A safe and orderly transition back to the classroom is at the forefront of parent’s minds and the minds of educators at Greentree School.
Students have been home since March and while many have shown resiliency in adapting to the challenges of home learning, everyone is excited to be back in the classroom. Greentree School has been busy preparing and implementing systems to make school as safe as possible for parents, teachers, and students.
“We will do everything we can to make sure everyone is safe,” Principal Shelley Friesen told the Mail. “We know this will be helping kids understand the importance of these measures we are taking and falling into routines. We do this every year, helping kids get used to routines.”
The school is following all of the guidelines in place to make sure students are as safe as possible. This includes wearing masks in common areas for students in Grades 4-6. There will be sanitizing stations in place allowing students to wash or sanitize upon entry to the school and at each classroom and maintaining as much social distance as possible.
“We are blessed with this older school because our hallways are over 2-metres wide, so we can be close to the appropriate social distance between people,” said Friesen. “Our plans schedule the flow so students are not coming face-to-face in the hallway, but should it happen for whatever reason, we will keep to the right and have enough distance.”
“We want the students to understand the importance of the safety measures, but what we don’t want to do is frighten them… We are here to learn and students can’t learn unless they feel safe.”
Part of maintaining a safe atmosphere is separating students into ‘cohorts’ as much as possible. They have designated different entryways for students in different grades to stop crowding and mixing between grades. They have also made buying school supplies easier for parents. By going through a local business, the school has purchased all the necessary supplies, so parents don’t have to navigate the stores. Parents will have to reimburse the school. Students having their own supplies from the get-go also eliminates sharing. Communal learning tools will be sanitized after each use.
One great trait of educators is the ability to adapt, and this will allow teachers to make sure students will be getting a quality education. There will be some hurdles such as physical education, and music classes without wind instruments, including the very popular recorder, but the school does have ample supplies for music and Phys. Ed. to allow students to learn safely.
She understands there will be challenges to overcome, for students, parents and staff.
“We are in this together, we’re a community and we’ll work together to be responsible and safe.”
