Since the country’s snap Covid-19 lockdown was declared for three days from Wednesday 18 August, St Paul’s Collegiate School quickly actioned the Distance Learning Delivery model.

Students followed a regular school timetable, attending lessons from Monday to Friday, while teachers delivered a combination of live streamed lessons, video sessions and online assignments. Regular contact between students, teachers and classmates ensured high engagement and focus throughout the new style of school day.

Working hard behind the scenes was the support staff, including IT specialists who are continually monitoring and reviewing the systems to ensure adequate functionality and stability of the programmes, both technically and academically.

While the whole school typically comes together every day, whether at a Headmaster’s assembly or Chapel service, our students joined Revd Peter Rickman for ‘Soul Food’ every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Soul Food was live streamed and provided an opportunity for our students and families to be together as a community, albeit a virtual one, to think, pray, reflect and sing.

Our teachers and staff worked throughout the lockdown, as we were successfully able to function as normal from within a virtual environment.