A meeting of the headmasters of all French schools in London was convened on Sunday 15th of March. It was instigated by the French Embassy’s SCAC (Service de Coopération et d’Action Culturelle) division and had as an objective to discuss COVID 19, its implications specifically regarding French schools and a general plan of action.
Following this meeting it was decided that « learning at school » would cease from the evening of Monday 16th of March. This meant that the school would close its doors to pupils and staff in readiness for remote learning to begin. On the 16th of March, at the end of the school day, pupils were asked to take all their belongings including books and textbooks home with them.
Along with this, a questionnaire was sent out to families regarding their IT requirements and on the 17th of March, those who had expressed an interest in acquiring a computer were lent a Chromebook or a tablet by the school.
Furthermore teaching staff held meetings on Friday the 13th of March, Monday the 16th of March and Tuesday 17th of March to discuss how best to continue teaching and how remote teaching would work best.
It was decided that Zoom, Google classroom and pronote would be the tools of choice in order to maintain the same quality of teaching.
Teaching staff also shared their various teaching resources and good practices amongst themselves.
By putting all these various strategies into place it would not only ensure that everything would be ready for the students to start their remote learning on the 18th of March but also that there would be continuity in their learning and that contact would be maintained.
The families were understanding and felt reassured by this decision.
Mr Bittman, the headmaster, confirmed that the school was pleased to be able to provide them with answers in these challenging times as well as the relevant educational tools with which to continue their children’s education.
Teaching and administrative staff would be standing by in order to offer support to families and help them with any situation they may find themselves in.
We are ready to help. We are aware of the challenges that our school community is about to face and we are ready to face them together responsibly and as a team.
Opened in 2011, the CFBL welcomes 700 French speaking students from nursery school to Y10. The CFBL’s vocation is to transmit the best of French school culture by offering its students a bilingual and multicultural education which will best enable them to prepare for their future.