Borrowed laptops offer vital connection for kids of Carleton Heights P.S.

Outside Carleton Heights Public School on Prince of Wales Drive, tuques and single mittens hang forlornly on a fence, waiting for their little owners to claim them.

But it could be September before classes here resume. For now, the learning hasmoved online.

Some teachers began sending emails and setting up Google classrooms in early April. But at Carleton Heights, where about 70 per cent of the 518 students enrolled are newcomers, mostly Syrian refugeeswho arrived within the past five years, many of the kids lacked the computers or Wi-Fi access they needed to participate.

• Students lacking Wi-Fi access told to head to school parking lots as 'last resort'

That changed two weeks ago when the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) began distributing Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hostspots. As of Wednesday, the board had handed out 8,900 laptops and 1,250 of the mobile hotspots to student whose families lacked the technology.

Maintaining connections

Now, Carleton Heights principal Lynn Dupuis says those tools have helped break the isolation many children have been feeling since the school closed its doors in mid-March.

"What I'm seeing is a desire to stay in a community and a desire to be connected. For these kids, [this is] an opportunity to see their friends, too. So it's not just about the learning, it's about maintaining the connections."

Ontario's Ministry of Education is recommendingelementary-agechildren spend five to 10 hours a week learning online, depending on their age. But many teachers are going above and beyond those guidelines.

Sean McCann, one of two English literacy development teachers at Carleton Heights, gets up at 5 a.m. every weekday to create lesson plans for his students, who are between the ages of nineand 12. Most didn't know how to read or count in their own language, never mind English, when they arrived in Canada.

McCann tries to get all his preparation and marking done before the kids log on so he can focus on giving them the guidance they need. Twelve-hour days are not uncommon.

It's heartbreaking. People have escaped war and refugee camps, and this is the first time in their life they have consistency, and coronavirus comes.- Sean McCann, teacher

"I am exhausted, but I am also inspired by just how much the kids want to do this. So that is the fuel," McCann said."It is very hard to know when to shut things off right now. If a kid messages you at 4:30 or 5 p.m. and asks to read with you, that's a hard thing to say noto, when we're talking about a child who maybe six months ago didn't know the letters of the alphabet."

McCann said the pandemic and the social restrictions ithas brought have been especially difficult for children who were just beginning to adapt to life in a new culture.

"This is another time in their life when they're not in school, and it's harder for them to learn. It's heartbreaking. People have escaped war and refugee camps, and this is the first time in their life they have consistency, and coronavirus comes."

Closing the knowledge gap

McCann said some of his students were sharing one computer between "six, seven, eight children," while others had no technology at home.

Dupuis said getting the Chromebooks into those students' hands is slowly closing a knowledge gap that might have otherwise set them further behind.

"Although it's been a roller-coaster ... I have the opportunity to sit back and watch my staff come together as a team and learn together to do things differently to meet the needs of our families," the principal said.