What learners will be doing at home has been a concern for many parents as a result of social distancing because of Covid-19.
However, local schools are ready to counter these concerns.
Learning institutions in Bedfordview and Edenvale spoke to the NEWS on measures they have put in place to help learners keep up with the curriculum while at home.
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Every school is different and Reddam House in Bedfordview, Holy Rosary School in Edenvale and Modderfontein Academy in Modderfontein have all come up with tailored solutions.
Director of Reddam House Bedfordview Dalene Quayle said their school is now virtual.
“Since going live on March 18, we received an overwhelmingly positive response from the parents. This change has been introduced to all Reddam and Reddford schools in South Africa.”
Quayle said the collaboration with the Inspired Schools Group around the globe allowed Reddam to immediately respond to the temporary school closure instituted by the president with the creation of a unique virtual school.
“All our learners, from one-year-old to Grade 12, are now engaged in interactive, online learning.”
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Modderfontein Academy
The academy’s director, Tamsynn Lipchick, said there is no need to put measures in place as they have been working online already.
“Our high school learners already started working on the Cambridge online platform in January and they will continue to do their schoolwork online. The primary school learners will be using live teaching on our online platform.
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“Should the pandemic prolong we will swap out the school holidays.”
Holy Rosary School
Head of school Jacinta Lucas said they will only move to teaching and learning online if social distancing is extended beyond April 15.
“We determined that it would be extremely challenging for parents to manage unscheduled extended home care, in parallel to working from home and also managing home-based teaching and learning for close to seven weeks.
“Our school families need to be afforded the time to come to terms with their ‘new’ normal in the least pressurised manner.”
Holy Rosary Primary School principal Margot van Ryneveld said while they are fully committed to each child’s long-term education,they also firmly believe that right now families need to regroup and establish basic daily, home-based routines.
“Children need to feel safe, secure and loved and parents need time to settle into working from home before we add the additional pressure of them also having to become teachers.
“We acknowledged that the entire world is reeling with the overwhelming changes that have become our daily norm. We know everyone is in a state of shock, and so people need time to process all of this, we have never, in our lifetime, had to deal with anything quite like this,” said Lucas.
Ryneveld added that children will learn the true value of family and critical life-long skills while interacting with their family members in a calm, caring home setting.
