Cranford Review 2021

# SCIENCE
14
Challenges and Solutions in a Covid World
An
education in a COVID environment
has been an adjustment for staff and
students alike. This has been the most
disruption to a student’s education since World War
2 and it was imperative that students still reaped
the rewards from being delivered an outstanding
education. One of the challenges for science was
balancing theory with practical work which is the
heart of the subject. Through collaboration with
science technicians, teachers and external agencies
this was made possible allowing students to continue
developing their problem solving and analytical
skills which are crucial in wider contexts. This was
an important milestone this year as not all schools in
the borough had the facilities or resources to allow
practical work to occur in a COVID environment but
with the support from the school it made it possible
for students at Cranford. This meant the department
could continue to fulfil its mission statement to
“maximise aspirations and opportunity for all
students, regardless of backgrounds and abilities to
reach their full potential in mastering the skills and
harbouring the deep knowledge required in order to
become young scientists and appreciate the value of
science within society through outstanding teaching
and learning”.
Just as a sense of normality was on the horizon
the UK was hit with wave 3 resulting in a national
lockdown. The department’s vision has always been
to use research led techniques to build student’s
science capital by delivering a holistic curriculum
that; invokes an enthusiasm for science, focuses
on developing working scientifically skills and
promotes a deep understanding of scientific concepts
through links to the bigger picture. This meant the
departmental focus for this period was delivering
outstanding lessons with a focus on engagement
and informative feedback to mimic the classroom
environment. Students and staff spent the autumn
term developing proficiency in using Microsoft
teams thus our curriculum was adapted to deliver live
lessons to all classes. During the school closure, it
was important that the department was able to ensure
students continued to engage in science and reflect
the same enthusiasm they had in a classroom setting.
This meant staff were trained and confident in using
software programmes such as Nearpod and Kahoot
to model in class teaching and assessment. Staff
feedback was that Kahoot unlocked a competitive
element in students they hadn’t seen before with year
13’s looking forward to and being disappointed if
the weekly Kahoot quiz didn’t go ahead. The use of
Nearpod in a virtual environment also worked well
with students stating “it is more interactive and good
for questions” and “other teachers should definitely