Educational continuity during coronavirus

At Oakham School, there was a ‘clarity of what was important’

In the blink of an eye, earlier this year, Coronavirus created a new era in education. Pupils found themselves at home without their peers. Schools found themselves changing their approach; adapting to use technology to deliver lessons. The change continued when schools returned in September – where safety and social distancing led to adapted timetables and alterations to school sites and buildings.

Oakham School in Rutland has successfully adapted to each phase of the coronavirus challenge. Having returned in September, there are rigorous measures in place to keep all of its pupils – of which 500 board and 500 are day students – as safe as possible. “The extensive plans and protocols that we have established are even more wide-ranging than the Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA) COVID-Safe Charter that we, like other boarding schools across the country, have signed,” says Mrs Sarah Gomm, Deputy Head Pastoral.

As well as the variety of practical measures to keep the Oakham community safe, including 170 sanitising stations and special quarantine provision and care for overseas boarders, the School has been carefully organising its ‘new normal’ curriculum.

“We have a variety of timetables to ensure the stability of our educational provision and to help pupils to feel confident and ready to engage in their academic studies,” adds Mrs Gomm.

“We want the School to feel as normal as possible, but recognise that there will be a variety of different scenarios that we could face. We have therefore have three different timetables to ensure we can move and adapt should we need. There is our ‘normal’ timetable which sees all pupils moving freely about School, an enhanced social distancing timetable that reduces movement across campus, and a distance learning timetable in the event of a local lockdown and schools are instructed to close.”

The distance learning timetable was successfully established back in March, and includes all lessons being delivered online, with pupils benefiting from a full daily timetable of two-way virtual teaching. “At times of crisis, such as these, there is clarity of what’s important,” says Dr Leo Dudin, Deputy Head Academic.” For us, it is that human relationships are at the heart of education; that face-to-face interactions and relationships matter and bring learning to life.” The School uses Microsoft Teams as this easily enables relationships and interactions to be at the heart of Oakham’s approach to distance learning and social distancing. It allows effective video discussions between a whole class of pupils, for teachers to share their screens as they live-stream lessons and to incorporate their pre-recorded content. Oakham has always used the phrase ‘learning isn’t limited to the classroom’. Never has it been truer though, with their distance learning approach enabling pupils to continue to enjoy their specialist music lessons as well as even taking science lessons - conducting investigations and experiments in their ‘home laboratories’!

Oakham has always been known for its continuous focus on the happiness and well-being of its pupils. Its pro-active pastoral care underpins life both in and beyond the classroom – enabling children to flourish at school and long into the future. The School’s strong pastoral systems are fully embedded into the remote education timetable. During lockdown pupils met (virtually) every day with their House or their tutors and House spirit thrived through exciting activities, challenges and competitions. These were all designed to keep pupils connected and happy – and would continue again, should remote education come back into effect. Oakham’s belief that school days are precious and should be enjoyable, memorable, and transformative will always be upheld, even if the community is apart or has to be socially distanced. Chapel remains at the heart of Oakham’s daily life, albeit virtually, with pupils enjoying everything from ‘thought for the day’ messages to singing together whilst in lockdown, and virtual services continuing during social distancing.

Oakham is also renowned for having an innovative approach to education – having offered the IB Diploma and BTECs alongside A-levels for many years, as well as more recently developing the IB MYP for its youngest pupils. This same spirit of educational innovation saw the launch of a new Academic Cornerstone Course during lockdown for pupils whose examinations had been cancelled. This series of courses covered academic skills, life skills, and employability skills. Each strand was designed by a team of teachers selected from across several departments, to ensure the course was original and impactful, as well as drawing on the School’s wide range of teaching expertise, experience and enthusiasm. At its heart, the course taught a variety of skills that are important to pupils’ futures – showcasing, even during unprecedented times, how an Oakham education focuses on preparing pupils for life after school, equipping them to be intellectually ambitious thinkers, with the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to thrive and to make a difference in the world.

Prospective parents are encouraged to take either a ‘Virtual Visit’ to Oakham or to book an individual visit to see Oakham’s wonderfully unique school community in action for themselves.

This article first appeared in Which School? 2021, which is available now in print and online. You can read the full version here...