Test run at Marion Graham Collegiate in Saskatoon highlights challenges of returning to school

Thousands of students in Saskatchewan will return to school on Tuesday.

On Friday, staff at Marion Graham Collegiate in Saskatoon ran a drill to see what it might look like. Teachers assembled and pretended to be Grade 9s arriving for their first day.

Principal Karen Peterson said the dry run revealed some important tweaks that needed to be made.

"We discovered we needed some more signage, discovered we needed more people in different locations, but I guess the biggest thing for me is I feel so much more confident in our plan," she said.

The north end high school has close to 700 students, but the first wave Tuesday morning will be the Grade 9s coming for their first year of high school. They will not be as well prepared for the experience as previous freshman classes.

"They don't know where they're going," she said.

"Normally, in June we would have had an orientation where they would have been in the school by themselves, to be able to navigate the hallway, which has always been done to help them have a relaxing summer."

Students arriving Tuesday will be entering the school by a side entrance, directly into the gym. They'll get their photos taken and then get funnelled into the main hallway and directed to their classes.

It's the not same school as last year.

There are directional arrows on the floors. Water fountains are covered, soon to be replaced with water bottle refill stations. There are locks on all the lockers. Hand sanitizer stations are scattered through the halls and in classrooms.

Peterson says the goal is to roll with the day, adjust on the fly and look out for each other.

"We're a community and we want to keep each other safe," she said.

"We're going to keep kids safe, we're going to keep each other safe. That's what communities do."