While teachers and students are enjoying their Easter holidays (as much as possible in the midst of the corona situation), the management and administration team at IBIS keep working in the „background“. „We have to adhere to government rules regarding people in the workplace of course, but we are already looking at different options on how to proceed after the holidays are over.“ Fatema Ansary-Fria speaks as marketing manager and public relations manager of IBIS and explains: „Once we realised that all the schools will be closed until at least April 20, we developed a communication plan, including who is responsible for which task according to each person’s abilities and interests.“ Thus the school managed to mobilise skills for almost every potential hurdle – „every single person, from teachers to parents, all involved were so cooperative and ready to help“.

The school management is very aware of the great opportunities that the advantage of being a private school present. Fatema Ansary-Fria: „We already used iPads with our students before corona hit, so even the youngest children at kindergarten age are used to a certain amount of learning while using technology.“ But certain challenges do not get ignored: „We cannot just assume that every parent is able to provide the time and resources, due to work or other reasons.“ According to the marketing manager, it is vital to work around everybody’s abilities. „And most importantly: We want to make sure to not burden the children with stress and pressure -– nor the parents. We are here to support each other.“

Tara O´Shea, IBIS Deputy Head and year five teacher says that so far, „as a whole, we found the online teaching very effective“. The teachers were very impressed by the level of involvement on the part of the pupils. „Although we had only a short time to organise our home learning, the whole IBIS team rallied together and did an outstanding job setting things up.“

Technology hurdles, internet safety concerns and other difficulties get tackled with verve, to the best of the school administrative team’s possibilities. „On the first day of online-teaching, almost 200 people logged on to the new system at once, that almost brought it to its knees for a moment.“ The school employs an IT expert full-time, who currently has worked on providing answers to all online-teaching questions as well as other technology requests.“ One of the challenges is that the application software needs to work on different devices, because the parents, students and the employees face different requirements at home.

Before the Easter holidays, all of the 232 IBIS students, representing over 30 nationalities, aged from three to 13 years, had a structured timetable, in which lessons ranged from just a few minutes (for the youngest of school children) to regular 45-minute slots. Fatema Ansary-Fria: „Some lessons would last even longer, because the children also want and need time to chat to each other when they see their friends in the virtual class room.“ A heartwarming thing to see as teacher Tara O’Shea agrees: „In terms of the well-being of the students, they thoroughly enjoyed actually seeing each other and greeting their classmates and teachers every day. This was of utmost importance to us as we are aware of the fact that a situation such as the one we are experiencing right now is unprecedented for all of us and therefore could potentially be very worrying for our students. Seeing their smiling faces every day cheered us up too!“

To keep an emotional connection between humans – teachers as well as children – is paramount in times of physical distance. Fatema Ansary-Fria: „Through the use of digital tools we were able to have lessons, both live and time-independent.“

„Despite all the uncertainty and the getting-used-to new learning methods, our pupils are enjoying being able to communicate online. Also, they have many extra-curricular questions, regarding the Corona virus or other pressing issues.“ An uncomplicated way of getting answers by sending in audio messages to the school makes for a reassuring level of connection.

„Success“, says Fatema Ansary-Fria, „does not only mean academic achievements. And it sometimes requires unusual approaches.“ So if a maths task has to be done with „things you can find at home“, it is of course okay to take this exercise with a pinch of salt, one student thought – and used popcorn. It is not reported whether that popcorn was indeed salty or maybe sweet, like the idea of using it.

IBIS parents are also very positive about it. One mother said: „Thanks to our son's class teacher, who prepared the lessons superbly, and despite the adverse circumstances, she taught the children the contents in a great way,. Thanks to her motivation, our child was also busy with the tasks at the weekend.“ Nitin Dhingra, father to a year five student, adds: „Our family feels the teaching now is very engaging, although it obviously cannot be compared to the real classroom, it does give a feeling of being connected. I see potential for this even after our lives go back to normal.“

Having such committed parents helps, says Tara O’Shea: „Keeping up with the online learning required a big commitment from our parents as well, for which we are very grateful. We received a lot of positive feedback from them. In particular, they appreciated the daily routine for their children which helped them in dealing with the situation. Overall, it was a positive experience, nevertheless we look forward to getting back to ‚normal‘ as soon as we can!“

According to Fatema Ansary-Fria it is so important to share experiences with each other in times like these, to learn from each other and to see how other schools are handling the situation.

Bonn International School (BIS), with students from 80 countries, was one of the first schools to move to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Will Tragert, BIS secondary principal, said the staff learned on a Friday evening that distance learning would begin the following week and that they had until Wednesday to get a system in place. He praised the BIS teachers for taking on the challenge with enthusiasm. At the BIS Primary School, principal Derek Nelson said staff had been preparing for distance learning the first week of March, “We were able to learn from the successes and challenges of schools in China who closed 6 weeks before us.”

The preparation resulted in a smooth start for students. Violet Boud, a BIS 8th grader said that from her point of view, “There was no real challenge setting up online learning, because the software was something that we were used to. Our teachers and the ICT support were very good at introducing us to anything new.” For her, “the biggest challenge now is not seeing friends or even the teachers.” The social and emotional well-being of students is on the radar of BIS staff, and counsellors are playing a support role for all students.

MYP coordinator Cijith Jacob says there has been “overwhelming support from the BIS community” for distance learning. He explains that teachers use different online platforms for communicating with students depending on grade level, and says that these were already a part of student learning at BIS. At primary level, they use the learning platforms Tapestry and Seesaw, which allow for the sharing of work and videos, according to principal Nelson. Secondary principal Tragert says that because the school has a 1:1 iPad or laptop ratio, the students already have experience in connecting using the platforms. The main difference now is that they have added Google Chat and Google Meet. He sees a balanced approach as being critical, “We are trying to follow the ‘less is more’ philosophy and not overburden teachers or students with new technology.”

Tragert said that while most of the feedback has been extremely positive, people do want more face-to-face time. Teachers have “done a tremendous job of figuring out how to do this and keep the strong connections with the students intact,” he said. When it comes to receiving feedback, principal Nelson says, “Since we first moved to distance learning, we have had an open online survey for parents, students and staff to give feedback.” He said the leadership regularly reviews that feedback and primary school teachers do feedback exercises each week to find out what is working for students. Families also reach out to the school via email and phone.

School should be fun. “The teachers keep us motivated by giving us more activities, rather than work. We do activities that relate to our usual work, but are still fun,” says student Violet Boud. Indeed, principal Tragert says that school “has to be a choice for families” and should not be another burden at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has students and families “dealing with crises and a wide-array of problems in their personal lives.” Some families have remained in Bonn but some have gone back to their home countries. Tragert says the school is “trying to be flexible and understanding towards each child’s own unique circumstance. We’re trying to make school fun and engaging.”

It is obvious that the creativity displayed by teaching staff keeps students motivated. Violet Boud says her art teacher challenged students to create a “fist-sized mask using materials that are from our home garden or nearby environment.” At primary level, so-called “Wacky Wednesday” features special challenges instead of the normal assignments and a weekly video assembly brings everyone together. BIS parent Tanya Talbot said she was impressed by the imaginative ideas of the physical education teachers. “My oldest had to take a video of himself doing some inside sport, so he filmed himself kicking a toilet roll through a small hoop in his bedroom. I'm not sure how athletic the experience was, but it made for a funny video and he learnt some new skills at the same time. “ There was also a video to teach juggling.

Online learning does have its benefits, such as going to virtual school in pyjamas, a flexible learning schedule, the opportunity for students to show their unique talents (there was a mention of future film directors and actors in the primary school), and even taking pets to class. Talbot says, “I've seen a few of the lessons and the teachers often have their pets, and even occasionally their children with them. This is so funny!” Now her boys take their cat to class too.

On the school Facebook page, an uplifting video titled “We are BIS” has been posted, featuring teachers and students sending out messages of positivity. One also finds photos of delicious looking food, the result of 5th and 6th grade students zeroing in on health lessons through cooking. And who wouldn’t want a science teacher like Ms. Fueckel? Her homemade video set at the coffee table is called “Making coffee with Ms. Fueckel” - but don’t let it fool you - it’s not about breakfast, it’s teaching science.

To sum up the distance learning experience, principal Nelson says this, “It is incredible how our community (students, parents and teachers) has come together to support each other through this. This has reinforced what we already believed about our community”.