Update from the Principal - Apr 9 2020 | April 2020 | British International School of Ljubljana

Dear Parents,

I hope you have had a restful block break and we welcome you back into block 6 of this year at the British International School of Ljubljana. I hope everyone is as safe and well as possible during this difficult time.

Following on from my block break update on Monday 30th March, I shared that we would discuss at school "the strengths that the staff and students have excelled in, equally identify and work on the areas we need to improve. Like all schools, we can now standardise and focus on creating clear guidelines for online learning for the near future".

We appreciated all of the feedback that you have sent through via email, it is very much valued and as a school, we want to make sure that we do the best job that we possibly can do. A 'best fit' for all of our students to help them continue to learn at home. I would like to share some of the areas we have been working on as a school during this first week:

1. A timetable of lessons. This has been shared out at the start of the block and staff have announced further lessons that will be added to this to make sure that the students have more video conference lessons. An updated timetable will be shared with the increase of video conference lessons. It includes expectations, routines and guidelines to follow referencing our online learning policy.

2. More online content extension tasks, forums and wider resources on Canvas. Staff have used the block break and the INSET day to develop further courses and learning materials for students to access and then to receive feedback on.

3. Recorded videos. These have been requested as students can watch the content on demand. We all need to revisit material at some time and this is very useful for the students to learn key concepts and consolidate learning. Many of these are shared on Facebook and uploaded to YouTube.

4. PE and Exercise videos. These have been created by the PE team and posted on Facebook to show students what activities they can do on a daily or weekly basis. New activities are shared out weekly and cover a wide range of ways to enjoy exercising and staying fit and healthy at home.

5. Assessed work. Time is needed for students to complete work, submit them and receive feedback to improve upon what they have done. We have also shared exam guidance for the relevant year groups amidst the changes from CAIE and the exams process this summer.

A challenge we face is to balance the 5 areas above during the day so that we have a provision to cover them all as a school. We evaluate this at the end of each week and aim to fine tune this over the coming block. Your feedback has helped us move forward with these areas and I would like to thank you for the way in which you have communicated and offered ideas through this period of time.

Other areas in which we are monitoring daily and planning ahead are: