ACADEMIC The 2019-2020 academic year was dealt an unforeseen and unprecedented blow by the enforced closure of schools for the entire Summer Term. Pupils, staff and parents, alike, felt the impact keenly; shock and disbelief were compounded by the announcement that public exams would be cancelled. Contemplating the ‘new normal’ of life in lockdown – separated from friends and cut off from the spiritual, cultural and academic
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wellspring of College – many Cheltonians must have emerged from the Easter holidays feeling somewhat despondent. The Common Room met this emotional and educational emergency with determination, good humour and consummate skill, however, mobilising a remote school programme that was second to none. As you will see from the montage below and the departmental reports that follow, this professional tour de force achieved very high standards of teaching and learning and, crucially, maintained the strong bonds of the College community that are so intrinsic to its spirit and
character. The pupils responded in kind; their optimism, resilience and commitment to learning was spectacular. As a body, we emerged from the ordeal stronger, wiser and, paradoxically, closer. Looking back, therefore, in contemplating the entire extraordinary experience, the wonderful oxymoron with which Dickens opens A Tale of Two Cities seems remarkably apt, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....’
Mr Timothy Brewis
ACADEMIC
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