Headmaster’s Letter

Twenty-twenty began smoothly as the leadership team envisioned a year of consolidation ahead; as the natural progression following the previous year’s Primary (February) and Kinder (July) moves to the new Campus in San Fernando, and the relocation of Secondary students in Olivos to group Intermediate (Y7-9) in Nogoyá, and Senior (Y10-12) in Roque Saenz Peña/Pelliza, thus vacating the Rawson building, at the year end. But only a couple of weeks had gone by and the COVID19 pandemic hit with the resulting lockdown of schools, requiring academic and support teams to promptly devise a plan to ensure, overnight, the continuity of teaching and learning through virtual means. Far from being short, this adverse context unfortunately lasted for most of the year, continually challenging academic teams to sustain engagement and learning through passion, commitment and resourcefulness. It was only in late November that governmental authorities allowed students to attend school premises in carefully managed subgroups or "bubbles" to the delight of students, teachers and parents alike, allowing some respite before the year end.

In spite of these most challenging times, we continued on our path to becoming a competency-based school. Based on Michael Fullan’s work, staff worked on an initial maturity model of six competencies or lifeworthy skills: Character, Communication,

Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity and Citizenship. As they get defined to fit our school’s culture and vision, they will be used as a reference in student assessment and activity planning, thus promoting deep and holistic learning.

The pandemic put everybody to the test. Teachers had to redefine teaching and learning and find ways to leverage technology as never before. This was particularly hard in Kindergarten, given the enormous limitations in attention spans and autonomy of our youngest students, and required unprecedented collaboration from families from their homes. One of the most salient examples of this was the "collegiate evaluation", a new student assessment approach that combined the evidence teachers gathered through digital portfolios with the observations from parents to jointly achieve an integral view of student progress. Kindergarten staff also transformed its usual workshops into "innovation spaces" offering yoga, cooking, theatre, art and science; expanded its SEIL (Spiritual, Emotional Intelligence & Leadership) reach with activities such as "Emotions Explorers"; and managed to conduct music and physical education activities through Zoom.

Primary combined synchronous lessons by Zoom with asynchronous tasks and activities, focusing on academics with a prioritisation of core curriculum content and on socio-emotional wellbeing through SEIL and beyond, while also conducting artistic and physical education activities to promote the holistic development of our students. Directors and teachers displayed unparalleled commitment, creativity and collegiality whilst analysing input from class observations as well as feedback from parents to continually tailor strategies to best suit the needs of each year group. Dedicated focus was given to maintain levels of engagement and motivation throughout the long lockdown, especially with the youngest learners whose degree of autonomy is lower and the need of parental support stronger. In spite of the huge challenges in dealing with virtual learning, the Primary team made significant progress on the competency framework, defining rubrics and using them as a reference in student assessment.

Secondary also worked extensively on becoming a competency-based school, through the continuation of the Sea of Learning and other initiatives to involve students in interdisciplinary projects where our

competencies were brought to life. Additionally, activities started following the new structure in Secondary, both Intermediate and Senior School, enabling access to ampler, more tailored and flexible spaces for academics and the arts. The GROWth initiative, aimed at supporting students to find their sense of purpose, also gained traction; and mentoring from alumni and parents continued to flourish. Regarding the IB, while written exams were cancelled due to the pandemic, students were evaluated through internal assessment and coursework and 69% obtained their diploma, with an average of 30 points, in line with the historic average.

In the Arts, imagination and out-of-the-box thinking were indeed required for staff and students to find ways to express themselves virtually. Kindergarten brilliantly shared work through the Arts Exhibition, a virtual museumlike tour where students could present their works. Through YouTube Live, Primary carried out its concert as a PBL (ProjectBased Learning) proposal, allowing students to participate as performers, backstage, in design or in advertising; and Intermediate students created Trapped!, a musical film fully rehearsed on Zoom and shot with Chroma... a masterpiece! The Alumni, Communications and Arts teams joined forces at year end to organise "One Night By The River", featuring a selection of the work done by IB film students, followed by protocol-following performances

on a stage at Malloy’s, right by the water and well attended by families... from their cars!

Most teams had to rethink how to drive their programmes and initiatives, and to work with others to jointly tackle common goals: Physical Education, to keep students motivated and engaged across the screen; SEIL, to support students with increasing socio-emotional issues; Innovation & Technology, to boost teachers’ use of devices and software; Admissions, to reach new families and explain our educational proposal virtually; Communications, to use new channels and adapt message format; Human Resources, to support staff in a pandemic, drive professional development, and expand 360 feedback virtually; and Operations, to maintain and prepare the premises to COVID protocols. I am very happy to report that those challenges were overcome through teamwork and collaboration, bringing us closer.

Another noteworthy effort was our parental survey, an initiative from the Communications and Headmaster’s Office teams to establish a new feedback channel with the families. It was also an effective channel to share the school’s quest for finding the right equilibriums during the pandemic (Strike the balance we must!), requiring careful attention to the integration of Academic aspects with Physical, Socioemotional, and Artistic aspects. Results throughout the year were very positive, and input from parents helped us adjust and continually improve during these very uncertain times.

Given the dramatic pandemic context and its sanitary and economic impact on society, the

Comunidad Ampliada San Andres (CASA)

entities came together in a coordinated response through RedSA’s Covid-19 Campaign. Community members joined forces through fundraising and volunteering, in coordination with other neighbour organisations, resulting in extensive support throughout the year to those in need in San Fernando and Vicente López: face masks and protective shields for essential workers; mattresses for hospitals; food and supplies for over 450 families in need; tutoring support for students; and psychological support for adults.

Our Founders’ Day celebrations this 182nd year were particularly unique, with a week-long calendar of events initiated with the Church service and speeches by authorities, including the Former People Award recognition, at an otherwise empty Campus and broadcasted live to a global SASS audience. A beautiful version of Skye Boat Song, by students and recorded under Zoom format, was shared. The Alumni and the Arts teams worked with former pupil and artist/director Tommy Mayer Wolf ’00 to put together a memorable gift for the community: 47 alumni singing a virtual version of the 1989 song You’re the Voice, an

inspiring example of how St. Andrew’s can come together against all odds. During the days that followed, CASA entities took turns at sharing presentations and workshops on topics relevant to their mission and with one underlying thread: our commitment to improve our society through education. San Andrés LIVE was also born and launched: initially envisioned by the Campaign team of members of RedSA, Alumni, Arts and HM Office, as a creative way to raise funds while showcasing innovations across CASA during the pandemic, it soon expanded its mission and proved to be a valuable platform to share a wide variety of inspiring experiences in our school and community life with a virtual audience formed by current students and parents, staff, and alumni from Argentina and the world.

Lifelong Learning San Andres continued growing this year in spite of the pandemic. Eleven presentations were made across four programmatic areas: Education & General Knowledge; Workplace & Entrepreneurship; Personal Growth; and Community & Parenting. Topics ranged from "Learning, community and pandemic" to "Shooting down myths about the artist’s career" and "Generating value through the Collaborative Economy".

CIAESA, our research center on education with UdeSA, had a most fruitful year. Farreaching, high-impact and scalable projects were carried out during 2020, two of them on fundamental questions on teaching and learning, and the other two on educational policy and its effectiveness at the state and provincial levels.

Twenty-twenty was indeed a most challenging and fascinating year and, as such, enabled us to grow tremendously as a learning community. We can proudly say that we crossed innovation and technology barriers, came together as a multidisciplinary team, and in many ways reinvented teaching and learning. I would like to extend special thanks to directors and staff for their resilience and openness to learn and adapt, and for sustaining their tireless efforts and commitment; to parents for their patience and support through very challenging times for all; to the Board and Trustees for the confidence in our leadership; and to our dear students, who turned pandemic constraints into wonderful possibilities, inspiring us all.

Sebastián Rubens y Rojo

Headmaster

2051

students

teachers - students ratio 1:5,5

373

teaching staff

64

non-teaching staff