Principals News – Learning Across the College

 

 

 

The Junior School is using a platform familiar to parents and students, Seesaw.  This platform has versatility and the opportunity to include a wide range of learning styles as well as built-in parent interaction.

Secondary School will predominantly use OneNote, with which our students and many of you are familiar.  A number of faculties and the IB program will branch out into Collaborate and EdStudios to meet particular needs.

All students have the necessary logins and access and if there are problems, then our teachers have a line of support directly to our Tech Team available to them. This support is not directly open to the students; they gain access via their teachers.  The College has endeavoured to make contact with all families to gather information regarding devices at home and Wi-Fi or connectivity in order to provide some paper learning resources which will be posted out to families in the event of a school closure next term.  These resources will not match online learning but will provide links to curriculum and valuable learning opportunities.  The frequency of mail outs will depend on access to the College and the length of time we are online.

Learning online is not a replication of face to face learning; it is a new and different way of engaging.  Whatever we might hope for, students are not going to follow the timetable of school, not least because they might not have access to a device at the ‘regular’ time of the lesson.  When students choose to do their learning and the availability of devices in the household, will be impacted by sleep patterns, household routines, the presence of siblings and parents/carers.  We may find that students develop independence, expand their agency (their voice in their learning) and learn to use tools and strategies that they otherwise might not have learned; that will be a welcome outcome from a difficult period in their lives.