Well, that was the week that was! A week of exploration, discovery, creativity, resilience and so much more...
Well, that was the week that was! A week of exploration, discovery, creativity, resilience and so much more. I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I have been with how pupils have embraced their learning from home and accepted every task and challenge set before them with enthusiasm and enjoyment.
Although a steep learning curve for us all, I am pleased that the many hours of planning and preparation before and during the Easter holidays has ensured a very smooth start to CAPP. Any completely new way of learning will take time to embed and settle down, but in spite of the odd technical issue, we hit the ground running last Monday and the results have been superb. It is important that we are able to evolve and adapt over the coming weeks and thank you for completing the questionnaires sent out on Friday. These will be invaluable for us to gauge the effectiveness of the provision we have put in place although as expected, everyone’s home situations are very different and there is certainly no ‘one size fits all’ solution to suit everyone’s needs. As ever, our priority is to ensure we fully communicate all aspects of the academic and pastoral provision and that children and parents continue to feel part of our special community. I apologise if we have over communicated in any way but there has been a great deal of important information to share. For many, the separation from teachers, friends and the familiar has been the most difficult aspect of the prolonged school closure. We hope that our use of Google Meet (being extended to the Pre Prep this week too), ongoing House competitions, daily Flourish Focuses, weekly news and curriculum letters, Headmaster videos, congregation singing practices, Pre Prep assemblies and everything else has helped you to maintain a strong and purposeful connection with the school.
As I remind pupils every week in assembly; compassion, empathy, appreciation and most importantly, kindness to others should be our endeavour at all times. The staff and I have been overwhelmed by the messages of support, encouragement and gratitude this week and each one has meant a great deal. We are all experiencing extremely challenging times and the kindness shown to us by the school community has been amazing and very motivating. I would like to extend my thanks to the staff for their outstanding work and to all parents for supporting so much fantastic home learning. As I mentioned last week, please let me have any location requests for my daily videos. I am experiencing mixed success and so far have one smashed-beyond-repair iPad and a badly bruised (but not quite broken) finger, but as with my woeful filming skills, I won’t let these things put me off! There is also one week left to get entries in for the whole school House Photography Competition (Human vs Nature) and lots of valuable House points at stake. Look out for this week’s congregational hymn practice and we would love to see videos of you in action.
In amongst the learning and everything else happening at home, please keep safe and well and do get in touch if we can help in any way.
Best wishes Ben Evans