Our parents continue to do an amazing job juggling so many roles and learning many new skills in the need to support their child’s learning at home during the coronavirus pandemic. We thoroughly commend and thank all of them for their efforts. Here is just a small sample of the positive feedback we have received from parents so far:
- “Harri is loving her online Geography lessons – they’re her favourite. The quiz was brilliant this morning, she was really motivated and engaged when she could see her friends on the leader board.”
- “Olivia is getting on really well with the online learning. I am really impressed with the efforts that Brannel staff have gone to. I am grateful that I have been able to borrow a laptop for her. Thankfully the wifi is coping well with three of us using it at the same time.”
- “I just wanted to send a quick e-mail to send our appreciation for everything Brannel has done to support the children this week. As a key worker currently working from home it’s been great to see Ashleigh so focused. I have been able to let her get on with her school day, which has enabled me to continue with my remote visits. Having the teacher session at the beginning of each lesson has really helped to focus her and given her something to be accountable for. She has really enjoyed this week and has been really enthusiastic about her learning in such strange times.”
- “Both Josh and Gracie are really engaged and enjoying the tasks. It has been a positive experience for all of us, with days more structured and learning still willingly continuing after the teacher-led sessions. It is great to have feedback and interaction from the teachers with the meeting calls and chats. Joshua in particular is enjoying managing his time and assignments. He loved doing his music lyrics today, working through PE circuits (very enthusiastically!!) and the IT online courses. We were also particularly impressed with Miss Machin’s English lesson today. It was lovely to see her manage the chat and video interaction so well. Gracie thoroughly enjoyed it and loved doing the poetry assignment.
- “We just wanted to drop you message to thank Brannel staff for putting together a remote learning package that has worked really well. Both children have been engaged with their learning each day this week and have had no problems accessing their lessons. The transition from classroom to home learning has been seamless and stress free for us all. I can only imagine how much work has been involved in getting this in place and we are very grateful to each of you.”
Keeping our school values in mind, as well as the challenging circumstances presented, our teachers are continuing to develop their online lessons and consider how they can best support student learning. They are continuing to look at how they best utilise available technology, learning opportunities presented by these challenging circumstances, how they can best support our students emotionally, how they can continue to differentiate for different types of learners, and how they will they assess their students’ learning in meaningful ways.
We know that remote learning cannot replicate the learning experiences children have when they are in the school building. We have to think differently about the way they will learn through remote learning. It cannot and should not be children simply sitting alone on a computer all day watching their teacher; this is not developmentally appropriate nor logistically feasible. At Brannel, our remote learning goal is for our students not to be solely reliant on computers, but to engage in learning that also incorporates reading, communicating, and authentic learning experiences, whilst also taking time to be physically active.