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Victoria Smith, Head of Primary School, recommends small group sizes, live lessons, and rotating groups around planned activities, directed by teachers and teaching assistants, as well as lessons built around children’s interests, with regular wellbeing lessons throughout the week. Several short burst activities appropriate to attention spans at each developmental stage, as well as lots of movement and physical activity, are also included.

“Online and offline activities are balanced, with regular breaks in screen time. The offline activities are designed for children to be able to complete with minimal adult support. A steady program of academic and creative House competitions is also present, with all tasks and assignments centralized in one location (Google Classroom/Suite),” says the Head of Primary School at BSB.

At BSB, children are grouped into four Houses: Arges, Olt, Mures and Danube, and in any competition, from academic to sport challenges, children gain points for their House.

Scott Allsop, Head of Faculty and Teacher of Humanities at BSB, was more advanced in his preparations for the online environment than most teachers globally: with over 700 episodes of his daily ‘On this Day’ History Pod, which he started in 2015.

“A lot of work has been done to listen to and respond to feedback from parents, teachers, students, and discovering best practice from learning hubs and networks. This has enabled teachers to feel bold enough to try new techniques to engage and enthuse students,” added Jason Porter, Head of Secondary School at BSB.

Although the start to the online learning day can be more gradual rather than the usual sudden whirlwind, followed by a period of calm as children are handed over to their teachers at school, there is still the challenge of blending household chores with getting the children set up and ready on their devices.

Working parents also need to be sure that the online work is engaging enough at key points in the day to ensure that children who may not be natural ‘self-starters’ can be drawn into the lesson content and become ‘self-finishers’ as well.

Then, there is the balance between children asking the teacher if they don’t understand something in the lesson and the temptation to turn and ask Mummy or Daddy, who may themselves be working online from home. “The audience is suddenly wider, siblings or parents appear in the background during an online lesson either listening in or engaged in their own work,” Jason Porter went on.

Teachers have met and counselled parents individually to offer support during this time. To provide further support, the school also created a section on its website dedicated to practical advice for dealing with the pandemic and the isolation.

When asked what they appreciated about the Academic Online Learning Programme at BSB, parents said they have enjoyed the live meets with teachers and being able to spend even more time with the teachers. They felt the structure was a good alternative for this period, and provided a daily learning schedule, with enough time to prepare for the next lesson and stay mobile and active throughout the day. They saw their children progressing and sharing activities, and appreciated the high level of interaction. “It was a good alternative for the current situation,” said one of the surveyed parents.

BSB has created a closed Facebook group for all its staff, more than 200 people, to offer the same team feeling as if they were meeting physically in school.

For final year students, who receive their qualifications in line with the UK methods, in the final month, lessons will focus on pre-university courses aimed at bridging the gap between school and university, academically but also for other preparatory skills from wellbeing to career guidance.

For enrolments in the next school year, BSB is organizing virtual meetings for those who could not come and visit the campus and we are planning a Virtual Open Day event, with a virtual tour of the campus, and dedicated sessions for EYFS, Primary and Secondary School. “Of the many lessons that have been learned, perhaps the one most clear in my head is that as teachers - we miss our students. We miss the daily interactions and friendships. We miss the normal routine. We appreciate the enormous value of the broad range of activities that we organise together with our students. This is of course the case in reverse for the children. Online learning can never replicate the values of school attendance, however, I am proud of what has been achieved thus far in the BSB online learning programme. The learning curve for us and the students has been significant and will not stop; but we have continued’, concluded Philip Walters, the BSB Headmaster.

This is native content supported by the British School of Bucharest.