Way back at the start of 2021, Head of Year 8, Miss Beaveridge, asked her year group what they were enjoying about our way of teaching and learning at that time. Looking back to January, particularly remote teaching and learning in lockdown, pupils were asked ‘whose lessons are you particularly enjoying, and why?’ Their answers were glowingly positive, and you can read for yourself below:

• All of them, especially languages as they are fun and engaging.
• Mrs Oliver and Mr Zambon: they make it interactive even though we are not in the classroom and always make sure everyone is okay.
• Mr Stone in RS, and Mrs Dance in PE.
• Miss Plowman and Miss Beaveridge. I chose those teachers because they are still making their lessons fun during this lockdown.
• Miss Plowman: I like her History lessons as we just do not stay on the call but do lots of interesting thing.
• Mrs Dewar: I like her languages classes as we learn a lot.
• Mrs Head’s German lessons are brilliant!
• Mrs Dance in PE, as she teaches us live while we exercise.
• Our Language lessons are brilliant, as they involve us all by talking and making them repeat words.
• I have really enjoyed DT as we have managed to do a practical and our teacher is the perfect balance of serious and fun. So far, all teachers have made learning fun and interesting.
• The languages teachers that I’ve had have been good because they make lessons interactive.
• I’ve enjoyed how we went through the work quickly and have been able to enjoy some educational activities together as a class.
• Lots of them but I especially like the ones that get us to work in online groups because it feels more like were are together in the class.
• Miss Truman has been doing great online lessons with English, Mrs Wilkins is a very nice tutor, Mrs Zambon’s Spanish lessons are great we do lots of quizlets and interactive things.
• Mrs Lambourne-Moss makes lessons fun and interactive
• Mr Morton keeps us engaged and has very interactive English lessons.
• Mr Armstrong because he has a very good, efficient way of teaching.
• I enjoy history with Mr Bowler and Philosophy Religion and Ethics with Mr Stone because we have lots of interesting discussions.
• My tutor Mr Pritchard has been really helpful in catching up with me.
• Mr Morton has made our English lessons more fun by having different members of the class read different characters’ lines in the play we are studying.
• IT, Languages, PE and English have all been really fun.
• Mr Bowler makes History and Music lesson fun and Mr Maddocks because languages have been fun and I have been learning a lot.
• Mrs Dance has made PE interactive and fun from home.
• I have liked all my lesson but especially French, our teacher makes the lessons fun and I enjoy French anyway.
• Dr Williams because instead of being on a screen all lesson, he sets us work to do off-screen.
• Mr Wicks has been doing breakout rooms, which means that we can work in smaller groups, and then come back into the main lesson after the time has run out.
• Science with Mr Sydenham is fun, and I also enjoy PE with Mrs Dance as she shows us lots of exercises.
• History, as I am getting involved much more, and IT because it’s just really fun!
• Mr Sydenham as he lets us do practical experiments that we can do at home.
• Mr Mitchell because he is teaching us well in Latin and Geography.
• Mr Seward, Mr Wicks and Mr Mitchell are all brilliant.
• Mrs Oliver makes all of her lessons interesting and fun.
• I enjoy Mrs Zambon’s lessons because we often have a fun pop quiz and we do work off the screens, which is a nice break.
• Mr Stewart’s English class discussions, Mr Stone’s P.R.E. lessons and Mr Moller’s Drama lessons are all really good fun!
• In Maths, Mrs Wilkins has been doing a really good job online and putting a lot of effort into our educational experience.
• Miss Knight, Mr Selvester, Mrs Harvey and Mr Starr have all adapted really well to the new way of teaching
• All of my teachers are doing a great job with interaction with us and teaching.
• Mr Wicks’ lessons, because I like discussing and debating in the breakout room.
• Mr Seward: I enjoy having sports competitions on live calls and competing on Strava.
• I think that Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Dewar have done a good job during this lockdown since they have been doing a lot of online lessons with PowerPoints that make it easy to follow with and understand. I also think Mr Pritchard (my tutor) has done well during online lessons since most mornings we do a Kahoot quiz that make me and my classmates engage more with each other.
• Language lessons from Mrs Head and Mr Maddocks. They use a variety of materials to practice and work on as well as interactive live calls.
• Mrs Oliver- She uses different learning platforms to make learning French easier.
• Mr Zambon because he always helps if you need it and doesn’t let anyone fall behind. He also makes his lessons exciting
• German is my favourite lesson because it is live throughout the whole lesson. I have two German teachers, Mr Maddocks and Mrs Head, and they are both really motivating and engaging with the class. Mrs Wilkins in Maths and Mrs Harvey in art are the same.
• Mr Zambon is always relaxed and helps us to learn a lot.
• Mr Stewart doesn’t pressure us and his English lessons relaxed but fun.
• I like Languages lessons because the teachers are very interactive and it isn’t too dissimilar from a normal lesson at School.
• Mrs Oliver makes it fun despite the circumstances.
• Mrs Dewer still makes it fun and is always happy.
• Mr Zambon has made the lessons interesting and fun to do. He has also helped me as a tutor to try new things and get outside more and just generally feel better.
• I have enjoyed finding new educational websites since being on a device, which allow us to use more platforms for learning and I enjoy that because it also means that I can go back there and learn more about them when we get back to normal.

As a School, we are so proud of all of the innovative and inspiring ways our teachers were able to make remote teaching and learning engaging, while also making the time to encourage pupils to take breaks from, what would otherwise have been, a very mundane way of learning. Now that we are emerging from the pandemic, it is heartening to remember the ways in which teachers did this, but also the appreciation shown by our pupils that they were able to continue their education, and their membership to our community.