Mississauga and Brampton students being told to prepare for possible return to online learning

Mississauga | Brampton | Caledon | Ontario | COVID | Education | Latest News |

By

Published December 16, 2021 at 4:12 pm

Parents and guardians of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon students are being told to prepare for a possible return to remote learning when school resumes after the holiday break.

Both the Dufferin-Peel Catholic and Peel district school boards are telling parents and students to bring any belongings home from school with them just in case the significant rise in COVID-19 cases shuts down in-person learning when classes resume Jan. 3.

“All personal belongings/notebooks are being sent home on Friday. Please send your child with an extra bag to carry their belongings home in,” a note from a Peel public school to parents reads. “This is only as a precaution, on the chance that we have to switch to online learning in January.”

The bulletin to parents continued, saying arrangements can be made to provide students with a computer to take home should online learning be required in January.

A “community information bulletin” issued by the region’s Catholic school board urges parents and guardians to arrange to bring home their children’s personal belongings (medications, indoor shoes, eyeglasses, etc.) in order to facilitate the “enhanced cleaning of all classrooms and other spaces over the Christmas break.”

The bulletin goes on to say, “unless otherwise directed by the Ministry of Education, or our Regional Public Health Medical Officers of Health, school will resume for in-person and remote-only learning on Jan. 3.”

School boards across the GTA are similarly urging parents and students to be prepared should a return to remote learning be ordered by the Ministry of Education and/or public health authorities.

The surging Omicron variant of the virus has spiked COVID-19 cases in communities across Ontario. While Omicron has yet to have a similar impact in Peel, numbers in Mississauga and Brampton are still rising and health officials say it’s only a matter of time before Peel gets hit by the new variant.

Students at both school boards in Mississauga and Brampton have also been given the opportunity to bring COVID-19 test kits home with them over the break.

insauga's Editorial Standards and Policies advertising