CREATIVE LEARNING
Keeping students engaged, from virtual field trips to outdoor music classes,
Virtual rowing practice, online biology field trips and outdoor ukulele classes — these are some of the creative ways private and independent schools around the GTA are adapting their co-curricular programming so that students can keep playing, learning and exercising together, while staying safe.
Of course, it hasn’t been easy to find innovative — yet still impactful — ways to engage students in some of the non-academic programming that makes school so enriching. “This is a new, foreign environment into which we have been thrown,” says Leepy Hajra, high school vice-principal at Town Centre Private Schools (TCPS) in Markham. “Everyone went through an adjustment period at first, then … ultimately began unleashing creative ways to maintain our very strong school community connection.”
The school’s clubs, for example, have been using Microsoft Teams so they can meet virtually every week. This means the art, photography, film festival, botany and book clubs (among many others) can keep operating, regardless of whether a student is studying in-school or remotely.
And fixed cohorts have been created to adhere to COVID-19 health and safety guidelines. “We introduced a Cohort League in place of our traditional House League, where each cohort is responsible for creating monthly activities for the whole school,” says Hajra.
“These activities are linked to a chosen theme each month.”
November’s theme, for example, was Mental Health Awareness, and students created videos, shared inspirational quotes and encouraged each other to participate in a daily task that supported mental health, such as sending a positive message to a friend.
“Recently, we have also participated in a few virtual trips,” says Hajra, adding that one exciting upcoming field trip will allow students to meet “Come From Away” actress Lori Nancy Kalamanski. And while organized sports have been suspended for the year, the school is offering optional lunch hikes and after-school sports in the gym, scheduled by cohort.
Finding ways to maintain athletic programming has been a particular priority for the Bishop Strachan School in Toronto. “When students are learning remotely, they continue to need access to quality physical activity,” says Sheila Allen, junior and middle school athletic director at BSS. “While we encourage opportunities for physical activity as a family, we also know many families appreciate some online programming to keep their children moving.”
So, the school moved its entire athletic program online. “In the fall we partnered with several sport organizations in Toronto such as TOP Sports, Iron Lady Golf, Toronto United Field Hockey Club and Elite Camps to provide quality online sport experiences for our students,” says Allen. “As we moved into winter, we shifted the program focus to fitness training opportunities … For example, Pilates, yoga, meditation, dance, and circuit and strength training.”
Havergal College in Toronto has found ways to take advantage of its large outdoor campus so students can safely gather inperson and outdoors as much as possible.
“During the summer, we took a thorough look at these spaces and thought about how we can best use them to maximize our students’ emotional and physical health,” says Carla DiFilippo, upper school athletic director at Havergal. “For example, we installed a nine-hole disc golf course on campus (which) is an ideal activity because it’s outdoors, spaced out and does not involve sharing equipment.”
Havergal also installed three large outdoor tents to offer arts programming outside, including ukulele, drama, improv and dance classes. And while highimpact sports like rugby and hockey are on hold, the school is finding new ways to keep other physical activities going.
DiFilippo points out that when student leaders run these extracurricular sessions, they tend to be better attended. “For example, we did a step challenge for Spirit Week, which had to be remote this year. One day the Grade 12 class walked over 1 million steps and had over 75 per cent of the grade participate. We had teachers telling us that students were attending class while walking on a treadmill or walking outside.”
“Students want to be engaged in something that they are passionate about,” adds Cissy Goodridge, director of performing arts at Havergal. “Any opportunity that we could provide that would allow students to come together, in person away from a screen, was appreciated.”
With that in mind, Havergal has made an effort to schedule co-curriculars during the middle of the day, in each student’s timetable, so that everyone could participate. “Midway through the semester we asked the students what their favourite part of the day was, and for all grades, it was the co-curricular program,” says Goodridge. “While restrictions are still in place, the planned activities allow the students a small sense of normalcy in their day.”