9 minute read
COVID 19 - Looking back at 2020
Mrs Gorman, Head, reflects on her first two years at Abbots’ Hill and leading during a global pandemic
Instead of spending the next two minutes and thirty seconds of your time reading about the difficulties of the last 18 months, I prefer to reflect on the so-called Covid silver-linings. It has been a time of ‘firsts’ in many ways. Not only was this my first two years as Head at Abbot’s Hill but, since my first day in January 2020, we have learnt an entirely new vocabulary – fogging, zoom and social-distancing are now part of everyday parlance, I had to work from home, I became my own childrens’ teacher. The list goes on.
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School firsts
These ‘firsts’ have been firsts for everyone in our school community. Managing the emotions and expectations of staff, pupils and parents while rolling out an online school made the early stages of the pandemic very demanding indeed for school leaders everywhere. Another first for me was facing an ISI Inspection after 6 days as Head. The outcome – Excellent – was testament to what I know to be true about this school.
The human side
On a more human, less operational level, many people all around the world and close to home have suffered loss – personal and financial. Lives have been turned upside down and we must never forget that. I have listened with interest to Mark Carney’s Reith lectures where he asks us to reflect on 2020 and to consider what it has taught us about ‘value’. Referring to Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorism, he suggests we had become a society that ‘know[s] the price of everything but the value of nothing’. This struck a chord with me because in joining Abbot’s Hill, I knew I was joining a school whose values are in the right place. I was therefore determined at the start of 2020 to more clearly articulate and reaffirm these core values and to re-frame them in light of future skills, outreach and partnerships in our immediate local community and our wider professional community, and we have done just that. So, looking back, I would like to turn my attention to some of the ways that I have simply been amazed by the professionalism of my team, the agility with which we went online and the maintenance of our school community – which has been our priority throughout. Normality in a time of uncertainty has been the watchword.
Staying connected
We received overwhelming support from our parents for our online provision Abbot’s Hill ConnectED with satisfaction ratings consistently over 90%. Perhaps one reason for this was that the promotion of balance and positive mental health was central to our planning. Ensuring that everyone felt a part of the School community was our guiding principle and so important for wellbeing during these unprecedented times. We therefore re-wrote our timetables to ensure that pupils could work away from the screen, while ensuring face-toface delivery of lessons where appropriate. Assemblies, tutor time or 1:1 tutorials with teachers followed registration and slightly shortened lessons allowed for breaks and movement away from a desk to go and jump on a trampoline or play with the family dog. After feedback from parents, we aligned lunch time across the school so that families could eat together and made sure learning was as active as it was rigorous.
ConnectEd and InspirEd: Remote learning success
Teachers worked very hard to find new ways of working and the practical subjects such as Music, Drama, PE and Food and Nutrition continued unabated. Even science experiments were conducted on-line, with pupils undertaking and recording their own work to share with the class. There was so much spontaneous creativity and the use of Apps such as Tapestry, SeeSaw and the G-suite enabled innovation on an unprecedented scale. We also took advantage of the time gained from the cancellation of external exams to organise a rigorous post-half term bridging course organised for our Year 11 pupils. Devised by our Head of Careers, Liz Cross, the InspirED programme proved to be excellent preparation for the transition to 6th Form and College life is set to continue, post-Covid.
Back to school
When we returned to school, I was impressed once more by th determination of my staff to create a safe and healthy learning environment for our pupils. As with every other school, the looming threat of a Covid-19 shutdown meant that we had to be ready, poised to pivot and flip the switch on remote learning once more.
Meeting challenges with positive change
Managing this Coronavirus pandemic has certainly been a tremendous challenge for schools across the country, but we are proud to have met these head-on at Abbot’s Hill. Rather than stopping or slowing down our efforts as a school, the pandemic has seen us – if you’ll pardon the phrase – draw breath and launch afresh with enthusiasm, creativity, determination and most important of all, teamwork. Collaboration and communication between teachers, pupils, and parents means that the future truly came into the present with more bespoke, tailored, truly digital learning. Partnership work, sports leadership coaching, school productions that have become film productions, online parents’ evenings…the list goes on. And on. Our digital strategy has been rocket-fuelled and I can’t wait to see where that leads us as an organisation. I think, perhaps, this may have been a highlight of the year for me. The way the school has come together – fired by those core values of integrity, compassion, collaboration. The emotional intelligence of this school is high. Alongside other skills that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront such as active learning, creativity, complex problem-solving and systems analysis, emotional intelligence, kindness and leadership are defined by the World Economic Forum (January 2020) as vital future skills. Abbot’s Hill is leading the way in building a community rich with these characteristics. Our school spirit – the founding values of the Baird sisters of strength and character – which perhaps nowadays we call resilience or maybe tenacity – are alive and well. So, while this has been a year of firsts, it has brought us back full circle to our purpose.
Lockdown 3
Below is a list of the many acts of kindness shown by staff, pupils and parents during unprecedented times: • Zoë B, Year 9 Bedding donations were made into scrubs bags.
• The NHS sign was painted onto the front lawn by the
Grounds Team
• Abbot’s Hill’s Parents’ Association prepared and delivered meals for NHS workers through the ‘You donate…we deliver’ scheme. • The Catering Department donated stock from the food cupboards to help with this. • A delivery of gloves, aprons, sanitising wipes and hand sanitising liquid was donated to Hertfordshire division of the
Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust.
A Clan Challenge that celebrates heritage at Abbot’s Hill
From Reception through to Year 11, the pupils are placed in one of three Clans; Cameron, MacDonald and Macneil. Our Clan system harks back to the heritage of the school founders: Miss Katrine, Miss Alice and Miss Mary Baird, and we are still proud to celebrate our Scottish roots to this day. Over the first 2 weeks of the lockdown, Clan pupils were virtually racing to their ‘Seat’, where the families originally resided, in Scotland. With a staggering 564 miles to complete, pupils either walked, ran or cycled to clock up mileage that was then submitted and added to a daily total of miles completed. We even invited staff to take part in the challenge! Aptly named the ‘Race to the Highlands’. Their end destinations were as follows: Cameron – Achnacarry Castle MacDonald – Armadale Castle Mcneil – Kisimul Castle
Pupils share what they are grateful for
As part of Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week, staff and pupils were asked to share a word that reflects what they are grateful for or represents how they are feeling at the moment. There were some moving responses including feelings of hope and anticipation along with outpourings of gratitude for family, friends and our legged additions! Thank to you all who took part.
Screen Free Learning
On Friday 5 March, pupils from Year 7 – 11 took part in a ‘Screen Free Learning Day’. There were no live lessons or curriculum work set, instead the pupils were encouraged to read a book, listen to podcasts or spend time researching and expanding their knowledge. Teachers at Abbot’s Hill felt it was very important that the pupils had a chance to wind down and have a day to reflect ahead of returning to school after the lockdown.
Virtual Bookshelf
Although the library doors remained shut the remote learning continued. The staff at Abbot’s Hill thought of innovative ways to bring school to the homes of our pupils by launching the Abbot’s Hill Virtual Bookshelf. The Virtual Bookshelf was a digital version of our wonderful library and knowledgeable Librarian and English teachers who are armed with hundreds of book recommendations. Each day of the week books were recommended for different year groups, across all sorts of genres and lengths. Pupils were asked to share favourite books, write reviews and send in a rating (1 – 5 stars) of the books they had read.
Abbot’s Hill pupils learn to cook with WWII rations
Have you ever cooked with rations before? That was the challenge set for Year 6! Pupils were given a ration cook book and asked to see what they could whip up with the rations they would have received during the war. Rationing began on 8th January 1940. An adults weekly rationing would have been the following: Bacon & Ham 4 oz Other meat value of 1 shilling and 2 pence (equivalent to 2 chops) Butter 2 oz Cheese 2 oz Margarine 4 oz Cooking fat 4 oz Milk 3 pints Sugar 8 oz Preserves 1 lb every 2 months Tea 2 oz Eggs 1 fresh egg (plus allowance of dried egg) Sweets 12 oz every 4 weeks Sabina tried out the ration pancakes, they looked great! It was great to get the pupils thinking and understanding the difficulties that rationing brings, especially during a national lockdown. History shows us that as a nation, we have faced hardships before. We are pleased that the ability to connect with our pupils remotely has allowed them the opportunity to learn creatively from home.
GRATEFUL
