The other side of COVID-19 at Caboolture Montessori School
During a time of uncertainty and stress, all we can rely on is what we have, what we know and what we do.
It became apparent right from the initial stages in February that CMS had an exceptional group of people doing the work of educating young people. Members in administration and teaching staff, all rallied and worked together. We directed our efforts to one main goal: the goal was to continue to provide a business that met our school vision and mission by remaining safe.
Providing an exceptional learning environment, when all the known practices are no longer attainable, requires unusual skills and fortitude. Our staff have these and more. Within a couple of weeks we saw:
Teaching staff
- training with new online platforms and dealing with unsurmountable connectivity issues
- researching ways to deliver an online/offline education to young students starting from 15 months to 12 years; yes a program was delivered for each of these groups
- preparing learning packs for parents for weeks at a time that included a blended education, inclusive of all subject learning including PE, Italian, Learning support
- connecting with families in various modes due to their lifestyle and making sure that all children and parents saw teaching staff regularly
- visiting children in their home if we felt there was a need
- working until all hours of the day or weekend to get the work ready for their scholars
- becoming creative in running multiple platforms for learning
All this was and is being done with no complaints by teachers and even shared with laughter and positivity.
Administration staff
- providing at all times a safe and caring environment for those that had to attend their work place
- ensuring functionality of business in areas of facilities, finances, technology and communication
- communicating regularly information and directives from Government entities with all stakeholders
- being available to hear what was needed by different stakeholders
Our school Governance and Management cannot be more proud and thankful to be working with the staff at CMS. They say it is in critical times that it is the best and worst that shows in people. We definitely saw this at CMS: our staff are amazingly awesome and we are so lucky to lead with them. We will continue to write about this time as it has been a powerful way to understand who we stand with every day.
“Joy, feeling one’s own value, being appreciated
and loved by others,
feeling useful and capable of production
are all factors of enormous value for the human soul.”
Maria Montessori
