There is apprehension and cautious optimism as Grade 9 students in the Okanagan-Skaha school district returned to class on Thursday following a six-month hiatus due to COVID-19.
Penticton Secondary School student Tanner Ricketts said high-schoolers were divided into 120-person cohorts and given coloured lanyards to identify each group, which must be worn every day.
“If you don’t bring them, you get sent home to go and get them,” he said.
“In our groups, the restrictions are kind of relaxed. But other people with different colours, we’re supposed to maintain distance,” added student Keenan Sullivan.
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Secondary school students will continue to be organized in classrooms. However, school timetables will be organized to limit students to learning groups of no more than 120 students and staff, said the school district.
Specifically, students in Grade 9 will be in a cohort and will receive full-time instruction in a quarter, two-course per day instructional model.
Students in Grades 10 -12 will work in a cohort in their first ‘A’ class of the day.
As a means of allowing student choice in elective areas of their specific grad programs, a hybrid model of learning will be established in their second ‘B’ block.
Breaks and lunch schedules will be staggered and cohorts will be assigned specific spaces.
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Student Sarah Hansen is eager to get back to class.
“I found it better to learn in a classroom rather than online, so I’m happy to have the opportunity to go back,” she said.
Other students are anxious to return as COVID-19 case counts climb province-wide.
“I am very nervous, I’m scared to be honest. Everything is very much up in the air,” said student Katherine Keefe.
That apprehension is shared among some parents.
“I don’t want them to go back. I am scared, I don’t want them to get anything, I’d rather they stay home,” Monique Page told Global News.
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Other parents said they are not worried.
“I’m happy and confident. I know the teachers and administration have been working hard to get things right,” David Hansen said.
For those who choose to stay home, secondary students are being given the option to enroll in distance learning to start the school year, and they can return at the beginning of each quarter.
“I did like what they were trying to offer, especially reserving the space within the school and coming back in in the second semester,” said parent Michelle Bush.
Grade 10-12 students will attend their orientation on Friday, with all students back in session next week.
There are 16 active cases of COVID-19 across the Interior Health Authority, with a total of 462 cases since the pandemic began. No one is in hospital.
On Wednesday, the province announced 100 new cases, and no new epi-linked cases, for a total of 6,691 cases in British Columbia.
To read SD 67’s full restart plan, click here.
To read SD 67’s student learning options guide, click here.