Guided home learning
During the national lockdowns school stayed open for daughters of key workers and each year group also returned on a phased basis in 2020 in line with government guidelines.
At the start of the lockdowns we instantly implemented a guided home learning programme online through our existing sophisticated online learning platform Firefly (which all girls and parents are already familiar with as we use it day to day in the normal school timetable). The older girls use their home-school iPads and Chromebooks as devices.
Our comprehensive online guided home learning programme not only covered all the academic subjects but also IT, music, sport, drama, art and encouraging girls to connect with nature and explore outdoor learning. Girls enjoyed online assemblies every week, story book readings and met up with their teachers online too. Despite not being able to put on whole school events live, we nevertheless held a’ Sports Day’, World Book Day’ and a ‘Science Day’ involving all the girls in different activities, interactive lessons and presentations online.
‘Big Questions’
Part of the first lockdown programme was a weekly ‘Big Question’ – an independent topic theme for girls to research, explore and develop a piece of work. Girls could interpret the theme in any way they choose. Their work was stunning with movies, posters, timelines, artwork with detailed research, personal reflections and illustrations which the girls have uploaded online for teachers to see.
Our ‘Big questions’ included:
- “Why does music bring so much happiness to the world?”
- “Why was the decade of the 1920s so exciting?”
- “Does love really make the world go round?”
- “Have you ever thought how we learnt what is best to do when someone is ill or injured?”
- “Exploring Our Wonderful World!”
- ” Are animals reclaiming the world?”
- “Who was Charles Dickens”
Here’s some highlights of the wonderful work the girls created and uploaded online for teachers and everyone to see.
