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5 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,July 29,2021 insidehalton.com 25+ Years Experience 100% Canadian Made Cabinetry Quality Craftsmanship • Custom Made Kitchen & Bathroom Cabinetry • Closet Systems • Entertainment Units • Basement Renovations • Full Renovations & More! Visit Our 6,000 sq.ft. Design Centre: Units 2-3, 333 Wyecroft Rd.,Oakville 905.844.3332 | www.aromakitchens.ca • info@aromakitchens.ca Create Your Dream Look Founded in 1991 Peter Watson MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI Jennifer Watson MBA, CFP®, CIM® Accepting new clients. Please visit www.watsoninvestments.com to book a free consultation. Offering safe virtual meetings and e-signatures for new client onboarding. "Our clients enjoy talking about their retirement dreams and we enjoy helping them get there." Peter & Jennifer info@watsoninvestments.com (905) 842 -2100 This was a school year like no other. The 2020 to 2021 year in- troduced a full implemen- tation of some never-be- fore-tried ideas and a complete overhaul of how education is delivered in the region. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic created prob- lems and controversies teachers had never before had to deal with. To learn more about how it went and what was learned, we thought it was the right time to sit down with Pat Daly, the current director of educa- tion of the Halton Catho- lic District School Board. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE 2020 TO 2021 SCHOOL YEAR? "It was a chal- lenging year and one filled with a lot of learning. It was certainly a different year than any I've experienced in my 30 years in educa- tion, and that was certain- ly true for schools around the province and around the world." HOW DO YOU FEEL STAFF AND STUDENTS HANDLED ALL THE UPHEAVAL CAUSED BY THE PAN- DEMIC? "We put a lot on their plate this year and then kind of kept adding to it as the year went on. Our staff certainly rose to the chal- lenge. It was a reminder for us, if we talk about the centrality of teaching, al- so the importance of pro- fessional development for our staff and ongoing training. We were able to do it in a little bit different way this year. Many of our teachers were teaching from home. Some of those challenges parents had with students at home and everything going on in the background, it was a similar challenge for our teachers. They cer- tainly rose to the chal- lenge, in my mind, and had to develop different ways to approach the cur- riculum." WHAT WAS LEARNED AS A RE- SULT OF THE REMOTE LEARN- ING? "We know that some stu- dents really excelled in that delivery format, so that's something that will continue. I think there's a real desire among stu- dents and staff to get that face-to-face personal con- nection when they get back in the buildings. I'm hoping we just don't mi- grate away from some of those teaching advances we made in terms of use of technology. I hope we're able to leverage it and in- corporate it into our day- to-day practice." THERE HAVE BEEN SOME WHO LABELLED THIS A LOST YEAR FOR STUDENTS. HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THAT, AND DO YOU FEEL IT WAS A SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL YEAR? "I think it was a success- ful year. There's no doubt some students struggled with remote learning with the amount of time we were mandated to pro- vide that face-to-face learning. I think in some of our younger grades it was challenging for stu- dents. I think teachers and parents and students as well probably adapted to it more as the year went on. I think the second time we went back to re- mote learning in the spring, I think there was lots of things we learned both from a teaching and learning perspective our first time around. So I think that made the tran- sition smoother. Essen- tially, we did it in a day. So, I certainly wouldn't say it's a lost year." WHEN WILL PARENTS KNOW EX- ACTLY HOW THE NEXT SCHOOL YEAR WILL LOOK? "We're looking at the pub- lic health information like everybody does. Knowing that vaccine rates continue to go up for that 12-and-up age range, that COVID numbers in our area have really gone down from last spring, we still are waiting on re- turn-to-school direction, more specific direction from the ministry, and we're hoping that comes shortly -- end of July, be- ginning of August. We are certainly planning al- ready for a reopening." NEWS CATHOLIC BOARD EDUCATION DIRECTOR REFLECTS ON PAST SCHOOL YEAR ROLAND CILLIERS rcilliers@metroland.com PAT DALY