British Columbia’s Minister of Education, Rob Fleming, is scheduled to provide an update to the province regarding school districts’ return plans on Wednesday.
Fleming’s announcement is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. and a live stream will be available on CHEK’s Facebook Page and YouTube channel.
Live at 1:45 p.m. PDT: B.C. Minister of Education Rob Fleming is providing an update on school districts' back-to-school…
Posted by CHEK News on Tuesday, August 25, 2020
With the majority of children across B.C. heading back into the classrooms on September 10, all local school districts are expected to have detailed back-to-school plans in place that outline new protocols.
The 60 public school districts in British Columbia will be posting their respective plans on their websites by Wednesday, August 26, and it is expected that not every plan will look the same.
On Tuesday, Sooke School District (SD62) was one of the first to unveil their detailed outline for the upcoming school year.
Part of the return plan unveiled by Sooke Schools included a “one-eighth” model for high school students. Under the one-eighth model, secondary school students will attend each school day during either morning or afternoon for one course at a time, for approximately five weeks.
Two classrooms may join together to create learning groups of no more than 60 people that will take their recess and lunch together, or physical education class potentially.
Elementary and middle school students will return to full-time in-class instruction in their own classroom groupings.
“For our elementary families, things will look much the same as they did before, with some enhanced health and safety protocols,” explains School District 62 superintendent Scott Stinson. “One hundred per cent of our students will return to in-class instruction all the time.”
The Saanich School District has a similar plan for elementary and middle school, with full-time in-class instruction, staggered recess and lunch breaks and cohorts of no more than 60.
Secondary students will have a cohort size of 120 and do two courses over a ten-week period.
The Greater Victoria School District, along with other districts on Vancouver Island, are scheduled to unveil its detailed return plan on Wednesday, with full-time return for elementary and middle school as well as a new hybrid option.
It was also revealed late Tuesday that the federal government will be providing the provinces with an additional $2 billion to help ensure that kids can safely return to class this fall. According to the government, that money will be allocated based on each province and territory’s number of students.number of students.
A new post will be up following Rob Fleming’s announcement at 1:45 p.m.
Graham Cox
