Watchet, Williton and Quantock Advertiser, April 2020

4 APRIL 2020
Dear Readers
Thinking outside the box . . .
March has been an interesting time. As many of you know, I live and work at a school
in Spain which has been on lockdown since Thursday 12 March. Since then a ban has
been in place on all non-essential travel and we are only allowed to visit hospitals,
pharmacies, petrol stations and food shops or to walk a pet, with only one person out
at a time. Everything else is closed and we have to remain inside our property
boundaries. It has been an unusual and difficult time knowing we cannot leave the
property other than for the above, with fines for disobeying of up to 300,000 euros.
Having put in place the essentials required for a school closure of indeterminate
length, our next thoughts turned to technology. The school does have plans to deal
with a closure, eg. possibly caused by bad weather, so with little time to prepare we
somehow managed to move from a physical full school-based curriculum with lessons
held in classrooms, to a full curriculum in students’ homes, still offering the usual
technical support to teachers, parents and students alike. The massive use of
technology was impressive both from a student and teacher point of view and the
changeover from physical to virtual teaching was achieved in just 24 hours. Now
instead of physically welcoming students to school with a high five and a “good
morning” we wave to them through a video chat before starting the day. Lessons are
shared by ClassDojo and Google Classrooms, supported by video conferencing and
emails, various online media and some new approaches. I was worried we might not
be able to manage all of this but with co-operation from parents, staff and students it
has been a near perfect transition.
So how can parents help their children continue studying after the school closures
come into force in the UK? For those parents faced with their children working from
home please do make sure proper digital facilities are in place, don’t delay updating
the computer, and do make sure the upgrade you have been holding off on, is done.
Also ensure you have the usernames and passwords for the software your child uses
and check they work properly. None of us know how long this difficult situation is
going to last and it will help students greatly if they have updated working technology
in place to begin with. Your school will provide as much information as they can, and
it is going to be a challenge for everyone.
Apart from that, stay safe and, as always, drop me a line if you want to ask anything.
That’s Andy at ICT@lyntonadvertiser.com
advertise@watchetadvertiser.com 01598 752788