LINCOLNIA, Va. — Students in Fairfax County attended Saturday School at Glasgow Middle School, completely voluntarily. It’s part of a federal program to help students catch up after time spent remote learning during the pandemic.
Even though it’s a Saturday, 8th-grader Willow Rosenthal doesn’t mind spending more time at school. She’s had less time there than middle-schoolers normally do, because she spent 6th grade learning remotely.
Learning in-person, with other kids, is still refreshing.
"We got to play a bunch of different games together and it was all about interacting with each other, and learning that math isn’t just in math class its also throughout your whole life," said Rosenthal of the IB Math Strategies class offered.
260 Glasgow Middle School students and their parents chose to spend the day at school. The event is funded by a portion of the school’s federal pandemic relief funding, called ESSER III funding.
And it allows the parents who attend to see what their children are learning.
"Families will also be able to advocate as far as here are the strategies that I know the teachers are giving, here are the strategies I know you're learning in the classroom that as a parent I can support you, in even at home," said Principal Victor Powell.
The classes boost reading, math and social-emotional skills for students who began at this school on a laptop, without meeting hundreds of their fellow students, like Ricardy Anderson’s son.
"He had the opportunity of entering 6th grade from home, and there were definitely challenges in terms of going from elementary school where he had 1, 2 teachers to middle school where he has 6 teachers, he had to manage his time very differently," said Anderson. "So those were gaps that he didn’t have the chance to be in-house and be ushered through the big transition."
Each day further to bridging those gaps counts. Even Saturdays.