March 11th, 2021

Dear students, staff and community members,

Today, I find myself reflecting on the last 12 months in the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB). On Thursday, March 12, 2020 our lives changed in ways we could never have imagined. What was initially a two-week closure in response to the emergence of COVID-19 continues to shape how our students and staff learn every day. This was not something we could have ever predicted, but I am so proud of how our system has adapted and evolved to continue supporting our students in their learning – both at a distance and in-person. I am so grateful to have been part of such a tremendous collective effort.

To mark the day when the COVID-19 pandemic was first declared by the World Health Organization, today, flags were lowered at our schools, Education Centre and at buildings across Ontario. It is a reminder that these past months have brought unimaginable hardship, painful loss and added worry for all of those in our system and throughout our community. Although we do not know what the next 12 months have in store, I can’t help but feel a sense of hope and optimism. I know that whatever challenges we face, the people that make up the WRDSB will respond together, with the best interests of our students at the forefront of our purpose.

Thank you for all the ways in which you have contributed, each and every day.

Sincerely,

John Bryant
Director of Education

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March 12, 2020: Emergency School Closure

On Thursday, March 12, 2020, Premier Doug Ford, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, and Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, announced the initial school closures in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This decision led to many questions about what the weeks and months ahead would have in store for our students, our staff and our community. As a system, we began working diligently to determine the path ahead, and the best way to continue supporting student learning.

March 24, 2020: Distance Learning Begins

With the launch of WRDSB@Home and the connecting of teachers to their students remotely, our efforts to support students learning at a distance began. Although our buildings were closed, learning continued.

WRDSB@Home was built to provide students and families with supportive resources during the emergency school closure period. This included a variety of at-home activities across an array of subject areas, from Math to French Immersion, with versions for each grade group. WRDSB@Home continues to add new at-home activities, to support ongoing distance learning for students.

April 9, 2020: Supporting Mind, Heart, Body

With the extension of the emergency school closures, we focused our approach to supporting student learning, with the understanding that the routines needed to work for our students and their families – all of which were experiencing these circumstances differently.

As a result, we developed what we call “Supporting Mind, Heart, Body” to help students and their family create some structure to the learning and to support the overall well being of your child. This philosophy shaped our approach to this phase of distance learning, as we worked to ensure that students were receiving the number of hours of assigned learning time, according to the Ministry of Education’s guidelines. Above all, we understood the need to support the student as a whole.

June 24, 2020: Celebrating Our Students

Although our typical year-end celebrations could not take place, we were determined to continue to show how proud we were of our students’ accomplishments. From billboards, to buses, to the sides of our secondary schools, we plastered our congratulations everywhere we could for our students, their families and anyone, really, to see. We didn’t stop with that, though, as our celebration continued with advertisements in local newspapers and on local radio stations.

July and August, 2020: Preparing for Our Return to School

Our staff dug in through the summer break to design plans for three possible return to school scenarios. On July 30, the Province announced the plans for returning to learning in September, and staff moved swiftly to implement their plans.

This included both an in-person program and distance learning program, which allowed families to decide which format worked best for them in the 2020-2021 school year.

September 8, 2020: Back to School

The start of our school year was unlike any other in recent memory – with a staggered approach being employed to allow both students and staff to have a smooth transition back to school, while learning the new health and safety measures.

Director of Education John Bryant welcomed students, staff and families back to school, and our community was supported in their return with a variety of resources – from our Return to School website, to instructional videos to help students prepare for the new health and safety measures in place.

November 27, 2020: Commencement Goes Virtual

On Friday, November 27 commencement ceremonies across the WRDSB went virtual, thanks to the tireless efforts of our secondary school staff and the Communications Department. These videos aimed to replicate the experience of an in-person graduation ceremony, while prioritizing the health and safety of students, staff and families.

Each of our sixteen secondary schools had a custom commencement ceremony video, which featured the names of each one of the 4,216 secondary graduates. In total, the combined file size for these videos was 1.6 terabytes, or more than 1600 gigabytes – akin to that of a major motion picture.

December 21, 2020: School Closures Extended

As the winter break neared, the Minister of Education announced that when learning resumed in January, it would be done remotely. Staff throughout the WRDSB set to work over the winter break to put the necessary plans, resources and supports in place to ensure that our students and staff could have a successful return to learning in the new year.

January 4, 2021: Students Return in a Distance Learning Format

Students returned to learn remotely with their teachers, and on January 7 this remote learning period was extended in response to rising cases of COVID-19 across Ontario. In the WRDSB, we adapted quickly to maintain ongoing supports for students and staff who were temporarily learning and working remotely.

This wasn’t an easy period for anyone – our students missed their schools, classrooms, friends and the staff that help them learn each day – we missed them too.

February 8, 2021: In-Person Learning Resumes

On February 3, Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Education, announced that selected Ontario School Boards were to re-open to in-person instruction on Monday, February 8, 2021. As they had done so many times before in the previous months, WRDSB staff worked quickly, and with the purpose of supporting all students, to ensure the safe return of our in-person learning students to our buildings.

March 11, 2021: 12 Months in a Pandemic

As we reflect on the past year, we can be proud of how we approached each new challenge with open minds, and with the commitment to ensure our solutions included all of our students and staff. This has not been an easy year for any in our community – we have all felt the weight and toll of an extended global pandemic. While we may not know what the coming months hold, the past 12 months have demonstrated the ability of the WRDSB to navigate whatever challenges we may face.

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