“TCPS pulled off a miracle with this transition. I can appreciate all of the hard work it took and love that it was such a seamless transition from the user/student perspective. A huge thumbs up!”
-8th grade parent
“Thanks again for all your hard work. We are really grateful for the hard work you and your team at TCPS have put in over these last few weeks. Our kids really had no interruption from learning which is amazing! “
-2nd & 4th grade parent
Spring 2020 was an unprecedented time in our country and in California as much of the state shut down for essential business only, including schools due to the coronavirus threat. The Child’s Primary School (TCPS) quickly transitioned to remote learning, closing the campus in response to the state mandate on March 16th and beginning remote learning on March 18th. After one week of asynchronous teaching combined with live office hours with teachers, we shifted to a live or synchronous teaching schedule, where students interacted live with their teachers for multiple sessions daily. Our Remote Learning program was modeled to be true to our mission and philosophy of providing an interactive and engaging learning experience for our students. We are able to successfully accomplish this due to our uniquely small class sizes. We are proud that during an unprecedented time for schools, our students were happy, engaged, and learning.
Remote Learning Daily Schedules – March – June 2020
The lower grades (K – 5th grades) have 3 live teaching sessions and offline work given daily. Kindergarten and 1st are the exception as they have 2 live teaching sessions which are shorter in length.
- 1st Live Teaching Session: 9:00-10:00am (typically math or language arts)
- Break
- 2nd Live Teaching Session 10:15-11:00am (typically math or language arts)
- Break
- 3rd Live Teaching Session 11:15-11:45am (social studies, art, PE, science, music, Spanish rotations)
The middle school (6th-8th grades) has up to 6 live teaching sessions each day that may last up to 45 minutes per class.
- Live classes start at 8:30am and end at 1:45pm (with some breaks in between classes)
- Math, Science, Language Arts (English), Social Studies, Spanish, Research, PE, Art classes are all included
In the afternoons, teachers in all grades work with students to provide 1:1 support or are available for office hours as needed.
As TCPS is constantly evaluating its program, we may make adjustments to this schedule as needed for the upcoming 2020-2021 school year if school-wide remote learning becomes part of our school year.
What does the TCPS Remote Learning program look like?
- Multiple live teaching sessions daily across our regular curricular areas
- Live fish dissection with plenty of up-close views
- In-depth and creative digital projects
- Dressing in character and students role playing from The Outsiders unit
- Constructing a backyard aqueduct to share with the class during a Roman History unit
- Congressional lobbyist simulations in the 1860 Abraham Lincoln election
- Supreme Court student mock trials
- Direct instruction
- Small group work
- Art activities incorporated in projects
- Guest speakers and presentations
- Class meetings
- Student Council meetings
- Virtual dance parties
- Virtual recess periods
Benefits of the TCPS Remote Learning program include:
- Small classes enable teachers to continue to interact with all students
- Seamless and immediate transition to a remote learning program with very little loss of teaching and learning time
- Continuation of all curriculum subjects
- Individual attention from teachers during class – office hours and opportunities for 1:1 help available for any student
- Students prepared for the next grade level
- Small school enables rapid adjustments as needed
As the coronavirus situation develops and health officials continue updating their recommendations and guidance throughout the summer, we are making plans to return to campus in the Fall 2020, with appropriate modifications to our campus environment to prioritize safety for everyone in our school community: students, teachers and families. Our Covid-19 Committee will continue to review options and prepare for multiple scenarios to ensure the most effective educational environment for our community that still adheres to our educational philosophy.
For more information and updates regarding our Remote Learning program and planning for September please click here:
“I wanted to thank the teachers for rising to the occasion. Transitioning virtually overnight to an online teaching system that so closely emulated the students’ in-class experience was nothing short of remarkable. From what I’ve observed, you succeeded in keeping him engaged and motivated, and he’s clearly continued to learn at a rate similar to before the quarantine. Hats off to you all and thank you.”
-8th grade parent
“We wanted to reach out and thank you for everything TCPS is doing for us during this challenging time. We are so fortunate that she is able to continue to learn from home with a very organized and well set up remote learning program. We can’t thank her teacher enough for her dedication to our first graders and her true caring approach when it comes to their success.”
-1st grade parent
