January 10th 2021
What an extraordinary start to the Spring term. The Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday evening meant that we all had to pivot fast and I have been so impressed by the reaction of the entire Moulsford community. Thank you to parents for responding so swiftly on Tuesday in collecting books, iPads etc so that the boys were ready for action on Wednesday morning.
As a school we learnt an enormous amount from last Summer term, and the feedback we received at the time from parents and boys of their experiences was invaluable, much of it year group specific. We have since had five months to reflect and plan ahead, and there has been much work going on behind the scenes in anticipation of another virtual scenario. While we would all much rather be in school, everyone can approach this period of Virtual Moulsford with confidence, and this has been borne out by the smooth transition to the virtual platform by all parties. Thank you for the part you have played in this.
Some adjustments to the virtual programme may be obvious to boys and parents, and others less so. For example, there has been significant work undertaken on the Google Classroom interface to allow for a smoother user experience. Much of the Summer term teaching was ‘live’ and we’ve looked to enhance this further in certain areas of the school, while maintaining a blend of live and pre-recorded lessons where we believe this approach works well.
Prep school games have been relaunched by the sports staff with live lessons to encourage active engagement, with very positive results to date. Likewise my assemblies are now streamed live direct to the boys on their devices. The academic timetables have been completely rewritten from the standard timetables to reflect the virtual programme; we have thought carefully about the break times, and have introduced a mindfulness session for Years 3 - 8 in the afternoons. As with any curriculum, the virtual programme will continue to evolve and we will ask for your formal feedback in roughly a couple of weeks time.
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