A Grade 6 student has some trepidation about going back to school this week, but she is looking forward to being back with her peers.
“I am really excited to go back – I like school,” said Charlotte Lampi, a Grade 6 student at Good Shepherd School. “I get to see all my friends in person and it will be easier to have questions in class.”
She admitted she is nervous about COVID-19.
“I have been worried since COVID started,” she said.
Premier Jason Kenney announced on Jan. 7 all students can return to in-person schooling on Jan. 11.
Elementary students in Okotoks and Foothills County took at-home learning the first week (Jan. 4 to 8) after the Christmas break (Dec. 19 – Jan. 3).
Meanwhile, Grade 7 to 12 students in Alberta have had at-home schooling since Nov. 30. They can return to the classroom Jan. 11.
“The decision to resume in-class learning on Jan. 11 is based on carefully considering the importance of attending school in person as well as the latest evidence of cases dropping in all school related age groups in December,” Kenney said.
He said school plays an important role in student mental health as well as their learning.
He added between September and the winter break “only 0.4 per cent – less than ½ per cent of students and staff tested positive for COVID-19.”
Kenney said even though the majority of students and staff didn’t get the virus, many faced interruptions in their learning due to COVID-19.
He said safety to staff and students is the top priority.
“We will make changes when necessary to ensure there is a safe learning environment during the pandemic,” Kenney said.
Jason Lampi, father of Charlotte and Grade 3 twins Daphne and Aubrey, has mixed feelings about his daughters heading back to school.
"I am very concerned, I don’t believe that the current government has put in enough safeguards to protect the staff,” Lampi said.
He questioned the 0.4 per cent figure of staff and students getting COVID.
“Looking through the COVID numbers that would be an exceptional case to have the current staff and students to have only 0.4 per cent to have contracted it,” said Jason, a financial analyst who crunched the provincial numbers. “The rates in the general population is three times that number.”
Still he prefers having his children at school.
“If I preferred to have my kids at home I could keep them at home,” said Jason who works from home. “What I would prefer is to see adequate measures put in by the government to allow the kids to go back safely.”
To date there have been students from four classrooms isolate as a result of COVID-19 at Good Shepherd School.
His children want to be in class.
“The kids want to get back to school they miss their friends – that’s been the hardest part of this pandemic,” Jason said. “They get that socialization in school, which I think is very important.”
He said the past week with his children at home was fine.
“The school did the best they could with what they had,” he said. “But you could tell the kids weren’t nearly as engaged as they would be in school.”
He stressed it was much better than when students had to suddenly take at-home school in March of 2020 when the pandemic hit.
Charlotte agreed.
"It has definitely been a little bit more difficult than at school," she said. "But is was a lot easier than it was last year for online schooling."
April Welsh is glad to have her daughter Rachael, a Grade 7 student, back at Oilfields High School. As well she has two other children heading back to class at Turner Valley School.
Rachael has been learning at home since Nov. 30 — both parents were not at home for December.
"I am glad and she is very glad," Welsh said. "It's her first year of junior high — she is just getting used to how things are different than elementary.
"To try and do that at home while both your parents are working is extremely difficult."
Welsh wound up dropping Rachael off at her grandmother's for much of December.
All three of the Welsh children were home last week. April, an education assistant at Turner Valley Elementary School, was allowed to stay at home with her children.
"It was hard — I couldn't wait to come back," Welsh said. "I was trying to juggle my own Zoom meeting with the children I support, and trying to help my son with his schoolwork, and if may daughters had any questions, it's very difficult.
"I just can't even framing that for parents who work in offices and yet hey are supposed to facilitate their children's learning at home."
