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Ms Emma Mitchell, Director of the IB at Whitgift School, spoke to a current Whitgift student, Will, on his experiences of learning online at Whitgift. Here, we take a look at that interview to see what he had to say, and also to gain an insight in to what our international summer school students on both our International Baccalaureate Preparation Course and Academic English Language Courses can expect in July. 

So, Will, how would you describe your experience of online learning at Whitgift during lockdown?

Kind of surreal, it was, it was 'unordinary', but at the same time 'too ordinary'; it was definitely a new experience for me. But at the same time, it was very similar to how I would be in class. I pretty much had an online lesson, a video call for every lesson, so it is essentially like being in the classroom just at home and not always in school uniform.

Nice. Which of your Maths or Science lessons were particularly memorable?

I think Chemistry. Usually you're in the lab doing some form of experiment, or at least having some interaction with the teacher, but in this sense, we couldn’t do any of that, obviously. Some teachers, for instance Physics, came into school and they actually did experiments on camera, and seeing that whilst at home was very weird, it was very -  like a really - weird experience for me!

How did those teachers track your progress over the months you were away?

We used Firefly, so this great service, and also (Microsoft) Teams. They would have drop-in sessions in the Team’s chat if there were any issues with homework and there's this constant chatter between teachers and students if there were any issues. Obviously during the pandemic there may have been some complications, but it's really useful having that other side to the online learning experience.

It sounds like your teachers did a good job of keeping in touch with you. How do they ensure that you were able to interact with your classmates as well?

Sometimes, for instance, for Chemistry, we got split up into three groups and each group would only have a certain amount of students in there, and, for instance, the teachers say: "OK, split off into your groups and do your own cohort of work" and that would be really great way to, sort of split off into smaller groups and still have that student interaction as well as the teacher popping in every now and then.

And what most impressed you about your teachers?

I think the dedication to still do all these lessons online. I can imagine as someone who's at home feeling very lazy, not going out too often, I think having that dedication to still teach in the same way you did it normally at school was really incredible to see from all my teachers.

What would you say to those Whitgift teachers to express your gratitude?

I don't think words can really put anything into my appreciation into words, but thank you very much for everything you've done and thank you for continuing our learning and not making any discrepancies in our progress of the courses

Please click here to watch the inteview