Physical Education continued with students completing a Daily Fitness Log to track their progress, and a series of interactive resources were created with a focus on students’ physical and mental wellbeing. Students also took part in sports challenges, such as the #twopointsixchallenge raising funds for the National Brain Appeal and The Epilepsy Society.
IMPACTS OF THE PANDEMIC SENIOR SCHOOL T
he Summer Term was like no other at North London Collegiate School. From the beginning of lockdown, we were determined to continue providing the same quality of education to our students online with our distinctive focus on scholarship, and academic stretch and challenge beyond the restrictions of examination specifications.
At the heart of NLCS’s ethos is academic enrichment. We pride ourselves on offering an ambitious academic education, and central to this is our Senior Societies Programme, where we have over 50 student-led societies covering a vast panorama of interests, from Film and Media through to Pure Sciences. Every Society continued to meet online and led thoughtful discussions on a whole host of issues, such as artistic creativity and freedom of expression.
As soon as we switched to online school, we introduced a daily pastoral form time, which enabled students to meet with their tutors and allowed for much needed social interaction and pastoral support to continue. Our counselling service was also moved online providing extra support for students. We were very proud of how our students adapted to the challenges of the virtual school and in true NLCS style, they responded with great creativity and resilience. In addition to online learning, we held screen-free days, where students took part in offline projects, ranging from illustrating a book to making afternoon tea for the family. We also introduced a ‘Feel Good Week’ encouraging students to consider the five key steps to positive mental health.
The core element of the Senior Societies Programme is our weekly lecture slot, where we invite visiting speakers to talk on an issue of particular relevance to each Society. We continued with our ‘visits’ online and welcomed, amongst others, Amelia Gentleman (award-winning journalist) and Ketna Patel (Pop Artist), who encouraged students to question and formulate their own opinions on a range of issues. All of this was complemented by a full range of online Extra-Curricular Activities, including Sport, Music and Drama. Staff-led activities ranged, from public speaking and verbatim theatre to computer coding and Computer-aided design. After just a couple of weeks, our students were keen to take the reins, and they added a spectacular array of over 40 student-run options, from Debating club to Magic Minds magic club, all attended remotely! Our Sports Department led a superb virtual Sports Day, whilst the Music Department enabled students to perform in virtual concerts. Our students organised their own online concerts and an end of term ‘Showcase finale’ that demonstrated the talent existing throughout the year groups. We were dazzled with some superb monologues, dance, musical performances, and even NLCS’s take on the loo roll challenge! While many might have thought lockdown would spell the end of a rich and diverse extra-curricular programme, we were delighted that our students and staff came together so enthusiastically to continue to enrich their education in a manner that our founder, Frances Mary Buss, would have been most proud! At the end of term, staff agreed that though this time had been incredibly challenging, and that we could not wait to be back in school with our students, we all learned an enormous amount from the experience and the value technology can add to the classroom.
Canons Choir Music for Youth Making PPE faceshields
Year 7 virtual ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ 19
