March 27, 2020

Dear Saskatchewan Families:

Providing students continued opportunities to learn

The Saskatchewan Education Response Planning Team, made up of education representatives, have been working hard on new ways to address the learning needs of students. Staff and school communities are focused on ensuring the safest and most appropriate way of offering education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A special thank you to students and families for your ideas, understanding, patience and flexibility during these extraordinary times.

We have come up with some guidelines for school divisions across the province. The main principles the team used to develop the guidelines are important messages for families to know:

  • Saskatchewan school divisions are committed to providing all students an opportunity to learn and to support well-being.
  • Families and caregivers are not expected to deliver Saskatchewan curriculum.
  • Teachers, administrators and school staff want to remain connected to the students, families and communities they serve.
  • Teachers are best positioned to offer, during this time of physical distancing, some learning opportunities to the students they are currently teaching, should their students/families choose to take advantage of them.
  • In effort to engage all students, we will need to support teachers and staff in many different ways of delivering and offering learning opportunities.
  • The learning opportunities will be to support families and caregivers in a continued learning structure for students if they choose to use them.
  • Learning programs and decisions should be made with the most flexibility to ensure vulnerable students are given the opportunity to be successful.

When school divisions receive these guidelines they will, in consultation with principals and teachers, be determining the most appropriate learning opportunities based on the local circumstances of their communities, schools, families and students. Your local school division staff will begin to connect with families and students as deemed most appropriate.

We want to acknowledge and thank the dedicated families, school boards, administrators, teachers and other education staff members for their continued commitment to students during this difficult time. Please continue to practice physical distancing as outlined by the Chief Medical Health Officer.

We will continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and we encourage families and staff to stay up-to-date though Saskatchewan.ca/coronavirus. This website for COVID-19 information is for the public and care providers and will be updated frequently with the latest information. 

Saskatchewan Education Response Planning Team