Alka Maher and Holly Fairbrother share how ACS Doha have been supporting students in the pandemic
The pandemic has heightened the need to pay attention to issues of emotional well-being.
With social distancing, working/studying from home and uncertainty of what the future holds comes, feelings of isolation, anxiety and fear. ACS has always put health and wellbeing at the top of its agenda. More than ever now, a focus is to keep educational continuity while keeping students’ mental health afloat.
ACS Doha Middle and High School counsellor, Alka Maher explains what more the school did to safeguard the emotional wellbeing of its students.
In the face of COVID-19, Alka and the Doha team doubled their efforts in providing support to the students, parents and staff. From welcoming parent drop ins at the ‘Wellness Centre’, to one-on-one sessions where they encouraged students to ‘Rate your mood’ in online conversations, they maintained open and honest communication channels to better understand the wellbeing of the entire community.
The open communication within the community gave them the foresight needed to tailor programmes like the ACS Doha ‘Advisory Programme’. Run once a week, the Advisory Programme seeks to address issues that directly or indirectly cause mental and physical health issues by incorporating various themes each week ranging from bullying to managing stress.
ACS Doha’s focus on wellness is complimented by teacher training and awareness workshops run in cooperation with Sidra Medicine, one of Qatar’s leading medical research and healthcare providers, for the benefit of the community.
Through frequent feedback from our student body and parents, we learn how effective our programmes are, and how we can improve them. Student Voice, ACS Doha’s student-run advocacy club, alongside surveys, and conversations with parents have fostered a close relationship between caregivers, students and the community at large, allowing us to gauge the real impact of our practices. The results of our quarterly surveys have shown a positive trend in student sentiment and overall alleviation of pandemic stress through our comprehensive COVID response policies.
Another fruitful collaboration between teachers, parents, and students was the successful trial/launch of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) eAssessment. Recognising the barriers students were facing in taking online exams, the MYP eAssessment was specifically designed to give students a space to experience an online examination ahead of scheduled exams and become equipped with the skills needed to succeed in online learning.
Educators had to rethink their modus operandi in the midst of an unprecedented crisis as schools closed and exams for all IB programmes were cancelled. As tasks go, this was akin to building the plane while flying it.
The pandemic is certainly the greatest crisis Middle Years Programme (MYP) coordinator Holly Fairbrother has faced since she began working at ACS International School Doha, in Qatar, five years ago. What stood Holly—and the school—in good stead was how she had already developed an approach to e-examinations for ACS Middle School students by way of an ‘eAssessment’ after consulting with teachers, parents and students.
“One of the first things I noticed when I joined ACS was that we were running the exam assessments at the end of grade 10 only with no practice for the students”, she says. 'We realised that a huge barrier to success was that the children didn’t know what to do in the exams—not because they couldn’t but because the exams are all skills-based. I realised the issue: this generation of digital natives are really familiar with being online but not in a formal academic situation, like sitting in a room and taking a formal examination on-screen”.
Feeling this was putting students at a disadvantage, she began to introduce trial eAssessments for on-screen exams to help grade 10 students understand exam etiquette; adhere to the rules around academic integrity; and become familiar with the pressure of sitting in an e-exam room.
The trial exams were soon extended to grade 9 and, as a teacher of language and literature in grade 6, she began introducing digital assessments using Google Forms to mimic, albeit in a scaled back way, the questions students will be asked in grade 10.
Drawing on her master’s degree in integrating technology in education and her knowledge as a registered Google trainer, Holly has given students a much better insight into the experience of taking on-screen examinations for the MYP.
'It wasn’t just a bit of exam practice, because we also gave them the feedback they needed to develop and improve”, says Holly. The trail convinced teachers that these assessments helped students prepare for the real world, feel more confident in exams and, because the communication between teachers, students and families is continuous, stay focused and motivated.
The pandemic exponentially increased the staff workload at the school—and massively increased the need to communicate with families and students, particularly during lockdown.
“We updated everyone regularly even if we were just checking in" says Holly. Our virtual meetings became, 'family meetings', because a majority of children understand Zoom - much more than their parents do - so they were always there.'
For the younger students, a key emphasis has been on ensuring each child is supported and normality is maintained as much as possible. Mr Alan (pictured on the cover), still plays his ukulele to the delight of his classes showing that not everything has to change when times get tough.
safety remains paramount for all on campus
ACS Doha’s comprehensive 360-approach to wellbeing accounts for activities spanning mind, body, and soul. Their understanding of mental health has increased exponentially over the last couple of years says Alka.
Creating awareness around mental health as part of school can help equip future generations with the right emotional tools and coping mechanisms needed to navigate an increasingly complex world. At the same time ACS staff are supported by the central staff health, well being and safety agenda, so no one is left behind.