COVID-19 locally, regionally, and nationally; individual challenges faced by members of the Canterbury family due to travel concerns and/or the inability to minimize external contacts in and outside the home; and our belief that giving families and students a choice will best enable you to plan for the next two months. 

As a reminder, in-person instruction will once again be our primary mode of instruction for the second semester. Students choosing to access remote learning must be willing to make a commitment to all aspects of Canterbury’s guidelines and expectations for Distance Learning. Students not adhering to the School’s expectations for attendance, dress code, and online netiquette will be in danger of not earning academic credit.

No. We are unable to accommodate different re-entry points for multiple students. Therefore, students who select the remote option in January will remain on this path until after spring break. 

No. Families who voluntarily select the six-week remote access alternative will not be provided a tuition refund, knowing that the School will be fully operational with personnel and programming on campus.

Regular grading policies will be in place for both in-person and remote instruction. Faculty will communicate their course expectations at the beginning of the semester as usual. Students participating in remote learning will not be disadvantaged. Many assessments will take the form of projects, papers, and other work relying on collaboration or research. More traditional assessments will likely occur in the synchronous morning class blocks and will be carefully monitored for adherence to Canterbury’s Academic Honor Code.

Yes. The support provided to Canterbury students by our faculty and the Donovan Center for Learning staff will continue, regardless of a student’s in-person or remote learning status. 

All remote students will be concurrently enrolled with the Donovan Center for Learning academic counseling and will be required to participate in regularly scheduled meetings with faculty outside of their academic schedule. Academic Counselors will also be available for additional synchronous (live) one-on-one support sessions for students participating in remote learning.

No. Remote access to classes is only for those students who have formally opted into the remote access alternative at the start of the semester or who must be moved to remote status due to COVID-19 protocols.

We understand that some day families are simply unable to reduce the points of intersection with people outside their household and, as a result, cannot fully guarantee that their homes can become an extension of our campus “bubble.” Therefore, we have decided to offer the limited number of vacant beds we have available to day students facing these challenges in their homes and who wish to spend the Saints Six-Week Stretch on campus.

Day families who wish to request a boarding bed must submit this form by January 13.  Sixth Form students will be given the first priority to reserve an open bed, and preference will be given to those families for whom compliance with our close contact protocols poses a challenge. Requests will be reviewed in the order in which they are received. Should beds still be available after the January 13 deadline, we will then consider requests in descending order by Form (Fifth Form students, followed by Fourth and then Third). Here too, preference will be given to families who are unable to limit the number of external contacts outside of their household. 

We invite students to let us know of their dorm preference; however, we cannot promise placements in specific dorms. Most available rooms are double occupancy. 

Final assignments will not be known until January 15 at the earliest.

At this point, the opportunity for day students to board on campus is only available for the six-week period of January 20 through March 5. We will make a determination about the remainder of the spring semester in February.

Day families requesting a boarding bed will be billed $2,000. Should you have questions, please contact Assistant Head of School for Student Life Peter LaVigne or Dean of Students Jake Dellorco.

Busy! Knowing how vital it is for students’ emotional health, we are planning a robust schedule of weekend programming that will keep our students active and allow them to gather safely, connect socially, and enjoy the benefits of a residential life experience at Canterbury. For example, we will hold the first ever Canterbury Winter Games that will include several weekly competitions and a victor to be named the week of March 1. Students will still spend time outdoors, with several places on campus that will regularly feature fire pits and patio heaters. Students are encouraged to bring winter gear for sledding and fun in the snow! 

In keeping with our efforts to establish dorm pods as households or “family units,” boarding students may not visit dorms other than their own, and day students will not be allowed to enter any dormitory buildings. Similarly, because of the confined space of dorm rooms, students may not host guests in their rooms.

With the goal of limiting the points of intersection beyond the safe “bubble” on our hilltop, boarding students will not be allowed weekend departures for either home or college visits. Only in extenuating circumstances will we grant exceptions. Please direct any requests to Assistant Head of School for Student Life Peter LaVigne or Dean of Students Jake Dellorco.

Yes.

For the first two weekends of the spring semester, day students will not be permitted to participate in residential life weekend activities. We will reevaluate this protocol going forward and hope the conditions on and off our campus will support a decision to include day students in our weekend programming. 

Day students are permitted to participate in weekend athletics. 

Day and boarding students may not engage in off-campus group activities, such as, but not limited to, club sports teams, showcases, dance classes, concerts, music and theater offerings. If the school is made aware of students engaging in these activities or travels to a high-risk area, the student will be required to shift to remote learning and may be subject to disciplinary action.

No.  Students will not be allowed to leave campus and go to the businesses in town. However, as we did in the fall, we will help coordinate school-monitored curbside/contactless pickups at Walmart, CVS, and other local stores. 

Yes. Students will be allowed to order food at night from a list of approved restaurants that are following appropriate COVID-19 protocols.

Athletics is a key piece of our afternoon programming, and please know that we plan to offer a winter program for all of our student-athletes that includes team practices, skill development, conditioning, and college recruitment filming. 

We were pleased to learn that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) board of directors approved mitigation strategies for the winter sports season on Thursday, January 7. The CIAC is awaiting final determination from the State of Connecticut, which imposed restrictions on high school athletics until at least January 19.  As soon as we receive updated information about the expectations of the state and how that will influence our program, Director of Athletics Jim Stone will share a detailed athletic plan for the Saints Six-Week Stretch.

We are working closely with other schools and have a tentative weekend-only game schedule for varsity and some sub varsity winter teams, beginning at the end of January. However, as we learned this fall, interscholastic competition is subject to change based on state guidelines, the availability of competing teams, and the medical landscape generally. 

Yes.

We are awaiting final guidance from the State of Connecticut for the winter athletics season. We expect protocols to include mandatory mask wearing and appropriate physical distancing during all athletic activities.

Regrettably, no. All games will be livestreamed.

Yes.  As was the case this fall, students will be able to sign up and reserve a specific time to use the weight room. 

Yes.  Students may use any of the on-campus facilities during free time and after the academic day.  Students must adhere to proper mask and physical distance protocols. Permission from a member of the Athletics Department must be obtained prior to use of any facility.

No. As they will not have been part of our testing and surveillance protocols, day students who opt to be remote for the first six weeks of the spring semester are not permitted on campus.