“THE teachers and staff are doing an incredible job and we are super lucky as parents,” says one year 6 parent at Hurst’s Dolphin School.
Like every educational establishment they have been on a rollercoaster ride in recent weeks as the pandemic meant that lessons had to switch online at short notice, but the school was ready.
Term had been meant to start from Monday, January 4, and some schools did indeed have a day in the classroom before Boris Johnson called for a new lockdown. Aside from children of critical workers, classrooms once again emptied and teaching went virtual.
Adam Hurst, the headteacher of Dolphin, says he is proud with how his team have responded.
“Before Christmas we had a staff meeting where I told them that I think you need to anticipate delivering some form of education online,” he says. “On Sunday, January 3, we were told that schools are open and are the best place for children.
“We had a staff meeting on the Monday, and term wasn’t due to start until the Wednesday. We were putting preparations in place for the school to open, only to be told that evening we had to move online, so all of the Tuesday was spent preparing and getting ourselves ready to basically deliver an online education for all our students.
“I’m pleased to say that the staff we at Dolphin always rise to the challenge and they have put together a fantastic set of provisions for all year groups, delivered seamlessly from the Wednesday.”
The school has managed to arrange a pretty normal timetable, just delivered virtually. And this is no mean feat as the school takes a different approach to learning to other schools. This includes an emphasis on getting out of the classroom as much as possible, as well as encouraging peer discussions to facilitate learning.
“We’re very much an outdoors and active learning by doing school,” Mr Hurst says. “So learning over a screen couldn’t be more sort of anathema to what we usually do. Fortunately, the relationship and rapport the teachers have with children does transpose better than one would think, so online lessons are still creative.
“Children are put into a group and have mini-chat rooms within a lesson to discuss ideas and collaborate together. We’ve tried to maintain the Dolphin ethos of frequent communication, dialogues and communication between teacher and children, and between children.”
Mr Hurst feels that this is essential to help children not just with their learning but to boost their mental health as well.
Parents, he said, have been very supportive of this. “We seem to have their trust,” he says.
“I feel lucky and privileged to have the parents I have because it makes my job easier.”
The school has seen more children of critical workers attend daily than the first lockdown period, and Mr Hurst says that they are able to maintain social distancing within their various bubbles.
It’s such a strange time, but Mr Hurst said that his team are coping well.
“They’ve been fantastic,” he explained. “The lesson plans they’ve put together are excellent and they’re providing an outstanding education for our children first and foremost, going over and above and offering their time outside of their normal lesson time to catch up with children, maintaining an overview of their general wellbeing.
“We’re having several staff meetings a week and we’ve a host of staff volunteers who come in and supervise at the school. They’ve done so willingly and with a positive mindset to ensure that the school is open (to children of critical workers) and getting the support and education they deserve.”
And this approach is appreciated by parents. One, who wanted to remain anonymous, praised the school, saying it was great in the first lockdown, carrying on in this vein.
“During the current lockdown, the teachers are even more adept at using Teams,” they said. “It’s as close to the classroom experience as you can get, even with small group work within online lessons and form time twice daily with their form tutor.
“The staff truly care about your child’s wellbeing and mental health, putting in place small group mentoring sessions – basically a place to play games and talk about anything they wish to, engaging lessons in drama and music, to ensure the children have fun as a class, where the children are listened to and asked how they are finding things.”
Fellow parent Lisa Williams was equally grateful. She has a child in the nursery and another in Year 3. She says that her eldest had coped with the first lockdown, but had been finding this one harder.
“I think he was missing his friends more than anything,” she explained. “The school has been fabulous. I’m really pleased that nursery children have been able to go in. My youngest went last week and had the best time, they’re coping as well as can be expected.
“With online learning, children have the opportunity to touch base as if they’re face-to-face, and that gives them time to be, well, normal children.
“It gives them a break from that full on stare at the screen experience, and to navigate Teams.
“Everything that the school is trying to do is great.”
She adds that the school has been setting challenges including a fitness challenge where they have to log the distances they can walk each week, giving them a bit of a competition as well as keeping them active, one way to get them off the screen and outside.
“In a lot of lessons, they’re trying to think, well, how can we get the children outside as well instead of being stuck inside staring at a screen,” Ms Williams adds.
“I think they’ve got the balance right, my son is engaged, is learning and I can see him smiling and having an enjoyable time as well.”
