In this time of school closure and social distancing, St Peter’s Prep School has turned the coronavirus pandemic into a learning opportunity.
According to Diane Fraser, the marketer for St Peter’s Boys Prep, both the girls’ and boys’ prep school’s have been running the Flexible Learning Programme for several years now with significant results. The Flexible Learning Programme essentially allows learners to pose their own questions about what they would like to learn about a particular topic and also allows learners to present the topic within a range of different themes. This allows for a deeper understanding of concepts and retention levels of concepts is increased.
Fraser said, “The grade 0 to 2 boys and girls received ‘Home Learning Packs’ with carefully crafted content appropriate to the level of each child. The packs cover the work necessary to keep up with the curriculum from each specific grade.”
These packs, distributed electronically, included additional information and links to extend home learning so we continue to stretch and expand their young minds. Each morning, teachers send a morning meeting message by email and a video message to assist the boys and girls to plan their day. Parents and teachers along with the children are using the SeeSaw platform and Google Classroom via Q-Code.
The senior prep children, from grades 3 to 7, are using both the Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom platforms to communicate and receive their work booklets. “The children are encouraged to organise their learning each morning, similar to a school day and then find extra curricula activities to complete in the afternoon e.g. exercise, practice of musical instruments, play and read.”
The physical education department has sent out details of a website to access for a fitness programme, so that the children can continue with their individual physical development.
“The St Peter’s philosophy during this time is that, despite the disruptions to the normal school day, real learning must still take place and the online assignments are not dished out merely to keep the children busy. The teachers are actively teaching as they would on any given normal school day, it’s the new ‘business as usual’ – all systems go! The learning is meaningful and is fully interactive in terms of the children receiving regular feedback, and the teachers are continually assisting those pupils that are struggling and of course providing visible outcomes.
“Now more than ever, the St Peter’s family, its pupils, parents, teachers and leaders need to live the values that we consciously teach the children, that of being collaborative, compassionate, respectful, honourable, responsible and showing resilience.”
Many parents have also taken the opportunity to share how the experience has been, sharing how their children are excited to learn in different ways.
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