Update on the current situation

Dear Parents

I hope that you and your families are all in good health during the current crisis. Today marks the end of the sixth week since schools were closed. I write to inform you of our plans to take our teaching and learning activities forward while the school is closed and after schools re-open.

Please take the time to read through this letter and feel free to email me at [email protected] if you need any clarifications.

Our current information from the Department of Education (conveyed to us at a meeting of Principals yesterday) is as follows:

It is currently planned to re-open schools on the 11^th of May. However, this date and the manner of re-opening (i.e. all the students at once or in selected groups) are very uncertain.
Schools are requested to use a Learning Management System and continue online education for all Grades, with teachers keeping a record of what has been done.
The GCE Advanced Level and GCE Ordinary Level examinations will be held in August and December, respectively, as scheduled.
The papers for these examinations will be set assuming that the ENTIRE SYLLABUS has been covered, with no reduction in content.

If the situation in the country permits schools to be re-opened on the 11^th of May, it will very likely be a step by step process. We will ensure that all required health precautions are taken. We expect to inform you of detailed plans for re-opening over the first week of May.

As you are aware, we have been providing supplementary study materials for our students through the website over the past few weeks. I apologize for any delays and also for any inconvenience experienced by those trying to access material.

In addition to the supplementary material, we will be putting out the monthly test papers for March for Grades 6 to 11 from tomorrow. We will release one paper a day – beginning with English and First Language on the first two days. You will be informed about the link to download the papers via an SMS. The schedule of the remaining papers will also be available on the download page so that your son can prepare for the next paper.

Please make sure that your son prepares for these papers and writes the answers under EXAMINATION CONDITIONS. Please see the instructions on the webpage for instructions on how to maintain these conditions. We will correct the papers in class once the school re-opens.

Please note that all the material handed out so far can be considered SUPPLEMENTARY. We are aware that not all our students have access to computers and the internet at home. We plan to complete the full complement of school days and cover the syllabuses as usual IF school re-opens in mid-May AND there are no further interruptions.

However, it is very likely that there will be interruptions to the normal functioning of the school throughout 2020 as further outbreaks of the Coronavirus emerge. Under this scenario we will be forced to shift some of our classroom teaching to a variety of internet resources. Therefore, it is important that EVERY student, and particularly those in the Upper School, have access to a computer with an adequate internet connection.

I urge all parents to make suitable arrangements to provide their sons with these facilities as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact me if you have any difficulties in this regard. Once everyone has these facilities we can conduct scheduled online classes using tools such as Microsoft Teams and a Learning Management System.

It is important that we can communicate with parents through email in order to set up and use these tools. We have sent a request by SMS to all parents asking for their email address and followed up by calling all parents who did not respond to the SMS. However, we are still missing some email addresses.

Therefore, please send an email with your son’s name, admission number, grade and class to [email protected] if you have not already done so. Here “xx” is your son’s grade. If you have more than one son in school please send an email for each of them.

While we will notify you of important developments through an SMS please continue to check the website daily.

Thank You