{"id":26285,"date":"2020-04-03T17:03:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26285"},"modified":"2020-04-09T18:38:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:38:41","slug":"schools-will-remain-closed-through-to-may-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/schools-will-remain-closed-through-to-may-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools will remain closed through to May 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Publicly funded schools across Ontario will remain closed\nto students through at least May 4, the Province announced Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students were supposed to return to school this Monday after\nthe Province announced its initial school closures due to the COVID-19\npandemic, but Tuesday\u2019s announcement came with new measures to help students\ncontinue to learn at home, under the guidance of teachers, until the closure\ncan be ultimately lifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur medical experts are telling us that the next two\nweeks are absolutely critical for Ontario. What we do today will determine what\nwe face tomorrow,\u201d said Premier Doug Ford. \u201cEffective immediately, we have\nextended the order to close publicly funded schools until at least May 1 for\nteachers and May 4 for students. We have also extended the closure of private\nschools and child care centres for another two weeks. The situation continues\nto change day by day, hour by hour. In order to protect our children, I am\nprepared to extend these closures even further if we have to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery week, every day, every hour we can push back the\nsurge on our hospitals is another week, day, hour of precious time to prepare.\nThe more time we have, the more lives we can save. If we push that surge as far\naway from today as possible, we will save lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know, as a parent, nothing is more important than the\neducation of our children. That is why we will continue to support families who\nare doing their part to stay home and slow the spread of COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, the Province is working with school boards\nacross Ontario \u201cto find ways to help students complete the school year so they\ncan advance to the next year and earn credits and graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to easing the financial burden on university\nand college students with a six-month grace period through OSAP, new measures\nare being made for elementary and secondary school students to continue\nlearning as well under the guidance of teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second phase of the Learn at Home program has been\ndeveloped in conjunction with education partners with an aim of establishing \u201cclarity\nfor parents, enhancing education supports, and creating opportunities for\nteachers and educators to connect with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This phase will work to reconnect students with teachers\nand other school staff, including mental health workers. Teacher-led learning\nwill be broken down for students between Kindergarten and Grade 3, Grades 4 to\n6, Grades 7 \u2013 8, and Grades 9 \u2013 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the youngest group of students, teacher-led learning\nwill include five hours of work per student per week with a focus on literacy\nand math. For students in Grades 4 \u2013 6, five hours of work will be required\nwith a focus on math, literacy, science and social studies. Grade 7 and 8 students\nwill spend ten hours a week with work focused on the same core subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students in secondary school will see three hours of work\nper course per week for semestered students while non-semestered students will\ntackle 1.5 hours per course per week with a focus on achieving\/completing\ncredits towards graduation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the Learn at Home program, visit\nOntario.ca\/page\/learn-at-home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe second phase of Learn at Home creates some\npredictability for our parents, our students and our educators,\u201d said Education\nMinister Stephen Lecce. \u201cWe\u2019re providing expectations that our parents can\ncount on. We\u2019re enhancing support for students. We\u2019re ensuring the\nteacher-student relationship is restored throughout this period of school\nclosures. Our aim is to provide all of them with some sense of stability and\nhope amid this difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are extraordinary times. We\u2019re moving quickly with\ntwo aims in mind: the first, to keep your child safe and the second is to keep\nthem engaged in learning. I know nothing about this situation is ideal, and we\nrecognize difficulty that parents will face as we go forward. This pandemic has\nperhaps made the case so clear: we must come together, harness our collective\nenergy, and put our efforts forward to improve the situation of every child and\nkeep them safe from COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents can and will continue to complete credits underway. This is especially important for senior level students. We\u2019re also prioritizing students scheduled to graduate and supporting students on their track to graduate. We\u2019re leveraging digital resources, we\u2019re embracing all forms of student-teacher connectivity on students\u2019 access to technology, meaning one way or another, by printed material or tablet, every child should and will be able to continue learning through the curriculum supported by their teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publicly funded schools across Ontario will remain closed to students through at least May 4, the Province announced Tuesday afternoon. Students were supposed to return to school this Monday after the Province announced its initial school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Tuesday\u2019s announcement came with new measures to help students continue to learn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6PX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 08:26:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}