A few days ago, a virtual event organised by the British-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, eTea with Reason: education, took place with key stakeholders from education, mental health and social support service organisations as panellists, as well as parents who reflected on their current experience of distance learning. This virtual discussion had approximately 70 participants and was organised by the BSCC in partnership with the British International School of Ljubljana, MEPI – International Award for Young People (DofE) and the British Council.
Our Principal, Mr Paul Walton, was delighted to be one of the guest speakers, representing our school in this discussion, sharing his views on education and our positive experiences here at BISL.
“It was a real pleasure to be invited as a panellist, to such an informative and interesting event to collaborate and listen to others and represent the British International School of Ljubljana. Following this discussion, I will continue to look into creative and innovative opportunities to develop the values of all members of the community, so that we transition from this global crisis together with a greater understanding, empathy and compassion towards one another.”
- Paul Walton, Principal
Director of the British Council in Slovenia, Mr Dragan Barbutovski, also said that locally, even though schools have had a good experience with distance learning, they now have an ideal opportunity to review the current education system in Slovenia and prepare for the future by implementing best practices and lessons learnt from this crisis.
Three years ago, Orbital Education invested in a state-of-the–art, robustVirtual Learning Environment (VLE) for our schools to enable smooth communication between teachers and students and enhance learning by offering a powerful tool to implement blended learning. Today, in our quickly changed world, it has proven to a critical resource enabling our school to transition teaching and learning from the classroom to the online environment seamlessly.
Mrs Barbara Uranjek, director of the British-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, emphasised the added weight of responsibility on parents to support their children’s at-home learning on the top of their own workload whilst working from home and highlighted the added challenge posed for parents of children with special educational needs.
Our SEN Department at BISL offer regular sessions for students to address organisational skills, time management skills, wellbeing and the importance of staying physically active during this time. They also share useful tips and techniques for students and parents to follow in our weekly newslettersto support learning.
Mrs Andreja Anžur Černič, managing director of MEPI, spoke about the impact of the work they do within the community. She said that young people who are part of MEPI and other youth programmes are a symbol of the importance of compassion and intergenerational connections. They have demonstrated active citizenship in this new environment of self-isolation and social distancing by taking action, showing that there is always something more to be done to support our communities.
Our Caring for the Community team began a fantastic community project, bringing everyone together in a worldwide hunt for teddy bearsin Slovenia. This makes for a great adventure for young children.
At the British International School of Ljubljana, we believe in the importance of a continued learning experience for our students and have grown as a community with our dedicated team of professionals, excellent student engagement, and unwavering parental support during these unprecedented times. We look forward to returning to school and seeing our students again soon.
