Thriving Together While Staying Apart

It was with a deep sense of pride and enthusiasm that I spoke about the highlights of being part of such a remarkable school community. This meeting caused me to reflect on the many ways we have discovered how to thrive together even while our campus is closed.

Faced with an unprecedented pandemic that quickly swept across the world, SJK sprang into action during the March Break, quickly migrating all teaching and learning to a remote program. We committed to ensuring that all of our students from JK to Grade 12 would not miss out on one single day of learning. So without missing a beat, our Remote Learning Program was activated on March 30 upon school resuming after the March Break concluded. 

Our approach to remote learning at SJK has been thoughtful and intentional. We asked ourselves how we could ensure that our students and our teachers would continue to thrive from home. Our program is grounded in SJK’s mission that encourages the pursuit of both academic success and ongoing personal growth. At SJK, students are connected to their learning, each other and their community. We know that taking care of our community matters greatly and this needed to be at the very core of our planning. In addition, the program has been informed by research and dialogue with other educators at schools in Asia and Europe, who transitioned their model of schooling to remote learning earlier than we did. 

Considering what we already know are effective best practices in teaching and learning, we identified the key elements that would ensure the design of our remote learning program was sound, strong and sustainable. We focused on high-quality academics, relationships and wellness. We have created a balance between the delivery of meaningful tasks that engage our students to further advance their learning, with opportunities for connectivity through community engagement activities. This helps maintain the positive interpersonal relationships that contribute to our sense of belonging at SJK and help us flourish. As part of this focus to build a program that combines authentic learning and social connectivity, we are using both synchronous (live, in real time) and asynchronous (recorded) learning opportunities throughout the week. We are bringing the best parts of classroom teaching and learning and the overall SJK school experience into a digital space. Our students' holistic experience during remote learning guides our decisions. In a nutshell, our focus has been on continued academic excellence while maintaining the wellbeing of all. 

Fostering the relationships that we care about and that make us strong is even more important during difficult times. We are maintaining a sense of connectedness to the SJK community by carefully considering how we might innovate and continue to offer the spirit days and special events that make us SJK Eagles! To date we have had Blue & Gold Day, Pajama Day, Crazy Hair Day, Earth Day, Jersey Day, Upper School Student Council-led House quizzes, 2020-2021 House Captain speeches and elections, and on Friday we will live stream a whole-school virtual Chapel service in honour of our Grade 12 graduates and with a theme of hope and resilience. Understanding the importance of creating opportunities for students to foster their relationships with their peers and their teachers, we have used Google Hangout Meets to facilitate numerous virtual interactions, including class debates, morning meetings, presentations and even physical workouts. I should add that the faculty and staff have also continued to connect through virtual staff rooms where we have the chance to socialize and engage with each other as we would on campus, checking in with one another and playing some fun interactive games like Name that Tune. These opportunities help us emotionally.

So, how are we finding ways to continue to thrive academically in this unusual circumstance we find our school in? Four weeks into our remote learning experience, it is good to pause for a moment and reflect upon the successes so far - the tireless efforts and incredible creativity of the teachers; the resilience and commitment of the students; the patience and support from our family partnerships. Feedback opportunities have helped us reflect on what needs to change and listening to suggestions from our students, their parents and our teachers has helped us confirm what is working and how we can make necessary adaptations. From the initial stages of planning for remote learning, we knew we would need to be ready to adjust our program based on feedback and experience.

Our teachers have shown extraordinary resilience during this difficult time and are finding innovative ways to ensure their students continue to grow and develop in this new environment. We are so proud of their dedication and positive outlook in such challenging times. Along the way, we have discovered that there are unexpected positive outcomes that have elevated the concept of learning beyond the walls of the school. Remote learning is an opportunity to reimagine learning in new spaces and our teachers have found inventive ways to teach from a distance, quickly learning new technology tools and taking risks when planning creative methods for their students to both engage with content and show what they know from home. Teachers are designing learning tasks that ignite their students’ curiosity and motivate students by ensuring the assignments are relevant, interesting, and connected to the real world. They are offering choices to build in self-directed opportunities for learning. Teachers are continuing to provide their students with ongoing feedback to deepen learning and, never forgetting to keep each student’s wellbeing in mind. This is a significant challenge and one that our teachers are embracing wholeheartedly.

We are very impressed with our students and how they are figuring out how to embrace this unique remote learning world. They have demonstrated their flexibility and capacity to adjust quickly to learning from home. They have further developed their skills of independence and self-management. Students have learned how to appropriately navigate new tools and contribute to class or group virtual meetings and shared platforms. Our student body has uncovered more about themselves through this process, discovering how to maximize their full potential by understanding how they learn best. Students have learned the importance of fostering good relationships with their peers and their teachers. These are valuable lifelong skills. Many of our students are missing the daily social connections that are part of the fibre of school life, and, although not quite the same, they have found positive ways to reach out to each other and be together, from a distance.

The necessity of remote learning, and the circumstances surrounding it, is something nobody wanted or planned for. As a community, we are counting down the days to when we're back together on campus, surrounded by students, teachers, families and our staff. But while we find ourselves in this unique situation, what lessons might we learn that will make us even stronger? How might this collective experience further enhance our ability to succeed together as a school community when we return? The possibilities are endless and we are confident that together we will continue to thrive.