While the Covid-19 pandemic forced the government to decide not to push through with the traditional face-to-face learning, students still had to continue learning through alternative methods like going digital.
It was fortunate that St. Edward School (SES) in Lancaster New City, Cavite anticipated this and was able to plan ahead by shifting to a fully digital curriculum. As a digital campus, SES was able to bolster its technological infrastructure to empower creative learning for more than 2,000 students, offering the complete basic education program from pre-school to senior high school.
“The pandemic is challenging for schools, especially private schools. But we at St. Edward School see this pandemic as an opportunity to make our students continue to learn,” said Dr. John Cabalo, SES principal.
“We did lot of planning including considering other modalities, like blended learning which is a combination of in-school and at the same time online learning; modular; and full online as other schools are doing. When we conducted a survey among the stakeholders, most especially parents, we felt that it the best decision was to conduct and launch full online modality,” Cabalo explained.
SES goes full digital.
In response to the shift from face-to-face learning to online platform brought about by the pandemic, the SES launched The Edwardian EDGE: Edwardian Excellence in Digital Global Education to deliver the teaching-learning process into the digital space. To assure quality education and learning, the SES Edwardian Excellence is patterned after global education, expanded worldview to help develop students to become global citizens anchored on universal values and character formation.
“It is timely as we shift to online modality with the use of technology as our platform to deliver learning and to extend our service to our students through this technology,” Cabalo said, adding that the deployment of a full-online program will entail the use of several effective platforms to deliver education while ensuring the safety of learners at home.
SES’s digital learning uses Aralinks as its learning management system. Aralinks is the authoring tool for online learning modality where the teachers design, develop and execute lessons, activities, assessments and evaluations for their students. For higher grade levels which require more materials, SES also makes use of Google Suite for Education.
“Aralinks is an interactive platform for students because it has features which allow students to be highly engaged in the lessons by way of interactive games, graphics and video animations, platforms that support students’ interests towards learning,” Cabalo explained.
At the start of the school year, SES distributed interactive and essential educational materials known as the Edwardian Learning Packet to support the children’s studies of the kids.
Ensuring learning continues
Two months ago, SES conducted a mid-year survey among parents to assess the implementation of the online learning modality. In that survey, 78 to 80 percent of the parents expressed their satisfaction with the ongoing conduct of the online modality
“SES has tools for assessment of learning. We are guided by the learning outcomes and learning competencies which serve as our benchmark for student learning and achievement. We have several tools to assess learning with the teachers, school leaders, and academic coordinators. We cannot just simply implement this online modality. We have to make sure that the students are really learning. That is our goal every day – to make sure students learn whether the class is synchronous or asynchronous,” said Cabalo.
Creating synergy between parents and school
“The school has been transparent and appreciative of the efforts of the parents. At the beginning, we emphasize parent involvement is a must. We propose it to the parents while the schools will be closed, their homes will be their classrooms. Students will be away from the teacher; therefore our kids will be with their parents who will be working hand in hand to serve as teachers at home. We appreciate the gestures of our parents to cooperate with the school to make learning continue,” Cabalo emphasizes on the importance of parents’ role in ensuring learning for their children.
For parents like Angeline Glorian, mother of two, the first two weeks of online classes with SES has been challenging. With the new normal education setting, she has to be creative in creating mindset for her children to continue learning despite the pandemic.
“At SES, we as parents are properly guided. One thing I like about SES is the convenience of using Aralinks wherein topics and learning materials are uploaded and they can go back to the topics and lessons,” explained Glorian.
“Now, my kids can open the laptop on their own. We need full support from the teachers and school, constant communication with them regarding the lessons. We can now see good result,” she added.
During last year’s SES curriculum planning for the upcoming school year, the school has been mindful in considering the time that students are allowed to be fully online because there is impact on their mental health.
The school provides schedule of classes on a two-week period, enabling the students and parents to know tasks so it develops the love for learning and promote independent study, which are vital parts of online learning modality.
Indicators of synergy between parents and school are several venues made available to students and parents to consult and to reach out to the teachers and vise versa, both for academic and non-academic concerns through email.
Cabalo also added that SES supports the development and honing of students’ social skills through interaction with their classmates via avenues that the school provides even in an online setting.
Raising the bar on education technology
As the challenges of pandemic continue, online learning would still be the most applicable modality for now.
“While we are so overwhelmed with the response of the parents in our mid-year survey, we cannot rest on our laurels.. We have committed to ourselves, from our school leaders to support staff, that there has to be a review and evaluation of the current conduct of online modality in preparation for the next school year,” Cabalo mentioned.
To ensure that the school is conforming to global standards, Cabalo also said curriculum review is also essential. There is a need to continuously research and benchmark on how other countries are doing it, especially in certain subject areas such as Mathematics, Language, Science, and Physical Education.
The Department of Education recently visited SES and all indicators show that the school in on the right track. Likewise, SES has initially been granted the seal of candidate status towards its accreditation by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).
“We were able to see how our teachers teach, how our students learn and how parents are working with their kids and their responses to our online modality. We have met our expectations from the zero uncharted world of online modality as we started planning it last year. We struggled at the start of the lockdown but with just eight weeks before the end of the current school year, we can just simply breathe and see the fruits of what we have planted in the beginning,” Cabalo concluded.
For more information on St. Edward School, visit https://ses.edu.ph.
1 comment
Good job and congrats to St. Edward School in Lancaster Cavite! 🙂