‘You want kindergartners to social distance? Are you kidding me?’: How the youngest learners are about to become the toughest test for back to school under COVID-19
For Melissa Mynes, the final days of August are usually a flurry of happy planning to ensure her kindergarten class is ready to welcome students.
But this year, like thousands of her colleagues across Ontario, Mynes is filled with anxiety instead of excitement as she contemplates the first day of school amid the uncertainty of COVID-19.
Trying to envision how you are going to be safe in the classroom and also teach a full kindergarten curriculum is just too stressful to contemplate," said Mynes, who teaches at Toronto's Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy, an all-kindergarten school in Thorncliffe Park that supports about 600 students.
September is like New Year's Day for teachers. It's what we look forward to all year. But now we can't get excited because we literally have no idea what our classes will be like.
I know we have to change the way we teach, but I've been teaching kindergarten for 17 years and I can't envision a classroom where my children are all distanced and my children are all working alone."
A school year set to start in the middle of a global pandemic brings a multitude of unprecedented challenges, but perhaps none more so than for kindergarten classes where back-to-school safety measures will face their biggest test.
Physical distancing will be especially difficult in kindergarten classes which are often the largest in schools, many with between 25 and 30 students and two adults - a teacher and early childhood educator (ECE) - in a single space.
Unlike other elementary grades, kindergarten classrooms are set up to facilitate group-style, play-based learning, not for students to sit at individual desks.
The province's youngest learners are also those that will require the most help to manage hand hygiene, mask wearing and keeping their hands away from friends and faces, all critical for limiting the spread of COVID-19. Some 260,000 kindergarteners were enrolled in Ontario in the 2018-19 school year.
Add to that the emotional needs of 3- 4- and 5-year-olds - many who are leaving parents for the first time - and experts worry that kindergarten classes will be unable to meet both public health requirements and the educational needs of students.
We have given kindergarten teachers incredibly challenging parameters within which to work," said Amy Greer, a Canada Research Chair in population disease modeling and an associate professor of population medicine at the University of Guelph. These are large cohorts where the primary goal is to build social skills in a group setting - all during a pandemic.
With this virus, what happens in schools is going to spill back into the community. It's all of our responsibility to do this well and do this to best of our ability."
School boards across Ontario are grappling with how to make classes smaller without ample funding or classroom space.
On Thursday, Toronto District School Board trustees unanimously approved a proposal that would see kindergarten classes drop to an average of 13.3 students in COVID-19 hot spots, including the city's northwest corner. Other elementary schools across the city would have an average kindergarten class size of 21.6 students.
For Keith Canivet, whose youngest child will be starting junior kindergarten, the solutions offered by their Etobicoke elementary school do not go far enough to alleviate his concerns.
On August 17, Canivet learned his school would have two kindergarten classes - one with 33 students overseen by a teacher and an ECE and one with 15 students and a single teacher. Parents were told there were not enough funds to hire an additional ECE, he said, noting the school is older with a boiler system instead of central ventilation and small classrooms.
They have one or two windows - if you're lucky that they open."
On Thursday evening, Canivet heard from a TDSB school trustee that his school could divide the kindergarten classes evenly in two, sharing one ECE between the two classes of 24.
That's still just one ECE ... dealing with a cohort of almost 50 people and with one-on-one physical contact," Canivet said.
Beyond the public health worries, Canivet is concerned that an individual teacher will struggle to teach a group of 24 kindergarteners for long stretches with no help.
Our concern is for (the students') emotional health and physical health and that there hasn't been enough consideration for the reality of that situation."
Greer, who in July reviewed the return-to-school guidance led by the Hospital for Sick Children, said smaller cohorts of kindergarten students is critical for reducing the risk of COVID-19 spreading within a classroom. She said kindergarten classes of around 30 students is far from an ideal situation."
I think that is high-risk and opens up kids and staff to enhanced risk," she said, adding that smaller kindergarten cohorts will help ensure young children follow other safety measures, such as physical distancing and hand hygiene. Research so far suggests most young children do not get severely ill with COVID-19, though it is still not clear the role they play in asymptomatic transmission of the virus.
Non-medical face coverings for students in all grades, including kindergarten, is also key, Greer said, noting there is benefit to younger kids wearing masks, even if done imperfectly.
Public health interventions work best in layers. No single one is going to be perfect. You get added impact by putting the different interventions together."
Greer, who has young children herself, said it is fantastic" some school boards have worked hard to lower kindergarten class sizes, some by splitting the teaching team and student cohorts in half.
This change will mean that kindergarten children in these boards will have fewer overall contacts, which reduces the risk of transmission."
Still, Greer cautioned that teachers and ECEs will need to be vigilant, especially with hand hygiene, as they move between the two student groups.
In a recent statement, the Ontario Principals' Council released recommendations for a safe return to school, one of which is capping kindergarten classes at 15.
The council, which represents 5,000 elementary and secondary school principals and vice-principals, focused on kindergarten class sizes for a number of reasons, including: younger children will require a lot of help to learn public health measures, hand washing for each child will be time-consuming and cleaning classrooms and sanitizing objects to COVID-19 standards will be increasingly difficult with more than 15 children in a class.
In an email to the Star, the council's President Ann Pace, a principal from the York Region District School Board seconded to the council for the 2020-2021 school year, noted that kindergarten rooms are the same size as other classrooms, yet may contain up to 30-plus students and two or three adults (a teacher, an ECE and on occasion, an Education Assistant to support students with special needs).
It is impossible for this many students and staff to physically distance in such a small place," she wrote.
Beyond the challenges of large class sizes, kindergarten teaching teams will need additional time to rework their play-based curricula and learning environments upended by physical distancing requirements, said Emis Akbari, a professor and program co-ordinator at George Brown College's School of Early Childhood.
But they need time to change the classroom, modify the environment, create individual learning bins that aren't isolating," said Akbari, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).
I can't say how much more time they need, but definitely more than they are being given."
OISE Professor Kerry McCuaig, an expert in early childhood policy, said the play-based kindergarten curriculum can work in a physically distant environment - if there is ample space and fewer children in a class.
There is a way of teaching healthy behaviours in a play-based environment," she said. But we have to remember, the youngest kids here at just 3 years old ... so some of the expectations may require a rethink," she said.
McCuaig said more than the application of the curriculum, she is concerned that educators will feel pressure to constantly reinforce the need for children to stay apart, which could impact their notion of socialization in the long-run.
It is so integral to children's development to interact, and communicate up close and personal," she said. If there is such pressure on the educator to constantly maintain (physical) distancing, I think it is not just difficult, I think it actually becomes harmful to the children's development." she said.
Teachers will need flexibility in order to teach students about the new norms in a way that they can understand, she said.
Kindergarten teacher Suki Padda said educators are increasingly worried as September looms, especially over the added expectations to protect children from COVID-19.
You want kindergartners to social distance? Are you kidding me?" she said, adding that in her experience, remote learning for kindergarteners was a struggle. There's no way that is going to happen. So there is a great sense of anxiety among educators. We want to keep the kids safe, and apart, but how do we do that without compromising the program, compromising ourselves?"
She said many kindergarten teachers have already started to make kits that students can use for independent play. Teachers are also thinking through how to communicate pandemic precautions to kindergarteners, something she said must be done at their level."
A lot of visual learning aids will be set up in the classrooms to teach students healthy habits," Padda said. A lot of students are coming in at ages 3, 4, 5, and they don't know how to read ... and we have a lot of families coming in that may not know English. We need to create a natural environment for the students so it doesn't all come to them as a shock."
Toronto mom Karen Leiva started teaching her 4-year-old son about physical distancing and safety in April, in part because her husband is a transplant recipient and at high risk for developing a severe case of COVID-19.
My little guy understands that he needs to wear a mask if he is around other people," she said. We give him the choice: Do you want to see your friend? Yes? Then you have to wear a mask. If he doesn't want to wear a mask, he knows he won't see his friend."
Still, despite the practice, Leiva's son struggled with social interactions when he started outdoor summer camp.
The challenge we ran into in the program is that my son was always trying to touch people with hugs and pressing his face to theirs. It was like a novelty that after four months of not seeing anyone other than us that he could touch people."
Leiva said the family decided to seek the help of a youth and mental health professional to ask for tips on how do we further teach our son to be safe in a pandemic without scaring him or crushing his spirit?"
She said one session helped them communicate the pandemic more effectively with their son.
When my son feels like he needs attention or affection now from camp counsellors or other kids, he understands now to do elbow bumps. We didn't take away his opportunities to show affection, we just redirected him to a safe option."
As school boards across Ontario race to develop back-to-school plans, Mynes hopes those in leadership positions understand the unique challenges kindergarten classrooms face in a pandemic, from the emotional to the practical.
We are on the floor, we're playing together, collaborating, sharing materials, eating snacks at a communal table, sharing our food and conversation," she said. It's a very intimate space."
Mynes, whose kindergarten class last year had 29 students, said manoeuvring through COVID-19 precautions will be far smoother with smaller classes.
On Friday evening, Mynes heard the Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy was among the high priority TDSB elementary schools that would have smaller kindergarten classes according to it's newest proposal.
I'm going to do everything I can to keep kids as safe as we can. It will be a bumpy road. I hope we are successful."
Megan Ogilvie is a Toronto-based health reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @megan_ogilvie
Noor Javed is a Toronto-based reporter covering current affairs in the York region for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @njaved