The last week before we broke up for the half term holiday was a riot of colour and costume. Carnival — the pre-Lent festival — is always a lot of fun at our school, and we were determined to celebrate it with as much fun as anti-infection regulations would allow. Which was plenty.So, on Monday we all turned up to school in silly socks.On Tuesday, it was crazy hair.On Wednesday, we wore our funniest hats.On Thursday, we went monochrome, and tried to dress in one colour.On Friday, it was the fancy dress free-for all and a socially-distanced dance extravaganza in the school field.Who says you can’t have fun and stay safe at the same time?! We all had a wonderful time in our carnival outfits!

When we came back to school after six months away, a few things were immediately noticeable.Yes, we were all wearing masks. That was the most obvious thing. Also, the school day started differently, with staggered arrival times and students going straight into their classrooms: no waiting in lines outside. The timetable had a changed shape, with longer break times and no assemblies. Even the classrooms had been reconfigured, with previously shared tables dismantled and transformed into individual, carefully spaced desks.But among the children, there was one overwhelming feeling, noticeable to all of us who have become accustomed to the September return to school: joy. Joy to be back with their friends, joy at seeing their teachers and joy to be back in a real classroom, instead of a virtual one. It was that palpable sense of delight to be back that buoyed up the staff, as we all grappled with new ways of doing things, with unfamiliar timetables and the enforcement of infection control regulations.For all of us, it’s been an intense few months. But the desire to keep everyone safe and happy in the best possible learning atmosphere has been shared by the whole community. And we’ve been lucky: the pandemic has mostly been kept at bay. All our classes have stayed open throughout the autumn term and our attempts to prevent the spread of any infections have been successful so far.We can go into 2021 proud of the way our school has risen to the challenge of these extraordinary times. There are likely to be more challenges in the months that lie ahead, but we will make every effort to overcome them and keep doing what we do best: creating a happy learning environment for everyone at IEP Elian’s La Nucía.

“We’ll have to close for two weeks,” our director told us on March the 12th.  The previous week, all schools in Madrid had closed in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19. We suspected the rest of Spain might follow, so we quickly created Google Classrooms for all our students, or expanded our use of educational applications like ClassDojo, in an attempt to minimise the disruption to our teaching. We didn’t have much time, but we thought these measures would be a stopgap: we would soon be back at school.

The weeks wore on and the numbers of Covid-19 infections kept climbing. The Spanish government extended the state of emergency again and again. When the Easter break arrived, we realised there was a good chance we might not return to our beautiful school site until the next academic year. We had to do our best to make online education work for our students NOW. We would have to adapt our teaching strategies and our students would have to adapt their approach to learning. And we would need a lot of support from their families, especially with the younger children.Suddenly, as well as teachers, we became film-makers and youtubers, creating video lessons and explanations for our classes in a range of subjects. Many of us turned to PowerPoint and taught our students using slideshows. Every day, we put our lessons on Google Classroom or Class Dojo, shared links to educational web pages and send out documents and .pdf files full of instructions and resources. We initiated daily videochats with our classes, and our students had to take a crash course in the correct etiquette to use for online meetings. Our Teaching Assistants stepped in to help with the deluge of online marking and conduct one-to-one guided reading sessions.

It wasn’t easy for any of us, but we did the best we could. We are lucky that most of our students have access to the internet. We are also lucky that so many parents were prepared to engage with our efforts and that they gave us and their children the essential support we all needed. 

And believe me, we know how difficult it can be, because many of us are also parents, having to juggle our online teaching with caring for our own children and supervising their education.

Online school did have plenty of fun moments. The photos and movies we all shared were astonishing in their variety, comedy and creativity. A virtual Sports Day might once havebeen regarded as impossible, but we pulled it off and it was a joy to see our children competing in the events via videos sent from home.We had end-of-term parties via videochat, and our secondary section held its annual prizegiving ceremony using a slideshow full of certificates and filmed messages of congratulation.  When all’s said and done, there are many aspects of physical school that just can’t be replicated in a virtual environment, no matter how sophisticated. But, in many ways, this has been a valuable learning experience for everyone and while we hope we aren’t forced back into quarantine once more, that remains a possibility. And if we have to close our site again, we will carry the lessons with us to ensure that nobody has to miss out on their education and the sense that our school community can continue beyond the classroom.