Ivan Bailey, principal of Krugersdorp High School (KHS) has no doubt that he and his staff are fully prepared to take on the new year and work through the curriculum with time to spare.
“The government has specified that we will do ‘School A’ and ‘School B’. Grade 12 learners will return on a daily basis as the school did last year. There is a massive advantage to teaching smaller classes which allows for learners to have more one-on-one opportunities with the teacher. In-person you can see the learners handing in their homework. They tend to be nervous to ask questions online in front of their team mates. However, online learning is fantastic during lockdown.
Teachers have found that younger learners battle with the School A and School B system – they have difficulty with self-discipline to work independently. We do believe as time goes by, they will become more accustomed to working online,” Ivan explained.
KHS is going all out to ensure that social distancing is implemented, and learners and the school environment are sanitized regularly.
“Each grade has their own entrance in the morning and leaves through it at the end of the school day. When they enter, their hands are sprayed with sanitizer, their temperatures are checked and they answer a few questions regarding their health. The learners then go to their classes where their teachers are waiting for them. The school has set up various systems around the school to ensure that the interaction between learners is minimal – we are very fortunate to have such a large campus so that each grade is separated from the other.”
He added that KHS will only have half their learners present on any given school day. On the days they won’t be attending classes they have work to complete online.
“We were one of the first government schools in Gauteng to introduce online teaching using Microsoft Teams. KHS has always been a leader in innovation and, in fact, introduced a fibre optic backbone to the school in 2012, and launched a Moodle-based platform in 2015. Therefore the transition to online learning was easy,” Ivan concluded.
