What your child's schooling could look like this fall on P.E.I.

What will school look like on P.E.I. this September? "It's a moving target," said Gilles Arsenault, senior advisor with the P.E.I. Department of Education and Lifelong Learning.

Education officials are preparing for three scenarios: a full return to the classroom, continued learning at home, or some hybrid of the two.

A lot depends on whether there is a second wave of COVID-19 in the community.

The province is promising details of the plan by the end of June, and work is underway now on the myriad of details that need to be examined before that can happen.

"Obviously the face-to-face is the best environment for the learning environment," said Arsenault. But the logistics of how that would work might vary from school to school, as all 62 schools in the province are configured differently, with different numbers of students.

Maintenance staff are measuring classrooms to figure out how many students can safely be in the same room while maintaining physical distancing. Officials are looking at possibilities including Plexiglas partitions between desks, using other space within the schools for classes and perhaps other spaces in the community.

Some students may be at school for a half-day, or alternate days, and work from home the rest of the time.

Teachers may hold virtual classrooms, instructing an entire class together, although this option is complicated by schedules of various students, and their parents, who may be sharing a laptop. 

There could be arrows in the hallways to help students keep a safe distance from each other. There are also protocols to be worked out for lockers, washroom use, recess and lunches, and whether certain subjects can be offered, such as gym or band class, for example.

Students may need to be screened before they enter the school to make sure they're not ill.

There's also no doubt there will be a lot of extra cleaning, and extra staff may be needed to do that cleaning.

And school buses will likely have to reduce the number of students they transport, which could mean revised routes or staggered start times.

'Not a small task'

With dozens of schools and 19,760 students, "it's not a small task" to prepare for everything, especially the physical distancing aspects, said Arsenault. "There's a variety of different scenarios that are being jotted down now and explored."

The plans put in place will need to be approved by the Chief Public Health Office.

"The plan is going to be solid," said Arsenault, stressing, however, that the overriding priority will be the safety of students and staff. "Learning could look different," he said. "As long as they're moving forward, they're learning. It might not be all with the prescribed curriculum but we'll do the best we can to make sure that they don't fall behind."

P.E.I. is looking at what other provinces are doing as well. New Brunswick announced that come September, kindergarten to Grade 8 students would return to the classroom, although some with smaller classes. High school students will return on alternate days, and continue with home learning the other half of the time.

Some parents struggling

Just because teachers are assigning work to students doesn't mean the students have the ability or the support to get it done at home. A survey by CBC News of schools in the Atlantic region found between 85 and 98 per cent of schools were connecting with their students, but the provinces are not tracking how often the students were online or what work was getting done.

"Not everyone has the access or the support or the will to do it at home," said Heather Mullen, vice-president of the P.E.I. Home and School Federation.

Her group has received feedback from parents who are struggling to help their kids with learning from home.

Many don't have a computer or reliable internet access. Some parents are working outside the home, and don't have the time or skills to help.

If learning from home is to continue, Mullen said, students and parents need to learn more about how Google Classroom works. 

And they also need help to learn how to work at home.

"You have to train yourself to be able to work from home and our students need to learn those skills as well. And that you just don't have them learning, you know, how to plan your routine, how to stay focused, how to be inspired at home. When do you take breaks? How do you recharge yourself? These are not things that we just necessarily know and we can't expect our students to just know how to do these things," said Mullen.

"It's different but it's manageable," said Maud Houchane, who has three boys in junior and senior high school. She teaches English as an additional language to newcomers, but since March Break she's been doing that work from home, and overseeing her kids as they access school assignments their teachers have provided online.

They take turns on the family's laptop, signing into their student Google Classroom accounts.

Her solution is routine — school work is tackled in the morning. "We start with Lukas, and Nathaniel and Jeremy. He takes the longest time for his homework."

"I always tell them, 'You have all day to finish your homework so just take it easy, take turns and that will do it,'" said Houchane.

"I would say it is not the best scenario, but it's still OK." 

Houchane has also found herself coaching other parents to help their own children. 

She tells them "Just start small and then you will reach your goal. It's like it is not the end of the world."

She's grateful for the support of the school teachers and the province. 

"Teachers have been working very, very hard to just make students feel not only safe, they feel like they still belong to the class, even if they're still at home."

Still, she hopes school returns in the fall. "They're missing out on being with their friends and their teachers."

Her sons say they're missing some of their classes too, like gym and music, and the ability to ask a teacher a question and get an answer right away.

Even if her boys do return to school, Houchane knows it won't be the school they left — there will be new rules for distancing and cleaning.

Houchane is also concerned about the work all students will have to catch up on. "They're going to be fine — I guess," she adds with a laugh and a shake of her head.

The education department is planning more support and training for teachers, parents and students in the fall.

The province has asked parents, teachers and administrators to fill out a survey about their learning-from-home experience — whether they had the technology and support they needed, whether they have concerns and challenges, whether they need more training themselves — and asking them for their ideas on how to improve at-home learning if it continues this fall.

"We have experts in the field. We have professional teachers and they're working very hard to make sure that the curriculum can be compacted," said Arsenault. "That the students won't feel that they're falling behind. 

"There is no perfect scenario but we will have a solid plan" by the end of June, he said, adding, however, that even with a plan it could change over the summer if the pandemic situation changes.

If students are back at school, it won't be the same place they left in March, said Mullen, and students will need help to understand this new normal, whether they're at school or at home.

"We have to be safe and, you know, this is not going to end for a while yet," said Mullen.

Her concern is making sure children feel safe, but aren't overwhelmed by the restrictions.  

"Let's make sure that they're still feeling like children. Going to school, having a bit of fun, but still learning and feeling safe."

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