We have developed plans to support a full return to campus, as well as contingencies for hybrid and remote learning.
ACS Doha is expecting to deliver education in a blended model from 1 September, in compliance with Qatari Government legislation. But we are reviewing contingency plans for other scenarios to ensure continuity of learning and consistently high-quality educational programmes for our globally-mobile learning communities.
Our commitment to collaborative planning
ACS's Education Strategy Services Team has led a series of scenario-planning exercises inspired by international best practice protocols and leading organisations, using digital collaborative planning platforms. This involved surveying the world of international education to gather a broad range of operational models and communication strategies. We have developed a strong collaboration matrix that gives students, parents, teachers, school administrators, senior leaders and trustees opportunities for input and insight into our full return to on-campus learning.
We are newly committed to caring for students’ mental health and wellbeing as they transition back to school. ACS remains flexible and resilient, building on our historic strengths and re-imagining education in light of the challenges of living with the coronavirus.
About 300 students, parents, organisation and school leaders, teachers, and functional staff members have worked with us and shared their ideas about how best to:
Common agreements
Here are some of the parameters within which we’ve agreed to work. We will:
· continue to base our operational decisions on Qatar Government advice · keep the published school calendars for 2020-21 · focus on development of ever-stronger home-school partnerships to support younger students in distance learning environments · work throughout the summer to optimise our facilities and procedures for learning in order to minimise possible transmission of the coronavirus · position ourselves to respond with maximum flexibility to any future disruptions · design plans for diagnosing unfinished learning and accelerating leaning gains so that students are not disadvantaged by any ‘corona-slide’ effects · improve our distance learning offer, building on powerful feedback from teachers, students and parents, and providing just-in-time professional development that builds capacity and advances teaching excellence.
Preparations for on-campus learning
We have developed a strong collaboration matrix that gives students, parents, teachers, school administrators, senior leaders and trustees opportunities for input and insight into our return to on-campus learning. We are newly committed to caring for students’ mental health and wellbeing as they transition back to school. We remain flexible and resilient, building on our historic strengths and re-imagining education when the challenges of living with the coronavirus invite us to build back better.
Proven ability to manage the return to school
Our return-to-school plan prioritises the health, safety and wellbeing of our entire community (students, parents, faculty and staff). ACS Cobham, Egham and Hillingdon successfully executed a phased return to school in early June for eligible grades/year-level groups. Two hundred and fifty students and more than 100 faculty and staff enjoyed working together to re-imagine education in new circumstances. With a clear focus on students’ social and emotional welfare, teachers created new opportunities for on-campus learning that were safe, meaningful and fun.
With important lessons learned, high degrees of staff and parent satisfaction, excellent attendance, and consistently good levels of mental wellbeing among returning staff this spring, we are confident the partial return to on-campus learning this autumn will also be successful. And when we have to be away from campus again, we will continue to care for and educate the children and young people at heart of ACS to the highest possible standard.