THUNDER BAY –Students and staff are excited to be back in schools as the city went back to in-school learning this week.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time getting ready for the return of school, we’ve been anticipating and we’ve been very excited about them returning,” said Leslie Hynnes, Sherbrooke Public School principal.
“We’ve been getting our spaces all ready and comfortable for kids to be at and comfortable for parents to send their kids to school, so, monitoring those health and safety protocols that we have in place, that we’ve been following, the ministry guidance documents, and it’s absolutely wonderful to see kids face to face once again, this is what we love to do, we love to be with students, we love having them here, we love the connection with students and their families, and the connection between students as well.”
Some kids have had a tough time during the pandemic due to being isolated from their peers and friends for so long, Hynnes says they're prepared to help students transition back into in-person schooling.
“We’ve done a fair bit of mental health training, mental health and wellbeing training, and we’re going to be using some of those principles and approaches within our school,” Hynnes said.
“Connection to parents, and communicating with parents on what their child specifically needs and how we can implement that in the school setting, building connections and relationships with our students is of utmost importance, getting to know our students, some of the new students that have arrived at our school, getting to know them.”
Lakehead Public School Board will be monitoring case counts of COVID-19 and have a contingency plan in place, should the need to shut down schools occur.
"Well, first, we're hoping that our numbers won't go up and that if there are to be school closures, that it will be done on a regional basis, and we'll be exempt from that, we've said that from day one," said Ian MacRae, Director of Education for Lakehead Public schools.
"We do have a contingency plan to return to virtual schools, but, it's not one that we hope we'll have to put into play."
