Reflections of a Digital Year in Covid....

This weekend we had Prize Giving Day for our Upper 6th Leavers as well as their Leavers' Ball.

These girls have been much more affected by the Covid pandemic compared to last years' leavers. Their final term and a half of last year was remote learning only; completely new to all.?

This resulted in their L6 assessments being conducted remotely via Teams and OneNote. We then moved into bubbles with a number of classes requiring hybrid learning as some didn't make it back to the UK or shielding for themselves or family reasons.

After Christmas, we were forced to go back to remote learning for all. By the time we got back to school TAGs had been announced, with all that required in the background. A few intense weeks followed with exams (some remote again) and storing all evidence digitally.

Many of the parents I had not seen or spoken to since September 2019. What blew me away was the genuine appreciation of what Queen Anne's School managed to do for their daughters. Many experienced working from home themselves, which allowed them to judge our digital provision with much more insight. Yes, we were fortunate that our Digital Journey as a Microsoft Showcase School had started well before the pandemic, but what astounded parents was the fact with how much professionalism we set up remote learning and ensured that our systems could cope under the added load in a matter of days. Not only switching it on but then building on, and excelling with it. Over the last 15 months, we delivered an incredible 20000 periods of remote/hybrid lessons ensuring that the learning continued during these difficult times.

Here are few quotes from parents:

“You have truly digitally enabled my daughter!”

“Two years ago, our daughter was using IT only when forced to, or socially - now she is using it in a professional way which will definitely benefit her for both university and further on in her career.”

“You have transformed our understanding of IT?- both in how education and companies use it”

“Although she doesn’t get a grade for her digital skills, what she has learned over the last year is immensely valuable.”

“I can’t thank your teachers enough for how much effort they put into learning how to teach remotely and further using technology when they got back into the classroom.”

Here are few quotes from girls:

“THANK YOU – you allowed me to learn!!”

“IT was never my thing, but you made it possible for me to be organised online”

“It (or should that be IT) always worked?- Thank you”

We are very proud to be a Microsoft Showcase School and so many of our staff have embraced digitally enhanced learning and embedded it into their daily life. The Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE) scheme is a constant companion in our CPD offering. All teaching staff are Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE) now, with over one-third of staff already qualified as experts.

Our particular introduction of technology-enhanced learning included Digital Ink. A tablet device with touchscreen, stylus and keyboard. The added gain has been immense. We have now embedded online marking and subsequently reduced our printing substantially. Staff have all their resources online in Teams and OneNotes. Girls submit their work digitally and get their work marked online. For exams, this has also resulted in more “essay-based” subjects such as English, Psychology, History etc being typed on the computer.

We have also worked extensively on Inclusive Technology inspired by some early conversations with Made by Dyxlexia, Kate Griggs and Arran Smith. With all girls now having a device, we are in a position to teach all about the different features they have available on a daily basis. Whether this is the Read Aloud, Immersive Reader or general accessibility.?Girls who previously had a human reader for exams, can now use a reader anytime, anywhere – democratising access to information. Very happy to have shared our experiences with Worshipful Company of Educators, Helen Simon and Margaret Mulholland of ASCL

As the Head of Computing, I am also overseeing the Computing in the Lower School and Computer Science for both GCSE and A Level. Since abolishing the old-style ICT courses, much has changed in the course content. We updated the syllabus to make it more relevant and interesting. This resulted in a big increase in girls taking up Computer Science at GCSE. We worked together with the Alexa Team from Amazon’s Isabel Huerga Ayza as well as Microsoft Digigirlz to make it more relevant and interesting.

Queen Anne’s School is the Computing at School (CAS) Hub for Reading. We can’t wait to welcome fellow educators back to our meetings.?I am also looking forward to work more extensively next year with Pete Marshman by hosting more events and courses around Computing for both Primary and Secondary schools in the Reading area.

An area of interest that has developed significantly within Computer Science is CyberSecurity. We have now entered girls for the third year running in the CyberEPQ from Qufaro, run by Julia Humphries . Girls excel in cyber topics as diverse as Driverless cars, Quantum computing, social media and impulsivity. In order to foster the interest, we take part in Bebras, CyberCenturion and other Capture the Flag competitions. Every year more girls are introduced to CyberFirst with a number of girls being invited back for additional opportunities.

Careers prospects for girls who understand technology are immense. Some girls have now received places on very competitive degree apprenticeships or bursaries for courses. Flying Start Degree: Technology – PwC?. Whether you are a scientist, linguist or artist, technology will be forever with you in your career.

The IDEA initiative with Polly Morgan ?is well established at Queen Anne’s School with many completing badges and gaining the Bronze and Silver Awards. We are very keen to start on the Gold Awards as soon as they are launched.

My Online Safety collection on Wakelet has seen a big increase in traffic with parents and fellow educators using it much more this year. Working from home has highlighted to many parents the issues of Online Safety and the need to be involved. I am grateful for the open conversation, communication and cooperation that we have with parents. I can’t wait to visit other schools next year again to spread the message of safe online life.?

I would like to pass on our appreciation and thanks to the team that helped to make it happen. I am grateful for the support of our Headmistress, Julia Harrington and the Deputy Head Teaching and Learning, Gill Little since we decided to go for the Big Bang Introduction in a meeting in December 2018. I am also well supported by Andy Dax to provide great teacher training on everything digital. We would not be anywhere near to where we are if I didn’t have the incredible Tim Mace and his IT Team. Also invaluable is the work of Deborah Hunt with the MIS (Schoolbase) and the exam team. They were particularly challenged by the constant periods on internal exams, both live and remote.

I am forever grateful for so many in my network of educators, technical specialists, technologists on LinkedIn and Twitter

Ty Goddard from The Education Foundation

EdTech50 schools and people

Jen King and the Microsoft Education Team

Worshipful Company of Educators: About | LinkedIn

Margaret Mulholland | LinkedIn

Isabel Huerga Ayza? from Amazon

CyberEPQ from Qufaro and Julia Humphries

PwC

IDEA and Polly Morgan

Epson Projector Teaching Showcase set-up Jason Walsott Craig Waters

Ian Phillips from the ISC Digital Strategy Group

John Jackson from LGfL

Gary Henderson

Robert Bradley

Beverly Clarke

Pete Marshman

Steve Beswick

With extra special thanks - Mike Tholfsen

... and the many schools that we worked with or that came to visit us (both physically and remote)

If you are still reading this, Thanks to you too.

If you are in a position to help girls get into technology or assist us in making it more interesting, do let me know. We are always happy to involve other schools locally as well.

For more frequent updates, feel free to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Thomas_Lange