From taking part in virtual debating and performing in her own music concert to delivering lines for a remote drama speech and even editing a pupil-led online magazine project, it is fair to say Fifth Form pupil Savannah got involved in just about everything Bradfield had to offer during a term of Remote Education. Here, Savannah (M) reflects on the successes and challenges of learning remotely.

ONLINE LEARNING IS A TIME IN MY LIFE THAT I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER, NOT FOR WHAT I WASN’T ABLE TO DO, BUT FOR EVERYTHING THAT I DID DO.

THE EXPERIENCE

It has definitely been a different kind of ‘classroom’ experience to what I’ve been used to but I think the College has done an amazing job at making the online learning as close to a classroom environment as possible. There have been countless opportunities available for pupils to get involved in and with all the free time that lockdown has given us, it has been the perfect time to try new things that I would not usually try.

THE LESSONS

In terms of the academic side, the timetable worked a little differently.

Whereas at school we would have 40-minute lessons and a variety of subjects throughout the day, remotely we had a three-hour morning session and a three-hour afternoon session.

Every lesson was different but most commonly the lesson is split into different sections of individual research or work, going away to watch videos or read articles, group discussions through the different channels within the team and whole class discussions on the main call.

Participating in class and asking questions is one thing I found to be more challenging in the online environment because when a question was asked by the teacher to the class, everyone wants to speak at once and so it becomes hard to know when to speak. But generally, I found I was still able to get involved and add something to the discussions taking place.

For my A Levels I am taking English Literature, Drama and Art. In Art, all of the work was done via practical tasks. We were given a certain amount of time to carry out each task before presenting what we had done when returning to the lesson.

In English, there were a lot of group discussions before presenting to the rest of the class what we had researched and discussed as well as a lot of independent research.

Drama ended up being similar to what we were doing in the classroom before. We read a play and discussed the history of Ancient Greece for context.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Some of the technology we were using made it easy to transition to remote learning. The use of OneNote I found to be hugely successful. It made accessing work and knowing the structure of lessons easy to navigate.

Also, still having House Call and weekly Year group catchups within House over Teams was crucial in keeping in contact with everyone and keeping a sense of normality.

CO-CURRICULAR

I got involved in Voices, a pupil-led magazine, and became Chief Editor of the whole project. We had a weekly meeting over Teams with everyone involved to discuss ideas for articles and set deadlines. First drafts were uploaded to the relevant OneNote page which I then went through and edited. Once final drafts were written they were sent to Rosie who put them into the template of the magazine. We then had a final check together and once we are happy it was sent back round to everyone involved for final sign off.

 

Living Room Live was perhaps my biggest highlight of the term. It was so nice to get the same buzz I would usually get from a live a performance from doing a concert to an audience at home. It was challenging recording at home as I didn’t have the same adrenaline I would usually get before a performance and I had no audience atmosphere to feed off. However, I love how I am able to watch that performance over and over and have it smoothly edited and put together for the rest of my life rather than the one-off performance from a typical live concert.

Living Room Live was perhaps my biggest highlight of the term. It was so nice to get the same buzz I would usually get from a live a performance from doing a concert to an audience at home.

Jazz on a Summer’s Evening is always such an enjoyable experience to be a part of and even though this year the circumstances made it a very different one, it was still wonderful to be a part of. It was put together so well and when watching it I really felt like I was watching an actual concert. I joined in with some of the live dance lessons which were hugely enjoyable and also something different for me to get involved with during my day.

I took part in all of the speeches that Drama produced. It was a little different to how the audience viewed them though. Everyone who was involved with the speech recorded themselves performing the whole speech from home, we then uploaded the speeches and they were edited together to form one video. It was so nice to have something that brought us all together in the same way if we were doing a play at school.

WELLBEING AND PASTORAL CARE

Tutorials have actually not been much different from how they were when we were at school. I had a weekly time slot to catch up with my Tutor, but we kept in contact throughout the week anyway.

Although remote learning has been a challenge and definitely different from what I’m used to, I have absolutely loved it. Just like when we are physically at school, I found you get out what you put in. It is a time in my life that I will always remember, not for what I wasn’t able to do, but for everything that I did do.