5 minute read
Online learning
Anabel and Bridget Malaghan
AN unprecedentedtime IN EDUCATION
Greer Newman
Back in January, as we were preparing to return to school at the start of the 2020 academic year, there was already talk of a mystery virus that had apparently begun in the
Chinese province of Wuhan. Things moved very quickly and even before the girls returned, we implemented our pandemic plan with the first step being families who had recently returned from China needing to selfisolate before returning to school. At
Diocesan we formed a COVID-19 team that met every day right until the return to Level 1. This team was comprised of the Executive team, Health and
Safety Director Becki Abbott, Director of Admissions Kate Jones, Director of
Boarding Cathy Kirkman and Director of International Students Simone Clarke.
And so began a series of almost daily updates to our parent community, keeping them informed of the practices we had established to keep everyone in our community safe.
At the same time, we started to prepare for the possibility of a school closure in the event that we had a case of coronavirus here at Diocesan. This meant that our faculty teams started to prepare for online learning. While this was not a big step for Dio – much of the work is prepared, disseminated and collaboratively created in a digital format already – there were practical considerations to think about. Would our networks cope if all girls logged on at once? What platform from the many available would we all use, for consistency’s sake? (we chose MS Teams). How would we deal with assessments? How would we help the girls to manage their screen time? Could we at short notice re-jig our programmes to teach units more suited to an online environment? At this point we had not considered that this would go on as long as it did, but the preparation we did meant the transition to the online environment on Thursday 26 March was pretty seamless.
It was an eerie feeling on the Tuesday afternoon as staff packed up their classrooms and headed home. The gates were locked, the pool was drained (as we were not granted access during Level 4 to maintain the pool) and we headed into the unknown. At that point we made the decision not to go to the
Heather McRae
holidays early, but to keep up some momentum of learning and maintain our normal holiday period. This proved a good decision and was only possible because of the willingness of our staff to get up to speed so quickly with the new dynamics.
We had decided to maintain the regular timetable in the Senior School to give a structure to the day, but quickly realised that it was too intense and too long to spend online during the day. We asked our teachers to pull back, have fewer or shorter online conferences with their classes and more time for independent work by the students. Student surveys since, show that the girls appreciated this, though they did enjoy seeing their teachers in their own environment with their pets and children coming in and out of shot. Some said it made their teachers seem more human!
The girls were fantastic throughout this whole process. As cancellations came almost daily, the girls, and especially the Year 13s, remained remarkably pragmatic and acknowledged there were bigger issues at stake than whether House Music or the School Ball would go ahead (and they will). We have surveyed the girls post lockdown and one acutely perceptive girl noted: “We couldn’t enjoy the classes the same way because it was all just learning and none of the other stuff.” That ‘stuff’ is what we realise more than ever is fundamental to schools – the ability of humans to connect personally and therefore to have the social aspect of schools and education that we have always held dear.
Times of crisis bring new ways of approaching things and the staff have been outstanding in their willingness to deliver their programmes with creativity, collegiality and good humour. There has been great sharing of ideas and expertise, and despite the intensity of the online programme, staff went out of their way to reach out to the girls in their classes, both as a whole and individually. The staff will have learnt several ‘new tricks’ and their practice will undoubtedly be different going forward. Feedback from parents has been hugely complimentary of the professionalism and the quality of the online learning their daughters experienced. Many said it made them rather wistful to be back at school themselves, the classes were so interesting!
Sports and arts coaching and rehearsals continued via Zoom, D45 and D20 fitness classes gave everyone the chance to keep fit, assemblies were delivered (some would say with greater creativity) via a pre-recorded video, and there were one or two Zoom balls on the night of the cancelled ball as girls donned their ball dresses and chatted into the night. However, there is no replacement for the real thing, and it is great to be back on site together. That first day of Level 2 felt like the first day back after the summer holidays, but the July holidays will be appreciated by all as the April ones felt rather abnormal.
The fight against COVID will no doubt be a long one. There is uncertainty around overseas travel, and this is particularly upsetting for our international students and staff whose families live overseas. We keep talking about the ‘new normal’ but with no real idea what that normal will look like. What will remain consistent is the kindness, care and compassion of our whole Dio community and the willingness to look after each other whatever the future holds.
