Four weeks into remote learning, and there is a risk that a slight sense of fatigue starts creeping into pupils, teachers and parents. No matter how interactive and thoughtful lessons are, or how broad the co-curricular programme is, there is a sense of novelty, excitement and fun involved with ‘normal’ schooling that it is difficult to recreate on Zoom calls.

For this reason, over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on how we can inject a feeling of magic in the remote education of the boys. Children are magical thinkers and an appreciation of the wondrous is what can make learning such a joyful and fulfilling experience. Next week, during Wellbeing Week, we will take that quite literally and will host an actual magician, who, even  through Zoom, manages to astound.

Click here and scroll down to watch some of the videos.

After half term, we will be hosting conversations with an arctic explorer and documentary maker about polar bears, with a professional rugby player about leadership and with a palaeontologist about recently discovered dinosaurs.

That sense of wonder can be created in small ways. Last week, Mrs Pullen hosted a get together in the evening; boys had to build a den, in their homes, with sheets and blankets and then met on Zoom with the others in their class, armed with torches, snacks and funny stories to tell. One of our  Year Four boys wrote: ‘Some of us even slept in them for the night! This was the best fun I have had in a long time!’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A huge ‘well done’ to the teachers, who, even in these times, are able to instil magic, wonder and joy into learning.

Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Mr Matteo Rossetti