Ms Bahun uses outdoor space for story time. A good opportunity for a mask break.
Julie Gray Explains Protocols and How they are Working
Article by Sue Dickens/Images submitted
Warkworth – Adjusting to a pandemic with staff, students and teachers back to school is the “new” normal at Percy Elementary Public School in Warkworth.
Julie Gray, principal in her fourth year at the school, talks to Trent Hills. Now about what they have done to keep students safe.
When asked what the first challenge was when facing COVID-19, she said, “Setting up the school to make sure that as we train the children they understand how to move about inside the building in a safe way.”
Gray added, “We have just what you would see in the grocery stores: arrows on the floor for moving through the hallways, as well as arrows on the floor of their classroom for how to move about there.”
She explained, “Classroom traffic flow is basically one way. So the students enter and move in the same direction. They come in, go through the back of the classroom and up the row where they now sit. As they exit they come across the front and go out the door. There’s been a lot of training by teachers with students.”
For Gray the staggered start week was very valuable.
“We had small groups of five or six children a day in each classroom, which meant more one-to-one training and attention to impress upon the kids the importance of following the protocols within their classroom itself and throughout the building.”
A similar process happened outdoors. “We also took the students outside to show them how to be safe in our school yard. While the setting up was challenging, once we had thought it through and got those directions set up on the floor inside the classrooms and school, then we just transferred that outside onto the schoolyard. Each class has an area where they physically distance to line up to come into the school too. Markings have been painted on the asphalt to show them where to stand in a line.”
Primary students know to physically distance as they line up to go back to class at Percy Centennial
To ensure student safety while playing, staff divided the schoolyard into 11 separate areas. “We have 11 classes, so each class has their own area during recess time. And we have two meters in between each section so students are within their own class bubble. We are not allowing them to cross into other classes’ bubbles,” explained Gray.
“I have seen conversations between students at recess with a friend from another class across the two metre boundary, but for the most part, the students understand that they are within their own class of fellow students.”
She said, “The first Friday was really the test to see what they had learned over those four days and they all performed beautifully.”
Even washroom breaks have been figured into the safety plan.
Hallways are set up to keep students walking one-way, on the right side of the hall. Fountains are closed, but students can fill up a water bottle at the filling station. Lights are used to indicate how many students are in a washroom at a time (2 limit)
When students need to use the washroom, they do this independently. “What we’ve done is set up outside of each washroom one of those press-on lights that you might put in a closet. I have two of those outside of each washroom to show the students that only two kids are allowed in the bathroom at a time. So they put the light on when they’re going in. That indicates that there’s someone in there so you’re not having to yell and ask how many people are in there, you know. It really does help the kids and it keeps the environment calm.”
She added, “No one needs to panic whether or not they can go in…so the light system has really been effective and they are using it very well. They shut the light out as they come out to go back to class… it’s a great idea that is working.”
Gray said, “The challenge has been thinking of all of those parts of the school that we need to help children be able to move around in, in a safe manner and make sure that they are feeling safe and feeling comfortable here. We have had some reports from parents that the children do feel safe in the building.”
In terms of wearing face masks the protocols are being followed.
The school has Junior Kindergarten students through to Grade 8.
“As we know the province has mandated mask wearing for Grades 4 to 8 and are encouraged for students in the younger grades. We have pretty much 100% mask compliance in our building…and our younger children are seen coming to school wearing masks, which is fantastic,” said Gray.
As for our youngest students, “They don’t know that we’ve never done this…so it is something they have learned to do to come to school…making it quite natural for them.”
She added, “It is so cute to see a little person in a teeny tiny mask and they are quite serious about keeping that mask on. I haven’t had anyone at this point, need to be reminded that they need to keep their mask on, and those that I would remind would be Grade 4 to 8 so that protocol is always there.”
Teachers have worked hard at maintaining the protocols required.
“The teachers have gone through the mask protocols, explaining its importance at the learning level of each child in this building, and it has been wonderful. The students slip them off to eat their lunch and then they put them back on again when they are finished,” said Gray.
There are also mask breaks for the students where the teachers will take the classes outside for a lesson, for recess or when they go outside for physical education.
The teachers are also taking children outside more for opportunities such as story time and “things like that so they’re getting those mask breaks too, but they do understand that they need to have them on when they’re inside the building.”
Sonny Lennon assisted with setting up sun shelters lent to the school by the Warkworth Business Association. Unfortunately, high winds later in the week proved the shelters unstable to withstand the weather condition and Principal Gray took the shelters down to ensure the safety for all students.
When asked how the teachers are coping and what they talk about when together, Gray said, “They have been part of what’s been happening over the last six months in Ontario and the world and so they’ve come prepared for this. I think what’s really important is communication and so it’s important that I give them as much information as I can about further directions from the Health Unit, and adjustments to some of the new protocols that we have in place, so they’re comfortable with those.”
Gray commented, “The three PA days we had before the children first came back to school gave us, not only professional learning sessions, but an opportunity for lots of conversation, lots of setting up time, and time to talk about how this is going to look and how that is going to work, so they’re completely on board. The teachers are very serious about this and they know what my mantra has been, ‘you keep the child safe, and that will keep you safe’. So they are doing very well here.
“They’re an awesome staff and they know each other well. And so there is a personal level to this as well, that we want to keep each other safe.”
There are some activities the students cannot participate in this year because of the pandemic.
For example, the music program has had to change quite a bit. “Our Grade 7 and 8s would normally do instrumental music but that is not possible, neither is singing,” said Gray.
“So for the older students they are doing more listening to music and giving their responses, perhaps some movements to the music, those kinds of activities.”
Gray noted, “For the juniors, we do have a ukulele program for Grade 5s and 6s. And so we can go ahead with that this year as each child is assigned the same ukulele for the year, and it is put on a shelf with their name so that instrument is kept safe, only assigned to one student.”
The students can also use a musical instrument called a boomwhacker and “those are different lengths of tubing that make noises, so we have lessons on drumming,” said Gray.
All of the instruments are disinfected after the students are finished with them.
“We have an assigned additional custodian who comes every morning, to disinfect all of the main touch points in the building. And she goes around and does doorknobs and touch points in washrooms and a general cleaning of doors and whatnot, so yes we’ve been given that additional support.
“The desks, chairs and everything were disinfected before school re-opened…but we go around again and again and we disinfect everything. It’s a two-step approach. As our day custodian tells us, items are cleaned and then disinfected.”
Maintaining social distancing meant the teachers had to take everything else out of the room that would take up floor space and store those items in the gymnasium, allowing student desks to be as far apart as space provided.
Nearing the conclusion of the interview Gray wanted to comment on the challenges overall. “I think it’s all challenging. If you think of the energy the teaching staff expends to ensure that kids are safe in a regular school year, without a pandemic, and now you add that layer of wanting to ensure that no-one gets sick, we’ve added that extra level of safety and hyper vigilance…. It creates a bit more pressure on everyone. And so I think that is the biggest challenge.”
She added, “The other challenge would be that we don’t have access to parents like we have had in the past. For a parent to come into the building, they have to have an appointment. And so, you know, we’re missing that regular flow of people coming in and out, dropping off lunches, dropping off a jacket or whatever. We have to meet them at the door and receive them. That’s pretty challenging because we are a welcoming school, we’re an important part of the Warkworth community and parents are used to doing that, so cutting them off from that access is difficult, and I feel badly about it.” School Council continues to fulfill their mandate by meeting monthly through Webex.
If a child falls ill, the school can’t tell parents to have their children tested but if a student becomes ill, “we tell parents to phone in and let us know. There is a little bit of a conversation with the secretary and sharing of the protocol from the Health Unit to keep the child home until they are symptom free for 24 hours. If parents ask if there child needs to be tested, we advise them to consult their doctor.”
There is no testing setup at the school, but as Gray explained, “We do have a school nurse assigned by the Health Unit who we can call on for advice. And then we have our sick room set up so children go in there if they’re not feeling well. Of course we call their parents, and that’s where the child waits until they’re picked up. “
Gray concluded by saying, “One message I would like to give is that parents have prepared their children very well to come back to school. And staff have implemented all of the protocols, not only professionally but they take great personal interest in our kids here to do what we can to ensure they’re healthy and safe.”
Of note is the face that class sizes are smaller in part because some students have chosen online learning at home.
“We have 226 students right now in school and last year we had 253,” said Gray.
As for the winter months, that presents a different set of challenges as the kids will be wearing winter coats and boots. At this point they aren’t using the hooks and benches set up in the hallways for concerns of physical distancing. They will have to devise a plan for when that happens to keep everything and everyone safe.
