Students in southeast Saskatchewan are back to learning in the classroom this week.
Most schools in the South East Cornerstone Public School Division and all schools in the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division returned to Level 2, in-class learning, effective April 26 as originally planned.
Spruce Ridge School in Estevan has remained at remote learning this week, due to limited staff availability. The kindergarten-Grade 8 school will return to Level 2 on May 3.
Cornerstone director of education Lynn Little said Spruce Ridge remains at remote learning because a number of staff members have been adversely affected by COVID-19. She knows of two who tested positive, while others are close contacts.
“We just do not have the staffing required to operate the school next week. So we’ll be able to operate it remotely and then hopefully bring it safely back on the 3rd.”
The Estevan Comprehensive School and Grades 9-12 at the Weyburn Comprehensive School will move to Level 3 effective April 26, with a planned return to Level 2 on May 10th. Those two schools were at Level 3 for the final few weeks of 2020 and the first couple of months of this year.
“Typically they’re in at least two cohorts each day, and often two different ones the next day, so if you have a student or an adult or a staff member who is positive while in the school, then the number of people impacted as close contacts multiplies, and we have more students away than can be in attendance,” said Little.
Oxbow Prairie Horizons School students were learning remotely from March 30-April 1. They returned to in-person learning on April 26.
The school divisions discussed several different options before decided on this solution. In the case of Cornerstone, it has programming in 27 different communities. Some have more than one school.
“When we looked at the whole piece, what we decided was given the numbers and where we’re at and our ability to track and work with health … we feel that we’re able to be responsive by class, school and community level,” said Little.
Remote learning was very different this year. Last year, when it started in April and continued until June, it was supplemental. Students could opt in for the sessions. And everything happened so quickly, so the school divisions and everyone else was working hard to quickly adjust to their new reality.
This year they had time to prepare to move to Level 4, and when they did, they knew it would be the full curriculum that would be taught.
“At the Grade 10, 11 and 12 level, we kept with just the regular schedule and teaching those courses … a couple hours a day for two different classes. And then the kindergarten through Grade 9, we really focused on English language arts, mathematics, social studies and science to reduce the amount of time that the students had to be sitting in front of a machine.”
Now that most students are back in schools, they’ll balance it out and add in the other required areas as necessary.
“We haven’t done a formal survey, but just by word of mouth and anecdotal notes and some pieces back, I have heard from some staff who were really, really thrilled with the amount of participation in their classroom and the amount of engagement with the students. They were there and they were online and they were continuing to learn.”
Last year when they went into online learning, the platform they use, Microsoft Teams, was new for many, but now most have experience with it.
Cornerstone also attempted to provide wi-fi to families that didn’t necessarily have access to the internet so they could fully participate in the learning.
South East Cornerstone and Holy Family announced on April 1 that all schools within their respective divisions would shift to Level 4, remote learning after the Easter break. The break ran from April 2 to April 9, and students have been learning at home since April 12.
The decision to return to in-person learning was a joint one between the Cornerstone board of education, Holy Family board and the local medical health officers who support the southeast region.
The two school divisions remind parents to please keep children at home if case of any symptoms of COVID-19, and to please call the HealthLine at 811.
