The St. Clair Catholic District School Board is taking steps to ensure students can learn from home during the prolonged closure of schools due to COVID-19.
In a news release, the board said principals and teachers will be contacting students and families to determine what is needed to support teacher-led learning and to maintain connectivity.
Director of Education Deb Crawford said the board is encouraging the St. Clair community to use the board's new "Parent Learning Hub", which goes live on the board website March 30.
"The hub will supplement the ministry of education resources to provide a variety of learning resources for families. These additional resources are curated by our K-12 Catholic Learning Services Team, to ensure they are quality, engaging resources."
Crawford said they're also encouraging students to access the province's new "Learn at Home" site.
"We want to encourage our students and families to continue to engage in learning during the current two-week school closure period. These do not replace what students have been learning at school, but do offer quick and easy access to some effective online Kindergarten to Grade 12 learning resources," said Crawford. "Additionally we are sharing additional resources through our board website for parents to access, focusing on literacy and numeracy."
Crawford said it is important to note that Learn At Home activities are not mandatory and will not be graded, but are meant as supplementary resources to support independent practice at home.
She also said the board is working on a community engagement project, where families will be encouraged to create art pieces as signs of hope and love.
"This project is currently being developed and will be communicated out next week on our board website and through social media. The initiative, called 'connecting heARTs' will also connect families to local artists and artists from our staff, and families will be encouraged to share their creations on social media and our board website. We will continue to update the 'Parent Learning Hub' as the school closure period progresses with resources to support student learning and well-being."
