Extended schooling from home

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [01:41]I think a good departure point for this would be to just remind people that when we hear directives from the president in one of his addresses, Or from our Education Minister when she speaks, they are talking to the vast majority of public schools out there. They are generally speaking to the hundreds of thousands of, of public school learners. They are not necessarily speaking to the far smaller number of independent schools and their learners. So we always have to wait for the information that they discuss in these meetings to be gazetted, first of all, and then we also, after the information has been gazetted, we wait for ISASA to interpret that information specifically for private schools in regards to how that applies to us. There's often ambiguity in these directives because of various issues with wording, like we saw in January and we are seeing this time around again. According to the directives we've received, the campus needed to be closed for contact classes from the 30th of June. We were schooling from home already, so that's great. That doesn't necessarily change anything from us. What it does change is that staff are allowed to be on campus until the end of business today, the 2nd of July. After that, we have to close the campus completely, so any teachers needing anything from the campus, today is D-Day for that. Then going forward is where a little bit of ambiguity comes into play, because the directives say, first of all, that independent schools must close for contact classes for a period of two weeks from Wednesday, the 30th of June. And then the very next point says that the reopening of schools for learners and school staff must occur from Monday the 19th of July, which is actually two and a half weeks. And this is why sometimes we see independent schools making decisions that are slightly different to each other, or you might be in an instance where a decision that Edu Inc has made with regards to when children return to school might be different to that of a sibling's independent school if they're at one of the other local private schools.

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [03:51]So what does it mean for Edu Inc specifically? As I've said, the campus is closed. From the close of business today, the campus will not be available to anyone. Parents will not be able to pop onto campus to fetch a textbook. That option will not be available to you. We will be opening the campus for teachers on the 14th of July. So Wednesday, the 14th of July, the staff, all staff will be back on the campus. However, the learners will only be returning to the campus on the 19th. The reason we've decided that it's the 19th for the learners, despite the fact that this does have an implication for some of the grades on exam timetables, for example, is that ISASA has, has sent out a plea to the independent schools to please abide by what the government has asked us to do. So for the sake of solidarity, that is exactly what we are going to do. So to remind you, staff will be back on campus from Wednesday the 14th, but the learners will only be returning on Monday the 19th. So what does that mean for the learners? There is an impact on this for the grade 10 and 11 exams. That exam timetable is going to have to be tweaked a little, and we will give that new updated timetable to you as soon as we have finalized it. Luckily, it does not affect the grade 4 to 9 exam timetable. There will be no changes there. You'll just come back to school on the 19th. Grade 12s, this affects you as well. We were due to start your block teaching on Wednesday, the 14th of July, so that will also be pushed back, and your block teaching on campus will start on the 19th of July. Monday, the 19th of July, metric block teaching begins.

Unidentified speaker, intro voice or played clip · [05:57]This is not our first time at the rodeo, but I'm certain some bad behaviors come back in or new habits, appear. What are the reminders you have for everybody on the three key behaviors?

Gershom Aitchison, host · [06:07]I must applaud the students of Edu Inc and the teachers and the faculty. I've always boasted that with one WhatsApp call, we can go from schooling face-to-face on campus to schooling face-to-face from home, and you guys have definitely demonstrated that you can do this very, very well. I'd like to say that everybody is really playing ball. Everybody's getting to class on time, everybody's doing the work that's assigned to them, everyone's trying to stay positive, everyone's engaging in the classes, everyone's wearing their school uniforms. But as always, in a society and in a group of people, there are one or two people that create frustration because they can't find the meeting link, or they haven't switched their computer on in enough time to check that it's updated. And I'm appealing to the one or two students that are not getting organized, that if you need help to get organized, please reach out to your classmates or to your teachers to assist you. Let's work on those organizational skills so that it's a pleasant and positive learning experience for everybody online. Some of the other things that the teachers are experiencing and some of the students are experiencing are when their peers and classmates are late for class, when they have other tabs open and they are watching videos or engaging in chats, or they're listening to music, and this is very disruptive to the learning process. They are not paying attention, engaging in the class, when the teacher asks them questions, they don't know how to answer it, and I'm imploring you all to be present in the class, to make sure that you are paying attention and contributing in a meaningful way, and that you're getting the work done. We know how to do this. We've all done it before, so let's keep doing it. We do it very, very well. Guys, well done. It's fantastic, the effort that you're doing, and we're having a great opportunity to entrench and reinforce the online skills that we are going to use in the world moving forward. So thank you very much for that.

Unidentified speaker, intro voice or played clip · [07:57]In addition to schooling from home, there's still a whole lot of other things that are going on off campus. What are this term's projects?

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [08:04]Well, we're still continuing with the two big projects that we were running, one of which is Mandela Day. Even though we are not going to be on campus during Mandela Day now, we will continue with that food drive. just a reminder that that food drive is dry goods. if you could just be collecting those at home, we'll get all of those together on Monday the nineteenth of July, and we'll arrange for a handover probably in the assembly following that Monday, the first assembly after that Monday. It's still an important project. Everybody's very accommodating about the fact that COVID is with us, so we can't necessarily do things on the days of the event itself. The second project that continues is the plastic bottle collection. Again, please keep collecting your plastic bottles, and we'll get them from you on Monday the nineteenth of July.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [08:53]I'd also like to emphasize that the Mandela Day project of Collecting dry food goods or preserved food goods for, the charity is being driven by Christian and Oliver, the two youngest members of our school, and it's a great opportunity for them to learn how to give back to the community and drive a project of this scale. So please support them. They are very passionate about doing this project, and I think it's teaching them some great skills in engaging in their community. The great news is that some of the clubs are still continuing. I know Mrs. Aitchison is still doing her TED-Ed club and preparing the last couple of students for their TED videos. The Dungeons and Dragons club is still going ahead, as we can do that online, and I know that the teachers are communicating with their clubs so that they can see if there's a way for them to actually just connect outside of school and, keep that connection going and that vibe going that the clubs have created.

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [09:44]To wrap up, I think it's important to just acknowledge that times are a little tough at the moment. There's no doubt about that. This third wave has hit Gauteng particularly hard, and we're all feeling it. The whole community is feeling it. I don't think any one of us is unscathed by what's going on around us at this point in time. Listening to some of the students that I've been teaching, you know, there's always an incredible amount of wisdom that comes from the children. They've been telling me how important it is that we pick something every day to do that is different from the norm, that takes us out of the classroom, that gets us out of our seats behind our desk, whether it's baking or playing a musical instrument, or even just getting in the garden to play something out there. And those are wise words indeed, because we all need to be doing that. It's important that we make the right choices. We, we, we remember what we can control and what we can't control, and we focus on those things in an effort to deliberately stay positive. We know this is tough. We know you want to be back at school and see your friends. We want to see you too. But let's stay safe. That is the priority right now. Two weeks is going to fly by. Let's do it. Let's do it well. Let's get the job done. And so that when you are back on campus, you're ready for those exams that are coming up.