Online Learning

Please see the sample schedules below for each division. Your child will have a combination of live video sessions with their teachers and prerecorded lessons to work through on their own. Though the live times will be standing appointments, families will be free to configure the rest of their child’s day as they choose. The following is purely a suggested schedule of activities. As always, we encourage you to participate in family times and chores. We listened to parent feedback from the spring and have incorporated more live sessions in small groups. At this time, Primary and Lower Elementary groups will be 4-6 students. At this time, Upper Elementary groups will be 6-9 students. Small groups will rotate between Lead and Assistant Teachers and may periodically change so students will see a variety of friends in small group sessions.

Periodic supply pick-up and drop-off days will allow teachers to send home supplies such as books, papers, and musical instruments for your child’s learning to be hands-on and active. This will also minimize the need for parents to print papers. These days will also be a fun, socially distanced opportunity for your child to see their teacher in-person. Lower and Upper Elementary students will be issued school devices. We advise that students use these devices so our Tech Team can remote into them to help troubleshoot issues if needed.

Community and social-emotional learning will continue to be a primary tenet of The Fay School education. All students will participate in a daily Morning Meeting to build community and develop social-emotional skills. Small group morning meetings, work sessions, and lessons will provide time for teachers to know their students individually and give your child opportunities to interact with their peers. At the beginning of the school year, teachers will administer individual assessments and have one-on-one time with your child. In Upper Elementary, students will participate in a social time each day to provide an adult monitored, but child-driven time to be with friends. Lower Elementary children will interact with peers during small group sessions with their assistant teachers each day. We will also hold periodic fun online events for your child, similar to the Fay Family Seesaw page last spring.

Specials classes will be a mixture of prerecorded lessons on Seesaw and live small group interactions with Specials teachers during which your child can discuss and receive feedback about their work. Links for these sessions will be easily accessible on your child’s schedules.

To provide for staffing needs and create a stable classroom community, we will ask parents to commit to In-person or Online Learning for the first trimester of school. We will be monitoring the changing conditions and consider local health department advice, CDC recommendations, and parent feedback to plan for the trimester. We anticipate offering a choice for at least the first two trimesters. After the first trimester, parents may elect to change how their student attends school. We will endeavor to maintain classes, but we know that if many families change their learning plans, we may have move teachers to accommodate the demands of new class configurations. Given our previous experience with Online Learning, we expect students in both modalities to reach the same level of achievement.