SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Educators at Godfrey Stewart High School in Savanna-la-Mar are hoping that when face-to-face classes officially resume there on January 10 the more than 50 per cent of their students who have not been regularly attending online classes will return.

Through the education ministry’s Find a Child Initiative they have been going house to house, since the programme was launched last November, to convince students and their parents that it is time for the children to get back to learning.

“We had about 50 per cent represented online, and that was not stable. Some days, like on Mondays to Wednesdays, we’d have a lot of students and then they just fell off for the other days for a variety of reasons,” Dean of Discipline Barbara Dandy told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to the school on Monday.

Classes were available online as usual, the new norm of living with a pandemic. The school grounds were noticeably void of the typical first-school-day bustle.

However, Dandy said preparations for the five-day process to welcome students next week have started with a series of meetings taking place this week.

“Next week… we will be having a week of reorientation. Even though they would have had an orientation when the academic year just began in September, we will be having them come in grade by grade to go over the renewed protocols. [These will outline] what a regular day at school will be like in terms of the procedures for moving around. Also, the parish disaster preparedness coordinator will be coming in to talk about earthquake preparedness,” Dandy said.

Like many schools across the country, Godfrey Stewart High will welcome students for face-to-face classes in small groups, in keeping with COVID-19 safety protocols.

“We will be facilitating our students in what we are calling cycles. Each cycle would see three year-groups per week. So, starting on the week of the 17th, when face-to-face classes officially start, we will have the first cycle with grades seven, eight, and 11,” Dandy told the Observer.

“On the second week of the 24th we will have the second cycle, which would see grades nine, 10, and 11 again. The next week, we will go back to the first cycle — and we will continue to alternate like that,” she continued.

She noted that while one cycle is having face-to-face classes, the others will be having online lessons.

There is a similar approach being used at Petersfield Primary and Infant School in the parish, which already rolled out plans for the return of its full cohort and started welcoming students on Monday morning.

“We have all of grades one, three, and six today. We are rotating them because it’s more practical for our situation rather than splitting them up. The directive that was given by the Ministry of Education was that we should do what is best logistically for us, and that is what we are doing,” said Principal Susan Rattray-Hammond.

“We have our grade six students coming in for four days, grade four coming for three days, and the other students will come in for two days. When they are not here for face-to-face classes, they will be continuing virtual lessons,” she added.

She noted that while parents have been largely receptive to the idea of resuming face-to-face classes, the school has options in place for those who may not want their children to return to school.

“We had meetings with the parents in December where we sensitised them and answered their questions and concerns regarding the reopening of school. For the most part there were no hesitant parents as they were happy for the reopening, because we know that there is nothing like face-to-face classes. But in the event that there are parents who are not comfortable with the arrangements, we will show them special consideration and allow their child or children to have classes online,” said Rattray-Hammond.