From the Acting Head

Be gentle on yourself. 

If you read no further in this column, then you have at least received the main message that I would like to impart as we head back into remote learning for Term 3. 

The parent-child connection at home needs space and calm to endure the next six weeks. Good physical and mental health, happy family relationships and core literacy and numeracy skills should be the top priorities as families again take on learning from home.

As you know, we have made some adjustments to remote learning for Term 3 that are a direct result of the Term 2 experience as described by parents, students, and staff. I encourage you to take advantage of these changes. For Senior School parents, know that at 10.45 am every day, your child has a fifty-minute break. You should expect to see them lurking around the fridge at this time or outside shooting some hoops. 

At 1.35 pm, expect to see them back at the fridge, complaining that there is ‘nothing to eat’ but knowing, and expecting, that they will make do with whatever they find. Know that they will have another fifty-minutes to make themselves a toastie and a smoothie. Maybe they will cater for their Junior School sibling, whose lunchtime break you have orchestrated to coincide with the Senior School timetable. 

After lunch, Senior School students have just one class to go before the end of the school day, and Junior School students might spend their afternoon engaging in the activities available for specialist subjects. It is also possible that Senior School students are finished for the day if their timetable shows that they would normally be undertaking one of the semester-based subjects that have been temporarily removed from the timetables of students in Years 7 to 10. 

At 3.30 pm, expect to see your older children emerging from their desks and having a decent break before completing any schoolwork required for the next day. 

Broken up into smaller pieces, we hope that the Term 3 remote learning model addresses some of the issues that were raised in Term 2, and especially that of excessive daily screen time. It is unlikely to be a perfect model for every student, but we do hope that it is improved for many. 

As I mentioned in recent parent correspondence, we all must adjust our expectations based on the individual experience that family members had of remote learning in Term 2. Hopefully, you have been able to reflect on the experience for your family and to plan for its repeat occurrence in a way that makes it less stressful the second time around. For many families, remote learning worked well in Term 2, and the same opportunities for learning and connection will be available to them in Term 3 at Girton. 

We have learned not to take for granted access to friends, family, teachers and face-to-face learning, and this gratitude, especially when regularly acknowledged, is increasingly recognised as a powerful factor in promoting resilience and wellbeing, in children and adults alike. 

I wish families well as they commence what for many will be a six-week juggling act and I encourage you to embrace the habit of expressing gratitude for the small joys that will come your way during this difficult time. 

Dr Emma O’Rielly

Acting Head