“We’re all having to think of new ways to maintain and strengthen heart-to-heart connections in Christian education.”

Allen Macartney
Special to Spur Ottawa

All summer, Ottawa-area Christian schools have brainstormed innovative strategies to deliver dynamic and healthy fall programs amid the pandemic.

“It has been a busy summer because of COVID-19,” says Paul Triemstra, principal of Ottawa Christian School (JK to Grade 8). “We’ve had lots of meetings with our leadership team. As well, we’re a member of Edvance Christian School—an association of 80-plus Christian schools in Ontario. They’ve done a lot of legwork for us to provide policies and protocols for the fall.”

Triemstra says Christian education is a community endeavour, but pandemic restrictions and isolation have obviously made that bonding more difficult. The schools are working hard to bridge these gaps and even strengthen Christian education.

Brad Armishaw, a teacher at Redeemer Christian High School, agrees. “Maintaining our identity and mission as a Christian school is central, as we juggle COVID health and safety concerns. Naturally, discipleship in a pandemic is new to us. We’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to maintain and build faithful interpersonal relationships, show care, and serve others, all while having fun together.”

One challenge all schools (Christian and secular) face is the evolving and ambiguous messaging from public authorities.

“Naturally, discipleship in a pandemic is new to us.”

“Being a relatively-new virus, the science is evolving, too,” Triemstra says. “We’ve needed to stay flexible and revise plans regularly because of the nature of the pandemic. This will likely continue throughout the school year.”

Armishaw says, like most schools, Redeemer has split their student body into groups of about 15 to limit potential spread and facilitate contact tracing. Yet, that presents new challenges for schools.

“Splitting into cohorts involves a completely new way of using our school spaces, with new schedules and routines set up to keep cohorts safely separate. For teachers, it involves coordinating lessons between classrooms, while maintaining or improving our high academic standards.”

To make this possible, Redeemer had to hire more teaching assistants and incorporate more technology: livestreaming some lessons and getting more webcams, tablets, Bluetooth microphones, and portable speakers for outdoor classrooms.

“The cohorts are sure to yield some strong new friendships, and that’s great.”

For Community Christian School in Metcalfe (JK to Grade 8), the 2020-21 school year marks their 40th anniversary, although celebrating that milestone will not be what they hoped. They, too, are splitting classes into smaller cohorts. While the pandemic means this will be a much different year than past ones, they believe students will benefit from the change: They will have more one-on-one training for students.

“The cohorts are sure to yield some strong new friendships, and that’s great,” says Armishaw. “But they’ll also be somewhat limiting as students will have fewer opportunities (for now) to connect with the wider student body.”

One common change is outside volunteers.

“At Ottawa Christian School, not many parent or community volunteers will be in the school this year,” Triemstra laments. “When they are, naturally they’ll be wearing a mask.”

Wearing masks and restrictions on contact will certainly put up barriers to traditional Christian education methods. Yet everyone, including churches, face the same challenges.

“We’re all having to think of new ways to maintain and strengthen heart-to-heart connections in Christian education,” Armishaw states.

COVID-19 generates strong anxieties in many people. Most Christian schools require teachers and assistants to take special mental health first aid courses. It is a two-day course they must take every five years, with a one-day refresher annually. The courses are designed to help staff identify signs of mental health issues and know how to respond.

Evolving unknowns may be difficult to anticipate, but working together, through prayer, Christian schools appear well positioned to face the future. Despite the challenges, Triemstra says COVID has pushed them to adopt more creative methods. “We’re excited about that.”