5 June 2020
Secondary Report by Head of Secondary, Sharlene Tattersall.
After 6 weeks of remote learning, our VCE and VCAL students finally returned last week. I can't recall a time where staff or students were more excited for a return to school!
The move to remote learning proved a steep learning curve for both staff and students as we moved to an online platform that was new to most of us. There was exponential growth for us all as we learned to navigate this platform which provided us with the opportunity to conference and communicate efficiently with our students.
After the first week of remote learning, I sent out a survey to our students and of the 231 responses, students reported that the elements of remote learning that enjoyed the most were:
· Determining my own time pace and timeframes / flexibility / independence / freedom (63 response)
· Less distractions / easier to focus/ more efficient (29 responses)
Being 'able to sleep in', 'eat when I wanted to' and 'do school work with my pets around' were also mentioned as some of the positives
The biggest challenges students experienced during this time were:
· 'Keeping up with all the work' (35 responses) and 'Not being able to talk to teachers face to face' (21 responses)
Given that our world has changed in many ways - and some of these we are yet to discover - 'normal' may start to look a little different. In the first week of our return, an important element for us as a College is to identify areas of remote learning that supported our students in their learning. This enables discussions with our teachers and students to determine elements that would be beneficial to integrate into our teaching and learning onsite that could enhance the academic and personal growth of our students. We look forward to seeing what the future holds in our classrooms!
