We respect the privacy of the children registered with us and will take steps to protect it. Personal data shared with us will be used strictly in accordance with privacy legislation, and only for the purposes that parents have consented to. We will not share details with third parties, except where we are legally or obligated to do so. Upon registration you will be asked to sign a media release consent form. Photos will only be shared with given consent and for the agreed upon purposes (ie. social media updates and program promotion).

Children are asked to stay home from any of our programs if they have experienced any of the following symptoms within the past 48 hours: 

• Fever 

• Vomiting 

• Diarrhea 

• Significant cough 

• Significant rashes 

• General lethargy 

In the case where one of the above illnesses occurs while at programming, the child will be separated from the other children and parents/guardians will be contacted in order to arrange the prompt pickup of their child. 

Any children that become affected with a communicable disease (such as measles, chickenpox, mumps, whooping cough, strep throat, influenza, pneumonia etc) are asked to stay home until their health care provider has communicated that it is safe for them to be exposed to the public once more.

If your child has a food allergy, mild or severe, ensure that you include the details of this on your registration form. Children with life threatening allergies will be required to carry an Epi-pen on their body at all times.

All children are required to bring their own food and water bottle for full day programs. They need to pack a lunch and should also bring several healthy snacks to have throughout the day (please refrain from sending candy). Also please ensure your child packs a leak-proof water bottle. 

If a registered child has nut allergies, then we will enforce a strict no nuts policy for the duration of the year. If none of our children have allergies then we may allow nut products on site.

On occasion, the children may be provided with or help prepare a special homemade treat, or the group may do some campfire cooking. Parents will be notified ahead of time in these instances. We will never offer foods with artificial colouring agents or highly processed sugary snacks from the store. Please ensure to make note on the child’s registration form if they have any food allergies or intolerances.

Pine and Pasture Academy aims to provide children with a safe and supervised environment where they can learn to recognize, manage and even experience risk to an appropriate degree, as we believe this is an important part of healthy childhood development. 

That being said, your child’s safety is our top priority. Our daily activities will have clear boundaries with concrete safety plans in place. We will discuss the potential risks of each activity with the participants and work together to formulate plans to reduce them so that children have a clear understanding of how to make the best choices to ensure everyone’s safety and well-being. 

Additionally, our child to adult ratio will be capped at 10:1 to ensure proper supervision at all times. 

There will always be some risks inherent to our forest and farm programming, which are typical for outdoor play in general as well. They include, but are not limited to: 

• Mechanical injuries from strenuous and demanding physical activities

• Injuries incurred from navigating uneven terrain

• Minor discomforts from physical activity including; scrapes, bruises, blisters, slivers

• Tick and bug bites/stings

• Wild animal encounters, less likely due to the presence of our dogs

• Contracting poison ivy, though we have not seen any on property at all

• Presence of hunters in the surrounding private properties during hunting season:

  We will help mitigate this risk by avoiding exploration in our back pastures and outlying forest during hunting season, as well as making lots of noise and adding brightly coloured clothing pieces to individuals if we are near any of our property boundaries. The location of our property at the end of a short road, with the Conmee Cemetery as our closest neighbour, makes it highly unlikely that we will ever encounter hunters anywhere nearby our main use areas. 

• Injuries resulting from interactions with livestock:

  We will help mitigate this risk by strict, explicitly communicated rules regarding children’s behaviour around our animals. Participants will always be closely supervised, and any hand’s on experiences with our larger livestock will be done one-on-one, with participants taking turns with the instructor coaching them directly while also closely monitoring the animal. 

Pine and Pasture Academy will consider the Lakehead District School Board’s decisions regarding snow days. If the rural school buses are cancelled, it is likely that our programming will also not run that day to deter families from driving in hazardous conditions. 

We will notify all families via text message and emails, prior to 8:00 am, if we will be closed for the day.

In the unlikely event that we are required to close early due to severe weather, we will notify all families in order to make appropriate pick-up plans. All outdoor activities will be cancelled or ended early if Tornado Watches or Warnings are put in place by Environment Canada. In this event, students will shelter inside our basement and parents will be notified of the threat and advised on a pick up plan.

Outside temperatures that include extreme cold, -25C or below, or extreme heat, 30C or above, will prompt changes to the daily programming to ensure the student’s safety. Children will be carefully monitored and outdoor exposure limitations will be put in place based on age, outerwear and observed wellness of the participants. We will utilize our indoor space in these instances and children will switch their focus to crafts, stories and other engaging activities inside until we can return outside. 

Pine and Pasture Academy requests that any day programming participants with personal cell phones have them turned them off or on silent and left in their backpack for the duration of the day (or simply left at home).

Parents are able to reach their child at any time should they need to by contacting us directly.