Lots of washing hands, sanitizing and keeping extra clean is the expectation Kingston Richinski has going back to school today (Tues) at Ecole Alvin Buckwold in Saskatoon. Kingston is 9 years old and going into Grade 4. He says he is used to wearing a mask and has seven non-medical masks to use during the week but the best one has his favourite hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Kingston says the desks in his classroom are spaced an extra desk apart and he is excited to go back to school to see his friends. Although he has spent time with friends over the summer but only playing outside, six feet apart, except for those who are inside his “bubble”. He says when he goes back to school they will get to go outside for recess.

“This class is on this playground and that class is on the other one, and we rotate, I think, cause we have two playgrounds.”

Kingston says he is taking hand sanitizer to school and knows he has to sanitize his hands after recess if he forgets to wash his hands, and he says he will have to sanitize his hands before he has lunch.

Dakota Dreger says it was challenging with on-line learning and her younger brother Kingston being in French Immersion because no one else speaks French in her family so there was a lot of Google translate and talking back and forth to the teacher. In addition both she and her brother had classes using Zoom.

Dakota is 16 years old and going into Grade 11 at Walter Murray Collegiate. Dakota says going back to class has been staggered with some going back Tuesday, others Wednesday and then everyone is in school Thursday. She thinks it would be safer to have class for everyone in person part time and on line part time, but admits she finds it easier to learn in a classroom setting.

“When I’m doing online school at home I feel that I’m able to sit in my pyjamas and sit in bed for however long and then slowly get out of bed and then, possibly, we log on and do things. It’s just the motivation factor, I think, but, yeah, I hope that we stay, you know, fully in the classroom but you never know what can happen.”

Dakota says among her family they wear masks diligently because they have family members who are immunocompromised. And among her friends, most of whom have jobs, she says they all wear masks. However, she does realize opinions vary about the efficacy of wearing masks and is hoping when in the school setting others will have respect for fellow students and understand everyone has a different situation.

Dakota says when she returns to high school today (Tues) a lot will be different including going from two semesters a year to five semesters. She understands the semester system was changed in case they had to return to full-time on-line learning.

For both Kingston and Dakota manoeuvering school halls involves one direction of traffic going down one side and the other direction of traffic on the other side. And stairwells they understand, if they have them in the schools, are one direction only.