At Haut-Lac, we reacted to the Covid-19 crisis not in the scrambling manner many were forced to adopt, but calmly and with confidence.
How come, you wonder?
With forewarning from the authorities and a strong digital teaching programme already in place, our teachers were prepped to embrace distance learning before any official announcements were made. Our teachers were able to build upon our well-established pedagogy and transfer it to lesson plans for virtual classes.
What have we been doing since?
Teaching, of course!
Unlike many other schools, we aren’t only maintaining our teaching in core subjects. School goes on as it would on site, although we draw the line at wearing uniform. We must leave some small pleasures for studying at home, and who could deny a student the chance to wear their pyjama bottoms?
Maintaining Routines
However, the school day begins much the same as it always has – with homeroom! Students check into their form rooms with their tutors and classmates before embarking on the school day, giving them a chance to catch up with friends and relay any comments or remarks to their form tutors. This is a social way to kick start the daily routine and also enables teachers to carry out their pastoral duty, watching out for their students’ well-being.
During the day, one might expect students to receive lessons in the usual subjects: languages, mathematics, science and humanities. Haut-Lac students, on the other hand, are fortunate to receive continuous teaching in their other subjects too, like art, music and PE. Some are even able to carry on their extra-curricular clubs!
A Caring Pedagogy
These opportunities are a clear sign of Haut-Lac teachers’ devotion to their vocation and their charges. Although the wonder of technology has made this experience far more accessible for schools the world over, it is the teaching staff at Haut-Lac that are making the distance learning journey for our pupils as successful as it is. They are dedicated to their students’ development, and it is this commitment that enables our students to really enjoy learning in such unusual circumstances and to get as much out of it as they would in situ.
Sports lessons via video, music classes through Zoom, making croissants following a recipe shared by a teacher online... Technology helps to make such things possible, but it is our teachers who put in the creativity to keep coming up with new ideas and maintain their students’ excitement and interest in learning.
Community Means Everything
When this crisis finally comes to an end, Haut-Lac students will be lucky as they will be going back to a school that has shown how much it truly values their education and well-being. Back to a school whose pedagogical style ensures it will always do its best by its students – even when the worst happens!
The Spring holidays come at a good time to give both our students, staff and parents the chance to recuperate from these few intense weeks of novelty and uncertainty. Everyone has been working tremendously hard and for that they deserve a rest.
Haut-Lac has always professed a strong and buoyant community spirit, and in these times, it has proven itself a hundredfold. We are steadfast and resilient, built on firm foundations, and we will weather this the only way we know how – by going above and beyond for those in our care, until we can all return to the bright and airy halls of our campuses and breathe a sigh of relief as we take in the view.
Katie Harwood
