Distance Learning & Hybrid Classrooms at Park Lane

With the Czech government’s latest Covid-19 control measures extending to Monday 2nd November for all schools other than kindergartens, Park Lane’s dedicated teachers are once again doing a phenomenal job of keeping our students from Year 2 to Year 13 as motivated and engaged as possible during an enforced spell of distance learning.

Park Lane was widely praised by our parent community for its well structured and innovative approach to remote learning when the school was first placed into lockdown in March 2020. Now, after months of experience, expertise and the sharing of ideas, our talented teachers and eager students are more accomplished than ever at dealing with the challenges of distance learning. Once again, our standard lesson timetables are being used to maintain a sense of normality and consistency for students at home - and, to avoid too much screen exposure, Zoom lessons are being mixed with a variety of learning tasks and projects to be completed off-line.

Teachers are also varying their lesson plans and teaching techniques to guard against mental fatigue as online learning via Zoom can be very intensive. To further supplement the distance learning experience, the school is seeking every opportunity to involve pupils in webinars, discussions and online clubs - some of which will be scheduled during the upcoming half-term break.

While we look forward to most students returning to school as soon as possible, our classrooms are continually being equipped to meet the ongoing learning needs of students who must remain at home due to medical vulnerabilities (or a period of quarantine). A range of well-researched ICT equipment and software will be widely used to enhance our absent students’ experience of learning from a distance and further increase their opportunities to interact with teachers and classmates. These ‘Hybrid Classroom’ innovations will also liberate our teachers from the restrictions of conducting their lessons from a Zoom ‘box’.

Our school leaders see these innovations lasting much longer than the Coronavirus pandemic and believe that our current plans will not only keep Park Lane International School at the forefront of 21st Century pedagogy, but will also enhance our teachers’ and pupils’ opportunities to share and pair with teachers and students from other schools and other countries.

Since distance and hybrid learning techniques are currently flourishing in the education sector, we have appointed teams of teachers from our Primary and Secondary schools to preview new hardware/software, to research new ideas and to adopt appropriate examples of good practice emanating from educational institutions across the globe.

It is very gratifying to witness so many resourceful and resilient teachers and students turning potential obstacles into opportunities and meeting the prevailing challenges with such positivity!

Paul Ingarfield
School Principal