Remote teaching returns as the vaccine is seen as only answer
AS remote teaching begins this week across the nation’s primary and secondary schools, Principals are trying their best to prepare for the uncertain weeks ahead.
Principal of Colaiste Bride, Carnew Linda Dunne said schools must stay closed until the Covid-19 case numbers come down.
‘Remote teaching and learning is the safest thing and if we were allowed to open the school, a lot of young people wouldn’t be in due to family circumstances. The government did try to get sixth years back and a lot of people were very anxious about that.
‘It’s hard to know what’s going to happen, especially when the English system have cancelled exams, but the last thing we want to do is speculate. We have to take it day by day. Things worked out last year for our Leaving Cert students and they’ve got to college, so worrying and being anxious doesn’t help.
‘We can’t provide answers until we have definites and we can’t put a government under pressure. The virus is the issue, and there are a lot of people who have caught it. When we went remote in March, we didn’t know anybody that had it and now everybody knows somebody. We have to work together and support each other as best we can’.
Principal of Gorey Community School, Michael Finn, said that the school received a large
number of phone calls from parents towards the end of last week.
‘Online teaching started yesterday and work is underway, but we’ve been preparing for it being aware it was always a possibility. After the announcement was made on Wednesday, we got our plans in place straight away and I had already started a timetable for three days a week for sixth years. We needed to plan to provide as broad a range so that the timetables were being covered. But an hour after we had this in place, we saw the Minister’s announcement. We just have to work around it but the announcement came as a relief as a lot of parents said
that they didn’t feel sure about sending their child in. They knew that physical teaching and learning was certainly the best options but given the circumstances with the surge in cases, they were very anxious. The decision then was subsequently taken out of their hands, but if the cases haven’t improved and we are closed until the mid term break in February, then really to try and run mocks on top of that presents a challenge in terms of more physical time lost’.
Linda Dunne said that online teaching is different for every student.
‘I don’t think full online teaching is most affective and it’s a difficulty for teachers but it’s tiring for students as well. You miss the face to face contact and as online, you can’t see if the students are getting it.
‘ The whole thing about teaching is building a relationship with students and we’d be very much focused on that, but you have to get on with it the best you can. We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had the iPads seven or eight years and there’s a lot of learning that went on the last time. We’ve everybody on Teams and that’s all a big help. We’re doing a mixed range of classes, and the amount of time spent online is being decided by teachers. We’re going by the timetable but we have to be conscious that students are in their houses. Some have parents working from home, they may not have secure access to the internet, so we are using recordings of the teachers so students can look at the work in their own time and repeat the work if they need to’.
Mr Finn said that his school has continued its blended learning strategy.
‘Since September we had all students including first years inducted into the whole area of teams and digital literacy, to develop the skills we felt that they’d be using anyway. Every student in the school is familiar now so we’re very confident with the plans and protocols we have. The vast majority are happier with the remote teaching, given the significant surge in cases and the cases in Wexford being at an all time high’.
Both educators agreed that vaccinations needed to be a priority.
‘Giving teachers the vaccine might be something to be considered when the numbers have come down and the R number is down, as a measure to get everybody back. It’s a very tricky set up but we are on the front line and students are interacting with us. My message now would be that if students are feeling stressed to contact their school or a relevant group that can help them as we are all in this together,’ said Ms Dunne.
‘Having the vaccine would certainly give a sense of confidence. I’m not comparing us here to staff in hospitals but there is an element here in order for parents, students and teachers to have confidence in the whole physical operation of the schools, it would help,’ said Mr Finn.
Both said that agreement on the mock exams is yet to be reached but both have sought advise and wait for a decision from the Department and State Examinations Commission on any future changes to exams.