Dear Parents
The end of term came allegedly last week – did anyone actually notice it?! These are such odd circumstances that we are all living through at present that mere technicalities like diary dates, term durations, holidays and the like have become temporarily obsolete. It’s as though that terminal date had been chiselled into a sarsen and then left by the side of the road, only visible to those who stopped to rest and then removed the moss which encrusted the writing. Nevertheless we are now (officially) in the Easter Break, though paradoxically school will remain open across the next two weeks for the sons of key workers. Thus BWS was closed for the many when it should have been open for business, and will be open for the few when term has run out. Extraordinary times indeed.
We are trying to do all that we can to support the national effort to overcome the current crisis. A rota of staff has operated over the past fortnight and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Our Science goggles have made their way up to the hospital, and the DT Department are attempting to manufacture acrylic visors for health staff. We have a BWS ‘deliveroo’ team of drivers taking food parcels out across the county while we wait for the national infrastructure to start functioning adequately. Distance learning is now operating full pelt through Insight and, after some inevitable acclimatisation the vast majority of boys and teachers seem to be adapting well. Our IT Staff have done an amazing job ensuring that the robustness and capacity of the system is up to the enormous load that has been placed upon it, and it has been very resilient given that close to 1,000 boys and 70 academic staff have been accessing it every day, several times a day. With time we will move to more flexibility in remote learning through the use of Office365 and MS Teams, and in fact some of the staff are already developing expertise in this area. More will follow and if enforced lockdown extends over the late spring and early summer; during most periods of national trauma the rate of technological progress accelerates and I am sure that this one is no different. We will emerge from the other side of the coronavirus episode into an educational world that will have changed appreciably. I am convinced that in a lot of areas (not just education) we will be able to think about pre-C19 and post-C19 as two distinct periods.
Meanwhile we are inhabiting a period of history where time moves at different speeds. In health in particular the hands of the clock are accelerating I am sure for all the wrong reasons, and we all need to do what we can to help. For many of the rest of us, stuck in isolation of one sort or another, time has slowed to a crawl and little seems to change from day to day – hence the doubt in my mind whether the holiday had actually arrived. For me, life will be no different. One day in three in school, the others at home running a virtual school and doing all those home jobs that I kept on putting off…
My guess on current information is that we will be unlikely to return until September, but this is uncharted territory. When we do go back one of the main jobs will be to bring the school community out of hibernation, to welcome boys and girls who will be joining us and to gain momentum quickly for everyone. I believe that because of the strength and enduring nature of the school community those jobs will be more naturally achieved than in many schools, but in the meantime we will ensure that communication from school to home is frequent and engaging. Please watch our social media outlets (website, twitter, Instagram etc) to keep abreast of what is going on and make sure that you son does too! It will be important that he feels a stake in what is going on.
So – whatever your situation is currently I wish you and your family the very best. Go well, stay safe and enjoy the novel experience of sunshine while it lasts!
Stuart Smallwood
Head Master
Bishop Wordsworth’s School
