The South East Cornerstone Public School Division (SECPSD) and the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division (HFRCSSD) had to retool their educational plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a pause, both school divisions started partially delivering the supplemental learning in online and offline formats while still communicating with parents about their children’s needs this week.
The Mercury talked to HFRCSSD director of education Gwen Keith and SECPSD director of education Lynn Little about the unprecedented process the schools and the students are going through now.
“We are working on a common theme of working safely, teaching safely and learning safely. To address these ever-changing conditions, we have two key goals. First, (providing a) safe and orderly environment for our students and staff permitted by our Catholic environment. And secondly, executing on our Holy Family continuity plans both on the business side and educational side,” said Keith.
Last week the administration and the staff team at SECPSD were reviewing the actual processes that the school division will be taking in terms of supplemental learning for the students. The supplemental learning is the continuation of the Saskatchewan curriculum, so the piece that they haven’t covered yet will be a part of the supplemental curriculum.
“The teachers are preparing materials and establishing those virtual classrooms. You could imagine changing from face to face traditional delivery to an online learning package delivery is challenging, especially in the middle of the year with very little warning … Our staff is working very hard to get the pieces in place. It’s challenging, but really kudos to the staff for their work and their effort,” said Little.
Before trying to supply the education in a new format, school divisions needed to understand what parents wanted to see coming, how much they were able to be engaged and also what kind of technical capacities they had.
“The teaching staff has been reaching out to parents to discuss the programs and processes for each child. That’s been ongoing all of this week, collecting that information back in. So in South East Cornerstone, we’re going to be offering courses through two different models: one online though the Microsoft teams format or learning packages for those who don’t have access to technologies or would prefer to use a mode other than technologies,” explained Little.
It wasn’t yet clear for Cornerstone how many people would need the printed copies of the classes, but Little said that the majority of the families they talked to preferred to receive the supplementary education through technologies. At the same time, Keith noted that many families in the province will have to rely on print outs and Holy Family is currently looking for support from the Ministry of Education.
While the new process has begun, the safety of students and staff still remained the main priority for the school boards.
“As we go forward, our key focus was, first of all, on well-being and getting a sense of where people were at in terms of challenges that they face. The second key area was and continues to be safety. So whatever we do, we look at it from the safety lens whether it’s accessing our buildings or moving forward in whatever meeting or groupings that we need to have that safety is paramount,” said Keith.
It was left up to the parents to decide to continue with the education or to take a break, as well as in which format they wanted to take it.
Up to last Friday, SECPSD has reached 7,199 children and their families, and of those, 6,832 wanted to continue with supplemental learning. Holy Family (RCSSD) didn’t have numbers but said the process was ongoing and most parents were interested in continuing with the educational process.
“We are reaching out in an inclusive way to all families, and sometimes it takes different ways of communicating as well, but certainly our hope is to work in some way with all of our children,” said Keith.
One way or the other, there will be something offered for students of any age.
The progress in delivering the online or printed versions of classes depends on how far each teacher has gone in readjusting their programs and also with communicating with their students’ families. The schools might need to provide additional resources to staff and look at some readjustment of technology, but they hope to get fully engaged within the next week.
As soon as the divisions know who needs supplemental learning, which pieces they are interested in and in what format, they start delivering programs. Little said that this week they need to solidify everything and have the information in place, then they will start trying the lessons out, and the full process will begin right after the Easter break.
One of the first things that the HFRCSSD looked at was the capacities of providing faith-based aspects of their education to their students. It turned out that there was a fully electronic home program available to the division that allowed them to deliver the services.
“We are very excited about the fact that we do have many, many resources from both provincial and national levels that are online resources, and we continue to bring those forward not to overwhelm either staff or families, but in terms of one of the parameters certainly that Catholic formation is there and we respectfully will be able to provide opportunities to parents based on their needs,” said Keith.
