IT is all systems go at St Francis Bay College (SFC) – albeit remotely.
To ensure that the national Covid-19 lockdown affects learners’ development as little as possible, teachers have spent weeks adapting the academic curriculum to go online from the start of the second school semester.
Teachers, furthermore, equipped and prepared themselves to switch to remote online education, a learning curve for many.
Programmes and applications used include Zoom and WhatsApp, as well as Google Classroom which allows various types of media – such as YouTube videos – to be uploaded and added as links. Learners can access these from home.
“Within a matter of a week, we have gone from knowing little about online platforms for teaching to being quite proficient at using them,” says SFC Principal, Warwick Osmond.
Rather than being a hindrance, learners are having a lot of fun in this new learning environment.
According to Osmond, despite all the challenges, everyone has reacted well to the new way of doing things.
“It has been a positive learning experience, but the social aspect of school can never be replaced,” he says. “The teachers miss being with the children and their colleagues and the children miss the fun and games with their friends. Although it is necessary for the time being, this is not the way school should be.
“We are all really looking forward to getting back to school.”
