“The Covid-19 pandemic has affected various aspects of human life and has brought in its wake radical changes in the way we live, think and learn. Several industries are going through sea changes and the education sector is no different. At ASN Senior Secondary School, we have stepped up to embrace the Covid-19 induced challenges and adapted to the new normal to ensure uninterrupted learning for our learners.”
Swarnima Luthra, principal, ASN Senior Secondary School, Mayur Vihar (Delhi).
Routinely ranked among Delhi’s top co-ed day schools in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings, ASN Senior Secondary School, Mayur Vihar (Delhi) has been a frontrunner in adopting globally benchmarked pedagogies and technology integration in the classroom.
Amid the ongoing mass closure of educational institutions prompted by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the school management and staff have stepped up to deal with the multiple exigencies of the unprecedented crisis through a multi-pronged strategy outlined below.
Online teaching-learning: The school initiated online learning for classes nursery-XII in a phased manner. Teachers put in extra hours to get trained which included revisiting the existing technology platforms, deploying new digital technologies, and engaging with technology partners for seamless integration of these technologies into the school’s learning systems. A multitude of platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Snap HW, online assessments and digital tools like podcasts and padlets were used in the online teaching-learning processes that followed a well chalked out class schedule. Flipped learning was encouraged along with live virtual classrooms.
Connecting with Parents: At the outset, the school promptly reached out to the parents community through a variety of digital platforms and surveys — both telephonic and online — and further strengthened the connect through online parent teacher meetings, emails, telephonic calls to parents from economically weaker sections, school app, etc. The school also conducted inspiring and informative online webinar series on Effective Parenting, How to Engage Children during the Lockdown for better parental engagement and wellbeing.
Redesigning curriculum: The school calendar and curriculum were redesigned for the virtual platform. Keeping in mind the need for social-emotional support for learners in these disturbing and distressful times, extra emphasis and care was put into designing co-curricular activities which fosters creativity and a sense of belongingness amongst students. Students across all grades participated in a multitude of cultural, literary and multimedia events such as talent hunt, online debating, quizzes, poster and movie making, health and hygiene drive, show and tell at school and interschool levels. Students with their parents whole-heartedly participated in various engaging activities organised by the school. The school website and social media pages were kept abuzz with the latest happenings providing a much needed social connect between the members of the school community.
Socio-emotional learning: The online connect and counselling sessions by the school counselor also went a long way in ensuring the emotional and mental well-being of the students. Various webinars on career counselling, updating skills, knowledge resources upgrades like Liberal Education in India, Innovation enabled by Microsoft Teams and Technology, Developing Entrepreneurial Thinking in the 21st century, Cyber Safety, New normal in Education, Exploring the Role of Competency Based Assessment and many more were organised for both the students and teachers.
Community Outreach: The school team led by the principal donated 850 PPE kits to local hospitals. The school also made provision for an open kitchen and distributed essential items to the poor and those in need during the lockdown period.
“We are committed to make education more relevant in the post-Covid era; to emphasise deeper learning by introducing progressive ed-tech solutions that provide enhanced immersive learning experiences to the learners and help them strike the right balance between academic excellence and social-emotional wellbeing,” says Swarnima Luthra.
Posted in Campus, News
