The Kindergarten LEAPS (Learning Empathy, Adaptability, Play and Social Skills) Program was part of new summer programming by the Toronto Catholic District School Board to combat pandemic-related learning loss.

L.E.A.P.S. was created by Brenda Sevillano Pena, an Early Years resource teacher for the TCDSB. She created the program because she knew children who had only attended kindergarten online would face a “huge struggle” adapting to in-person learning, which is more structured. The program was run by three Designated Early Childhood Educators and classroom sizes were capped at 21 students for the three week program. 

I had an absolute joy having a classroom to walk into everyday knowing that the learning was being guided by the needs of our students, and that my team who I met for the first time on day one was equally as dedicated to the success of the program as I was. I gained an immense amount of invaluable knowledge from them from our interactions with each other to students to setting up an inquiry-based classroom environment, and liaising with families.