Summer 2020 Program Changes due to COVID-19
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HORIZONS AT HOME: MEETING AN URGENT NEED
Horizons at Carolina Day School is an academic summer enrichment program that helps under-served students build strong literacy, math and social-emotional skills. While the program typically occurs every summer on campus at Carolina Day School, social distancing guidelines have prompted a move to remote learning for summer 2020.
While the transition back to school after COVID-19 won't be easy, Horizons at Home will provide the academic, social, and emotional support our students will need to successfully return to the classroom next fall.
ADDRESSING BASIC NEEDS
Horizons at CDS will continue, as we have since mid-March, to help families access resources in order to ensure their basic needs are met. We remain in close daily contact with our families and have developed a network of referrals and resources we can quickly connect them to if need be. Throughout the summer, we plan to help ensure children access the free, healthy meals that they would have received while participating in an on-campus Horizons program. We will also ensure all families have the materials and devices essential for equitable remote learning participation. Our frequent communication and deep relationship with our families has allowed us to be a trusted source of help when it’s needed.
COMBATTING THE COVID SLIDE: BLENDED LEARNING FOR THE SUMMER
Horizons at Home will provide up to three hours of instruction each day, combining teacher-facilitated learning that takes place online with opportunities for students to work at their own pace. The heart of our summer 2020 program will be small-group synchronous online classes led by our professional, returning teachers, who know the children well and are passionate about bridging gaps that may have grown over the last few months. Horizons students will also be able to connect with volunteers they know and love, who will brighten their day with fun activities and one-on-one reading time. Our creative and innovative teachers are working to include many of the sweet and special elements of a Horizons summer into their online classes.
SUPPORTING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL NEEDS AND GROWTH
Some experts in childhood development are labeling COVID-19 as an Adverse Childhood Experience, citing the stressful impact of school closures, decreased access to services (e.g. meals and academic support), and scarcity of basic resources. Horizons at Home will help students and caregivers process complex emotions through a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. We are so grateful that our devoted teachers are passionate about SEL and are well-versed in Yale’s RULER method for teaching emotional identification, communication, and self-regulation. We know that the HEART in Horizons will be more important than ever during this unusual summer.
TEACHING IN READING, MATH AND STEAM
Our Horizons teachers will be closely looking at each student’s needs to prepare him or her to enter the next grade. Students will benefit from individual attention during daily small group instruction in math and language arts. Student devices will be preloaded with learning apps, and science and the arts will be integrated into fun and engaging projects.
Families are also excited that we will be providing summer boxes, containing fun and engaging science kits, easy-to-do crafts, and leveled readers to be used with parents or older siblings to deepen enrichment over the summer.
We are grateful for the enormous amount of support we have received from agencies, new donors, foundations, and caring individuals who all understand the depth of the impact COVID-19 closures have had and will continue to have upon under-served families in the Asheville area. Our commitment to addressing disparities in access to education, technology, psycho-social support, and other opportunities is stronger now than ever. Thank you for your interest in the essential work of Horizons at Carolina Day.
Click here to contribute to this important undertaking.