19. March 2024

In Heinrich-Böll-Schule we experienced a first situation of quarantine in September. One class had to stay at home because of risky encounters but all children were healthy and needed to be taught. The class team developed an impressing concept of home schooling and managed to strengthen relationships between families, pupils and teachers during this difficult situation. I want to present you some basic ideas of this concept. Maybe it can help you when you get into a similar situation.

Conditions:

  • second grade
  • very different psycho-social situations at home
  • at least one smartphone in each family (there was not a computer in each household)
  • still no possibility for the school to borough laptops for those who hadn’t one
  • using the school cloud still not possible
  • the pure working time in subjects is normally about 2,5 hours
  • the relationship between class team and families shouldn’t be burdened through to high working expectations but some children needed to be busy for staying balanced during the quarantine (very individual interventions necessary)
  • families are used to be called by teachers and experience the calls usually as supportive

How to do the home schooling under these conditions:

  • All Children got a parcel and a letter to feel comfortable (tea bag, story for each day, an idea for being busy for each day (colouring picture, riddle, an idea for doing crafts, easy cookie recipe, …) and some little sweets
  • Each child works each day with the Learning App of the school (Smartphone):
    • 30 minutes maths
    • 30 minutes German
    • General subjects and music if they want
  • Teachers can watch the fulfilled tasks and adjust the next tasks individually
  • 30 minutes physical education (links for “kindergarten sports”)
  • 30 minutes home schooling via telephone by a teacher (each day same time):
    • Chat / Good morning-ritual
    • 10 minutes: German
    • 10 minutes: maths
    • 3 minutes: English
    • Game

Home schooling via telephone follows a common headline each day but each pupil gets individual lessons.

After home schooling lessons teachers and parents exchanged about the current situation, difficulties and problems. Teachers gave advice to families if wished.

The class team exchanged every day about their experiences and adjusted their activities.

Most of the families felt comfortable with this idea of home schooling and caring. The trust between families and class team even grew during this difficult situation. Most of the children loved to speak with their teachers and to get individual lessons.

These were the main points of the concept. If you are interested in reading the whole concept you can find a powerpoint presentation under the topic “Additional documents”. We thank our colleagues who have developed this concept 😊.

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