“As Dennis P. Kimbro rightly said ‘Life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we react to it.’ The entire school fraternity has responded to the disruptive Coronavirus pandemic with strength, positivity and willingness to support each other. I believe that the silver lining is that we will emerge as a stronger and more skilled set of educationists who believe in ourselves and outdo ourselves for the benefit of all stakeholders of the institution. The bond between the students and teachers has never been stronger.”

– Anvita Gupta, principal of the IB (Geneva) and CAIE (UK) affiliated Candor International School, Bangalore — Karnataka’s top ranked international day-cum-boarding school.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and ongoing emergency lockdown, the Pre-K-12 Candor International School has been adopting a carefully customised approach to cater to the diverse learning needs of students from Early Years to High School (2.5-16 years) by leveraging a wide range of virtual learning solutions and communication/collaboration platforms. Some of the ways in which the school is providing an effective interim alternative to regular schooling include:

Engaging stories and lessons: Google Classrooms and Zoom — a popular cloud-based video conferencing platform — have been facilitating an engaging learning experience for the Early Years students through recorded stories and lessons. Zoom has also been enabling teachers to conduct regular classes for the primary school students.

Flexible virtual classroom: Digital platforms such as Edmodo, Managebac, Skype, Zoom and YouTube have been enabling Middle and High School teachers to post learning resources, schedule assignments and provide timely feedback to the students. Virtual classes are scheduled between 9 am – 2:30 pm on weekdays and different subject teachers choose one hour slots. This schedule allows for flexibility helping students and teachers reap the full benefits of virtual learning.

Structured learning: A weekly time table is chalked out and shared with students and parents. Parents are regularly updated on the progress of their children through email. Teachers have been tracking daily attendance and alert parents immediately when a student is not attending classes.

Virtual Collaboration: Candor staff and management have been using the virtual meeting platforms to collaborate seamlessly with each other and chalk out plans for the next academic year.

Proactive communication: Committed to the psycho-emotional well-being of students, Candor teachers have been proactively communicating with students and sharing tips on coping with the COVID-19 pandemic through self-recorded videos.

Parents Voices: 

“Thanks to the entire team of Candor for bringing in the virtual classroom; it is an amazing tool to keep our little ones engaged every single day and not lose touch with what they have learnt in their regular classes besides learning new topics while staying at home. A big thank you to the Candor staff and management for the amazing work.”

– Priya, parent of Aishni (Grade II)

“I am really grateful and thankful to school management for proactively taking steps to engage the kids in online classes. Both my daughters are fully engaged! On a lighter note, I am finding Ankita more enthusiastic about learning now than she was in the regular classes. Please convey our heartfelt thanks to all the teachers who worked hard to make it up and running in no time.”

– Anuradha, parent of Anoushka (IB-I) and Ankita (Grade IX)