Guelph schools to pivot to remote learning on snow days this winter

Guelph’s public and Catholic school boards say all schools will pivot to remote learning on snow days this winter.

The Upper Grand and Wellington Catholic district school boards both released their inclement weather procedures this week, which are fairly similar to how things worked last winter.

One key difference, however, is that schools won’t be closed if the buses are cancelled except for Centre Peel Public School in Drayton and Kenilworth Public School in Wellington North.

Those two schools will close if the buses are cancelled due to the prevalence of road closures in those areas during a winter storm and also because every student takes the bus.

Upper Grand said aside from those two, it is returning to pre-COVID-19 expectations that schools will remain open to students when buses are cancelled.

“Last year when buses were cancelled in some areas of the board, schools were asked to switch to remote learning for students and schools were closed to students,” Upper Grand said in a post on its website.

“This was primarily due to COVID-19 restrictions that prevented schools from combining students from different classes, resulting from possible staff shortages on inclement weather days.”

Keeping schools open is also a departure from what is happening in Waterloo Region. Both the Waterloo Catholic and public school boards have announced that schools will be closed if the buses are cancelled.

“Parents should always assess weather and road conditions and make their own decision as to whether or not to send their children to school under the current and expected forecasted weather conditions,” Wellington Catholic said in a post on its website.

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But on snow days, students are expected to pivot to remote learning when schools are closed.

Upper Grand said teachers will ensure that learning continues through Google Classroom, while Wellington Catholic said students will be able to access materials on their class D2L page in the morning.

The Catholic board added that the day will focus on a review of materials and unfinished assignments.

Just like a typical snow day, a decision on whether schools are closed will be made before 6 a.m.