Special Edition - Coronavirus
Face masks, sanitizer and enforced quarantine (March, 2020)
Sorry, but we couldn’t hold out any longer.
We’ve tried face masks, sanitizer and subjecting the whole EDDi team to enforced quarantine, but alas we’ve been beaten.
No, we’ve not (yet) succumbed to Covid-19 but we have given up any resistance we had to writing about it. So here we are, giving a whole edition to what is now a global crisis, which if it is not exactly knocking on your door today, is only biding its time until you think it’s safe to book your next holiday abroad.
Yes, this Special Edition of EDDi is devoted to the coronavirus.
What we’ve produced is a collation and summary of some of the best professional advice for educators currently circulating the web, plus a few exclusive tips from the EDDi team.
Recognising that what gets written about C-19 today is quickly becoming out-of-date, please use this special edition of EDDi as a go-to resource, together with links, so that you do at least have good and relevant information to hand.
We’ve divided this edition into five sections:
Open or Closed: that is the Question
Preparing for Closure
Online Teaching and Learning
Covid-19 Related Learning Topics
Preparing for the Next Time
The key message we at EDDi are giving to all our subscribers, school colleagues, and friends out there is simply this: you have to think ahead of the virus. That means planning for the worst-case scenario, acting accordingly and doing so immediately.
Don’t wait to react to the virus. Step ahead of it, quickly, confidently and resolutely. Anything less is simply playing catch-up, and some tardy schools may find they never do.
And, if you haven’t yet shared a previous edition of EDDi, this is the one to share. The more informed we all are, the sooner we will beat the virus. Please share and post EDDi to your social media channels just as liberally as you are applying hand sanitizer.
Stay safe and, as ever, thank you for subscribing
EDDi
TO CLOSE OR NOT TO CLOSE, THAT IS THE QUESTION
Let’s be frank, the safest option is to close.
Of course, for many, this decision has been taken out of your hands and decided by government. But, for those schools still in a state of limbo, that is open but operating in an environment where C-19 has taken hold in the population, then school closure should be assumed to be inevitable. It only takes one of your staff or students to be confirmed as infected and closure will be immediate, as schools around the world are currently discovering.
As we’ve seen, no one can predict if and when they will become infected, nor do they know when they may infect others. In which case, school closure makes not only perfect sense health wise, it means you don’t have to keep monitoring staff or students, worrying about new infections. In short, this virus cannot be contained other than thorough some form of quarantine not least because for at least five days, no one knows if they may have it.
That said, Mark Steed, Principal and CEO at Kellett School, Hong Kong, suggests one alternative is to have a protocol for campus access during the Covid-19 crisis based on the principle that the school will only allow people onto the site who are at least three degrees of separation from a confirmed case. Such a protocol requires cooperation in order to maintain the good health of a wider school community. And below are the guidelines Mark offers which will aid the school community in ‘appropriately mitigating the risk to all those attending campus’:
Suspected/confirmed case: Confirmed cases should alert the appropriate authorities and the school as soon as possible. Confirmed cased should not come onto a school campus until they are tested clear.
One degree of separation: Anyone who has been in close contact with someone who is a confirmed case, should alert the school and not attend campus for 14 days symptom-free, or until that person has official clearance.
Two degrees of separation: if a teacher/student/admin etc has been in close contact with someone who has been in close contact with someone who is a confirmed case, then they should alert the school and not attend campus for 14 days symptom-free, or until such time that the person you met is cleared.
Three degrees of separation: Anyone who has not been in close contact with anyone who is a confirmed case, or anyone who has been in close contact with such a person, may attend campus. However, employees should see a doctor and stay away from campus if they present with any symptoms (cough, sore throat, fever).
In diagram form, that advice looks like this:
If your school does follow the ‘Six Stages of Separation Protocol’ then here is some further advice:
No physical contact between individuals on school premises. No sport activity where physical contact is necessary, no shaking of hands, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and/or mouth. Keep selected doors pinned open to limit handrail contact.
Maintain highest standard of personal hygiene. Wash hands frequently, wear a mask in school, use tissues and dispose of them safely, keep surroundings well ventilated, keep toilets clean and dry.
Reduce the number of students in each class so that there is at least one metre distance between each student. Some schools in Asia have built screens (small cubicles) for each class table behind which sits the student. The top of the screen is below eye level.
Minimise the entry points to the school and the volume of space in active use. This helps control movement.
Have cleaners working full-time disinfecting public spaces.
Consider introducing regular testing of staff and students, perhaps on a weekly basis.
No school can predict how long it can remain open. Many school leaders (especially those in Africa and South America where the virus is just beginning) will be adopting a ‘wait and see, but take precautions’ approach. Which is understandable but doesn’t remove the likelihood of closure happening if/when the virus really kicks off. An example is Brunei, which hadn’t registered any infections by Monday 9th March. Within seven days there were at least 50 confirmed cases in the country. On the 11th, Brunei schools closed early for the holidays but teachers and administrators continued to work, but with no clear indication as to when normal classes will resume. So, the students get ‘isolated’ but the teachers not. This ‘closed but not closed’ approach being adopted where legislation is advisory, not compulsory, allows for the continued working of the school system but does little to protect the teachers and administrators.
An alternative approach is to allow staff to choose if they wish to attend at work or not. As Oliver Ireland, administrator at New English School in Kuwait described his school’s approach:
“Staff were told to stay away if they felt strongly that it was the right thing to do. Most did just this so, as an example, we are currently managing with five out of our seven Year 5 teachers working from the UK, Netherlands and Australia.”
What we’ve been seeing around the world is a very mixed response by governments and some schools and universities to the coronavirus, and this mixed response not only creates confusion and uncertainty it potentially feeds the virus infection rate.
Some universities (e.g. Oxford University) remained open even when they had confirmed student infections while others (e.g. Bangkok University) shut down immediately any student was suspected of having come into contact with a virus carrier. Similarly, schools in the UK remained open for some weeks, while many other countries with lower rates of infection than the UK instructed their schools to close.
But who decides whether an international school stays open or closed?
If the government has not introduced legislation to force closures, then it remains the choice of the senior management team. That is putting a lot of onus on just a few people, maybe just the school owner in some instances. Better that the school allows teachers to decide for themselves whether to attend at work or not but leaving a handful of key administrators working on site but with full prevention practices operational across the school premises.
For many international schools they will be holding their breath, waiting for that ‘tipping point’ when events have overtaken them and they don’t have enough staff members available to run the school because they are off in isolation. That is the situation currently facing international schools in Africa, South and Central America, regions starting to see infections rise but not to the extent they’ve done in USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
As we say in this special edition, try and stay ahead of the virus curve. Which in reality means expecting to have to close very soon, regardless of government (in)action.
If you want to know if a particular international school is open or closed, then this website is a good one to check out:
PREPARING FOR CLOSURE
OK, the hesitancy is over, the question ‘open or closed’ has been resolved, in which case you may well have just 24 hours in which to enact closure. 24 hours is no time at all which is why the EDDi team have put together a section on ‘Preparing for the Next Time’. But, for this section, we look at some of the best advice circulating the web for educationalists charged with preparing their school for closure.
First and probably biggest question, is ‘how long for?’.
It may be the biggest question but best to disregard it, well almost. Assume the worst and plan accordingly. You can always get back into the swing of full classroom teaching once the virus has disappeared.
But that won’t be in just two or three weeks.
China had its first coronavirus infections identified in December. By the middle of January all schools were closed. At time of writing they remain closed at least until middle of April. A total of three months, and that despite the fact that China infections have dropped rapidly in the past week or two. Which is why EDDi suggests you use the China approach as a yardstick – plan for three months closure, minimum. But review the situation regularly.
These are some of top tips from closed International Schools around the world, with a couple added exclusively by the EDDi team:
1. Managing Communications: The first task is to avoid panic and hysteria. Concise but accurate information needs to be given to all staff, students, parents. Kellett School in Hong Kong produced video messages to convey a more personal, empathetic connection than emails or letters. Pastoral leaders and members of the SMT should reach out to every family, phoning them to ensure they know the school is looking to support them. Being proactive with communication is vital. Don’t wait to be inundated with questions, queries and concerns, especially from parents. Ensure that all foreign staff fully understand any decrees being issued from the government, with translations where necessary.
2. Protecting the Parent-School Relationship: Any international school caught up in the vortex of Covid-19 and having to handle multiple emergency issues simultaneously must ensure it doesn’t marginalise its most important stakeholder – the parents. They’ll be under just as much stress as you but without the benefit of being able to decide issues such as the school remaining ‘open or closed’. One way of handling this is to have a dedicated member of SMT charged with ensuring that parents are kept in the loop on all decisions, infection updates, online teaching adjustments, emergency contact details, examination changes, and dealing with any questions that might come up regards ‘fee adjustments’ etc should the school shut down for any lengthy period. The parents will also need guidance on how to handle their children’s long-term confinement to home, albeit with the schools ‘virtual timetable’ operating.
3. HR Issues: The first question of anxious staff will be ‘am I getting paid if the school closes for three months?’ Depending on the specific contractual agreements of individual staff, the answer really needs to be ‘yes’. The school will (hopefully) have received fees from parents for the period up to the closure so there should be no financial issues in continuing to cover staff salaries. Failure to do this will most definitely result in bigger issues for the school leadership than the coronavirus.
Ultimately, whatever the length of closure, the aim must be to have the school up and running immediately it is safe to do so. Again, this is a communication issue so the HR department need to be proactive in giving all staff assurances on salary payments, as well as guidance on getting tested, and what to do in the event of being infected, e.g health insurance, hospitals, etc. SMT, middle management and HR should also ensure they keep a record of all staff off premises and contact them on a daily basis, not just to give them moral support and check their physical well-being, but to assure them the school is acting in an empathetic manner regards its staff, many of whom will be isolated not only from the school itself but from their families overseas.
4. Maintaining a SMT presence: The ideal scenario is where the senior management team continue to attend at the school during school hours. So even if the teachers are at home, the school continues to have a physical presence in staff minds and in practice. This also enables SMT to liaise together and deal with issues quickly and effectively. The school day can also thus be replicated, with a given time period each day for a virtual ‘open mic’ meetings with teachers and administrators. Maintaining the appearance of school life, if only virtually, not only ensures staff have a daily routine to adhere to, it strengthens the sense of connection between staff. In turn, this will improve moral and staff well-being. The ultimate aim must be to realise the school rhetoric of ‘community’ into practice and reality. What happens during school closure, how SMT deal with it, and how teachers feel about the experience, will also have a big impact on whether teachers decide to return home at the end of their contract, leave to go to another school, or stay.
5. Essential Staffing and Maintenance: What no school leader wants is to have to close down a school, vacate it for several months, only to come back and find the rats have eaten through the school wiring, there’s a dead dog in the swimming pool, thieves have stolen the Apple laptops, and pigeons have taken roost in the school kitchen. The only way to avoid this unpleasant scenario is to ensure the daily rota of cleaners and security guards continues unabated.
6. Basic Checks ahead of closure: Before you close the doors on staff and students, make sure your schools contact database is up to date. Ask parents to confirm email addresses and ensure students too have emails and social media info updated. Most schools will already have emergency closure planning, but it’s unlikely they’ve planned for being closed over a lengthy period and right in the middle of exam season. This is one of those areas which can make or break a school’s effectiveness during closure, therefore it requires planning for well in advance of an emergency. But whatever, it is worthwhile identifying a small team of managers whose task it is to not only keep the contact database updated but to ensure that all information is posted on the school website. For most parents, the school website is the first place they’ll visit for information.
7. Boarding Schools: The UK Boarding School Association offers the following advice: “consider the logistical arrangements for keeping boarders safe, fed and watered, under any such restrictions, especially if a case should develop within the school community.” Does your boarding school have a guardian system, whereby each student is allocated a local guardian they can stay will if needed? If this system is in place then now is the time to utilise it. If not, then boarders will need to stay on the premises but will be restricted in terms of movement. For more detailed advice from the BSA regarding the C-19 emergency, go to this link: Boarding Schools Association
Worst Case Scenario: We hate to say this but it is likely some international schools are going to lose staff, if not students. If the mortality rate is under 0.5% then that is still an awful lot of people who won’t be around when all this is over. How are schools going to handle this? Who, if anyone, will be attending funerals? Where will funerals take place? Whom is responsible for informing families back home that their loved one has passed away? Does the school have records of next-of-kin for its staff and students? If not, it needs to have because for many foreign international school teachers their school is not just their place of employment it is their de facto ‘home community’. Whom in the school will be checking on the health of any staff or students who are in hospital and experiencing the severest symptoms of this virus? Again, this is one of those (less pleasant) areas of management and leadership which cannot be easily devolved beyond SMT. But to help school leaders in this emotionally fraught exercise then schools need to have in place a professionally trained bereavement counsellor, or at least someone trained in grief/trauma counselling. Of course, we all hope this individual is sat at home with nothing to do, but just in case…
ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING
This is the big challenge – keeping the teaching and learning continuing with minimum disruption to the students. The EDDi team have pulled together advice and guidance from various sources, covering everything from google classroom to new learning opportunities.
1. The School Day: The better a school is as replicating the school day the more chance it has of minimizing learning disruption. Keep to the normal work schedule as much as possible but include flexibility. Teachers should be expected to be online and available to answer questions in real time during their lessons. Students are similarly expected to complete tasks in ‘class time’. Keep registers of those attending online classes and anyone not logged in gets counted as absent, with parents duly contacted. However, have some sympathy for teachers who will quickly become exhausted with being online all day so allow for regular breaks. Also, recognise that a 50 minutes normal lesson is likely to take much longer at home, so scale back the work load for both teacher and student.
2. Adopting New Tech: Those schools with Google Classroom installed are probably counting their blessings right now (see below). This is rapidly emerging as the go-to system for online learning. Another is Zoom video conferencing software to deliver lessons. Morning registers can be taken live via Bluejeans and the students then go to Google Classroom to complete their work according to collapsed timetables. Teachers who are not so tech-savvy should reach out to colleagues and really each school needs to ensure that their ‘tech wizard’ is available to answer questions and problem-solve. Two other popular online tools are Seesaw and Microsoft. Although it probably won’t be a problem for most international schools, be prepared to supply extra laptops so that teachers can use them at home and students where necessary. Most homes will require multiple devices to enable staff and students to log on remotely, plus the physical space to use them.
3. The practicalities of remote learning: Once the technology is operational then make sure everyone is clear on how it is to be used. Ensure an ‘online etiquette’ is adopted by all. So no students lying in bed, half naked, while they attend online classes. While online the students are effectively in school. The exact format for each lesson depends on the subject, teacher and content but there must be a live conference to take registers and the teacher either proceeds to teach live content (via slide sharing, document cameras, etc) or to direct students to pre-recorded lectures and content. In reality, no matter how effective the technology, efficient the teachers at using it, or motivated the students, the whole process will be time-consuming and tiring for all. There is little chance of maintaining normal educational momentum and students with special needs will require additional support. Indeed, all students will start to struggle if the online learning process continues for weeks on end.
4. Safeguarding Data: Having students working remotely, many of whom will be using their own devices, could cause problems regards data protection. Schools which have been using tech tools that require secure login using a school email are better protected. And then there is the personal safeguarding issue. As one school leader observed, “We take the same approach to one-to-one video conferencing as we would to any necessary one-to-one conversation with a student: door open, another colleague nearby and aware.” Also, encourage students to continue using software they are already familiar with, minimising disruption and ensuring there are no breaches when it comes to sensitive data.
5. Maintaining Connections: Virus or no virus, it is still a school, still a community and as such maintaining connections with everyone involved is a key priority. No one should feel unnecessarily isolated. This is important not just for professional reasons, but for personal well-being also. Google drive and docs enable collaborative work and to have virtual ‘open mic’ sessions with students performing from their own homes adds that touch of familiarity and togetherness. This experience, miserable as it is, does have the potential to be fun. And students especially will take to the online learning process perhaps more readily than teachers. As one leader put it: “We have only just begun to scratch the surface of how we can help our students to feel connected, but our staff are enjoying coming up with creative new ways each day. Who knows, maybe the biggest problem your school will face in the future is getting the students back into the physical classroom!
6. Establish learning communities with staff: These will help share best practice, resolve problems, keep the community spirit alive. Sure, there may well be some resistance from a few self-proclaimed technophobes to online teaching, but in such cases try and see that person has a mentor to aid them in the transition. Don’t leave them feeling lost and unable to cope.
7. You are not a 7/11 Store: Just because the school is physically closed and all learning activities are being conducted online, doesn’t mean the staff have to be available 24/7. So, don’t set standards whereby teachers are expected to respond immediately to comments or emails. This is unsustainable and inevitably will prove counterproductive. Teachers have a time online and the rest of the time is their private space, as it would be if the school were open.
8. Google Classroom: Rather than EDDi team replicating the good advice coming from Google Classroom on how to use their platform, simply check out these 11 Tips courtesy of the Times Educational Supplement.
Finally, the Lessons to be Learn. Covid-19 has many lessons for all of us, so why not utilise them in your teaching, now and in the future? See our dedicated section on this very topic.
A QUICK REQUEST…
To keep EDDi alive we need subscribers. If you like what EDDi offers, please share with colleagues.
Help EDDi on its journey by sharing.
COVID-19-RELATED LEARNING TOPICS
Not since 9/11 has any event generated as much global interest, or concern, as Covid-19.
Indeed, for most everyone on the planet alive today this is a first – a global shutdown. Unless, that is, you are old-enough to remember WWII.
In which case it makes perfect educational sense to ensure this unique event gets channelled into your online lessons, and physical lessons when all returns to ‘normal’.
Here are a few suggestions exclusively compiled for you by the EDDi team, with acknowledgement to the Institute for Learning Centered Education
English: Depending on the age of your students have them write or discuss the impact they are already seeing and experiencing in their home, community, friendship groups. Have a project whereby the students collate online information re the panademic and critically analyse it. Compare how different cultures, countries, governments convey information to their citizens. Get the students to act as journalists producing their own blogs and online news forums.
Science: What is this virus? Where might it have originated from? What is the incubation period? Is there evidence it is weather related? How is this virus different from the flu? What are the differences between an illness spread by sneezing and an illness spread by, say, mosquitoes? Why does it take over a year to develop a vaccine? Which country is proving to be most competent at minimising the effects of the virus and what scientific-related measures are they adopting?
Maths: Name a country: How many people have been infected and what is the infection rate? Show this infection rate by various graphs. What are the different mortality rates around the world – do graph and percentage comparisons. How do the infection rates compare when set against a country’s population? What is the average infection rate, globally? What are the percentages of people infected by age groups, by gender, by ethnicity? Project future infection rates based on infections rates so far and by best, worst case scenarios. Project infection rates for areas of the world yet to experience the pandemic’s full effects.
Technology: Visualise apps that might be useful in helping people cope with this virus. Consider the most important technology to be developed in treating patients and at different levels of illness. How can existing technology and apps be best used to help society continue to function while in lockdown? How is technology fuelling the virus? How is technology helping humans cope with it?
Art: Design posters to be placed around the school and/or the community. What are the central messages and which part of the population are they aimed at? Draw a picture that you could take home to your parents with a message of one thing you want them to know about this virus.
Economics: Compare how different governments are responding to this pandemic in terms of emergency economic measures. What are the likely impacts of these measures globally, regionally, nationally? What measures may likely be most effective and which least effective? Having implemented such measures, what might the short-term, medium term, long-term economic consequences be? Do online quantitative research in your community to ascertain the economic impact on families. Working in teams, produce your own emergency measures for a chosen country, based on that country’s economic data, population, etc.
Business and Management: Research how different sized companies around the world are coping with the pandemic. What measures are they introducing to reduce infection yet maintain production and services? Which businesses will be most adversely affected in the short term and long term? What styles of business leadership are appearing and which seem most likely to be effective? How are banks addressing this crisis and what measures if any are they taking to ameliorate the impact on their customers?
Music: What three songs would we play if we had a nervous group of people we wanted to relax? What music should be played in hospitals? What music would most relax my family? If you were putting together a concert for victims of this pandemic and their families, who would you invite to perform? What music would you listen to at home if you were quarantined?
Foreign Language: Whatever the language is, get the students to identify what the country is doing about the virus and draft a letter to the people of that country in their language. Produce a ‘we support you’ video for the people of that country in their language. Produce a video explaining the virus in a foreign language.
Physical Education: Should the 2020 Olympics go ahead or not? What are the consequences either way? What criteria should be used when deciding whether to cancel a sporting event or not? How do you balance fan interest, economic losses, and risk to participants when making such a decision? Imagine developing a sporting event that would have minimum risk to participants and spectators in terms of the virus.
Social Studies: Get your students to debate the following question: ‘Is this the end of globalisation?’. Compare how different social groups and classes are likely to be affected by the pandemic and how they may differentially respond. Where and why are there instances of racism emerging against certain groups of people around the world? What drives this racism and how should we tackle it? Compare how different world leaders are responding and measure their effectiveness in, for example, strengthening communal solidarity. Produce a chart showing the top 5 and bottom 5 world leaders and governments in terms of their response to the pandemic. How are Generation Z responding to this emergency – what global patterns are emerging? How are Boomers responding to this emergency -what global patterns are emerging? What differences are emerging between collectivist and individualist societies? Which societal approach is proving more effective and why? How and why has religious worship proved to be both a source of infection and a source of solace in communities?
History: Identify the previous pandemics of history. When did they occur? Why did they occur? What were the infection rates? What were the mortality rates? How did governments and peoples respond? What is significant about the British town of Eyam during the plague of 1667? What were the most likely causes of death during the Middle Ages? Which illnesses once killed millions but now kill no one or very few? When did vaccines first get produced? Who discovered the vaccine? How did governments respond to the Spanish Flu and which countries were most badly affected?
Geography: Map the spread of the coronavirus since it first appeared in China in November last year. Project its spread over the next month, three months. What patterns emerge from this spread of infection? Which areas of the world have so far appeared more protected that others? What caused the virus to develop in northern China then suddenly erupt in Iran and Italy?
Critical Thinking: Analyse different ‘conspiracy theories’ emerging on social media. Which seem most bizarre and which seem most convincing. Why? During a pandemic everyone is naturally fearful, how then do we produce factual information designed not to be emotive but to be useful and informative? Produce such information for your own family. Produce ‘facts’ about the pandemic and present to the group. Which of these facts are accurate and which have been made up by the group? Listen to or read the pronouncements of various world leaders and compare them for truthfulness, sincerity, usefulness, accuracy. Assess various news media for accuracy, honesty, information value.
Health and Wellbeing: We all now know about the risks that Covid-19 brings us, but what about the opportunities? Already, around the world some positive things have happened. E.g. the environment is less polluted, the medical profession is showing its unique value to humankind, communities are supporting each other, the internet is revealing its strengths, and education is adjusting to a world of online learning. Get the students to examine the opportunities in Covid-19, discuss and debate them, and to suggest what the world will look like when this is all over.
As you can see, this topic has lots of mileage long after the pandemic is over. It certainly presents a unique opportunity to develop not only knowledge, understand and skills, but also empathy. Because no matter who you are, or where you live, you are potentially at risk.
If nothing else, this fact will encourage the students to recognise that being a global citizen in the age of globalisation brings with it both opportunity and responsibility.
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT TIME
Yes, we know it is exactly a century since Spanish Flu wiped out some 40 million people in the space of two winters, and maybe these pandemics are going to be centennial events, but don’t count on it. With nearly eight billion of us now inhabiting the planet, most squeezed into a few mega cities, the next pandemic is likely to happen in your lifetime.
In which case preparing for the ‘Next Time’ is every educationalists duty and responsibility.
Here are a few tips and opinions from the EDDi team:
1. If you haven’t done so already, appoint a ‘Crisis Management Officer’. This person is tasked with both ensuring all procedures are in place for the next pandemic or extended lockdown, and with keeping an eye on the news. One of the reasons Taiwan has proved to be the best protected country so far is that the government spotted the danger in China well before the virus kicked off in January. The news coming out of Wuhan about a ‘mysterious new virus’ switched the Taiwanese into immediate emergency reaction mode and this has kept them ahead of the infection curve. Of course, having experienced the SARS emergency helped them a lot, but that is intelligence for you – not having to keep repeating the same mistakes. Make sure your school doesn’t either.
2. Ensure that every lesson is available online. This is a big job and few teachers will have had their lessons online this time round, but next time they must have. If necessary, allocate time for this – professional development sessions for all teachers during which they can produce online lessons, and share advice, resources and experiences. All online lessons should be held centrally by SMT or Department Heads. That way the online resource builds up over time.
3. Keep all contact information up-to-date: students, parents, emergency contacts, next-of-kin, and all staff.
4. When this current pandemic is all over arrange a few days for all the staff to get together to discuss how the school responded. Encourage everyone to be honest and candid, no holds barred. No one need be defensive but everyone will have an opinion and some people may have experienced the very worst of it. They need to feedback to not just the SMT, but their colleagues. This process also acts as a sort of ‘trauma-release’ period and will prove valuable as lessons can be learned and shared. Set aside as long as you can for this, at least a full day, if not two.
5. A big challenge will be dealing with the economic fall-out from this pandemic. That is not the job of the teachers but they need to be informed of the issues. Don’t allow rumour to take hold as rumour for sure will not work in favour of management and owners. If sacrifices need to be made to keep the show on the road, then make sure such sacrifices are evenly and fairly spread.
6. While there may be an immediate economic negative impact on the school, for some international schools the pandemic offers opportunity. At time of writing it appears that China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore will emerge strongest of all major countries in terms of how they’ve managed the pandemic. We’d include Hong Kong in that list but as we know, the situation has been bad for international schools in HK for some time and long before Covid-19 arrived - so right now there is no reason to expect life to improve for them at least in the immediate future. Taking a macro look at the long-term impact of the pandemic, one can see reasons why Asia is likely to be even more powerful at the end of all this than when it started. If that does turn out to be the case, then international school growth in East Asia is going to continue its upward path, while other parts of the world could trip and stumble. Just something to consider when your school resumes its global marketing and development strategy.
7. Develop an emergency response strategy which can be put into effect very fast. This is informed by lessons learned in this pandemic, and from the feedback given to SMT by staff. Set clear timescales and levels on the strategy that relate to various ‘triggers’ and agree what those triggers are. For example, if the Crisis Management Officer warns of a new virus emerging somewhere around the world, then that is a trigger which requires some level of early response.
8. Having set up a few ‘post-pandemic review’ days for teachers and staff, do the same for the students, and for the parents. Though probably best to keep these groups separate to avoid transference of attitude. You want as full and honest analysis and review as is possible and each group will have different experiences and recommendations to offer. Having gone through these reviews your Crisis Management Officer produces the recommended future response strategy document.
Finally, and sadly, there will be some difficult situations to handle. Hopefully, no one in your school will have suffered too badly from this virus but be prepared if there are victims. Most international schools have counsellors but few if any have trauma counsellors. It might be a good idea to ensure you have access to such professional expertise now and in the future. At the very least, you may consider it helpful to have a trauma counsellor on site in the school for a week or so, either to deal with distinct cases of trauma and grief, or simply to be physically available if needed. Every student and staff member really needs to be able to discuss their experiences of this pandemic with a professionally trained counsellor - most will be fine but some will need support.
Below are the key links informing this EDDi Special Edition
https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-teaching-online-steep-learning-curve
https://www.linkedin.com/in/independenthead/
https://www.kuow.org/stories/6-ways-universities-are-responding-to-coronavirus
https://www.tes.com/news/2020/march/11/coronavirus-and-schools-live
https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-8-tips-closed-international-schools
https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-can-schools-really-stay-open
Share to help EDDi thrive
Every fortnight EDDi provides vital educational research, summarised. EDDi saves you time and money, keeping you professionally engaged and up-to-date.
To keep EDDi alive we need subscribers. If you like what EDDi offers, please share with colleagues.
Help EDDi on its journey by sharing.