 Yeah, so I'm Jen. I work as a senior academic manager in ISI Dublin. I've been working here for about 15 years and yeah, doing a few different roles from teaching to yeah, academic manager and yeah, it's been a wonderful journey, especially the last year. It's been the most challenging and yeah. So can I start by asking you then about the challenges that the pandemic has posed in your school or classroom? Yeah, so quite a few challenges and yeah, as I say, we welcome the learning experience but the first thing that the most difficult was the reluctant students who faced this pandemic with us and they didn't want to study online and they felt that classes were not going to be the same as face-to-face classes and they thought that they were asking for refunds and unfortunately we didn't give refunds but we did give vouchers and to all the students who went back home and we were understanding to all the students and tried to help as much as possible in all their circumstances. We found that the students who did continue with us, which was about half of the students, about 700 that we started with just before the lockdown, about 300 stayed with us and then the number increased to about 350 during those months as well. The connection and internet problems were I think the biggest challenge and I suppose student living arrangements was making me difficult for some of them to connect to the classes but so we tried to give some of them holidays and we always tried to ask them to stay connected with us, communicating what their situation was and we were understanding as much as possible. We're at the same time while complying with all the rules that we thought at first because they were not communicated with us straight away as we wanted to keep classes as stable as possible and continuing with the three hours of classes every day with the elective classes and everything as much as possible. So I think it was, we asked from the students is communication and then we were understanding and helpful as much as possible, yeah. So because it was a changing situation in a way from last March when we saw like two-week closure was going to be all it was and now here we are in November with another one. How have you, how did you respond to the evolving challenge as it went along? So I'll tell you what, during the first lockdown we, what we, what I tried to do was support the teachers as much as possible so that they had the best tips and materials and online platforms so that they could be there for the students as much as possible. We were, all the staff was really communicating with the students as much as possible as well and what we felt was that even online classes ended up being more effective in a way, more teachers were more, even more caring, more, more individually checking on students. The WhatsApp group started in every class or in most classes. We had a WhatsApp group with the teachers and we had to, we shared tips and materials as much as possible and I thought that it was just the feedback basically that we had from the students was that they absolutely loved online classes even, you know, as much as they liked face-to-face classes but even more at times, you know, they really felt that the teachers were so so helpful and caring and yeah, it was lovely, it was lovely. We actually could keep that sense of community that we have here in ISI so much, you know, the social program was moved online and we did a lot of activities with the students. We even had a welfare officer who was there to connect with them if, you know, anyone was, you know, feeling anxious or worried so that was how we adapted and we learned so much and we are actually grateful in a way, the fact that we went paperless for all those six months was wonderful and that we learned so much about online materials and platforms that we kept all that when we went back face-to-face so it was an amazing experience for all of us and I think it was hard but it was great and we ended up catering and helping all the students even with all their difficulties and yeah, the community kept growing and kept us as vibrant as ever and and yeah, I think that the experience was was in reaching and I think we can learn a lot from it and continue applying all the things that we creatively learned during this time to to enrich our classes going forward. And what would you say are the the things you have learned? I mean that it's not just how to do this or how to do that but as the kind of, in a holistic sense about what's important to people or what works, what do you think you have learned from the whole experience? To care, to care, to be there for the students we were always there for the students but this was, you know, a different level to realizing that even if we had 300 students in the school they were they were a person with a whole history and all the difficulties that they were facing and we had to be there for them more more than ever and that was and I feel we did it even even the feedback that we're getting now and during the during the first lockdown even with all the complaints that the students had we were there for them so I think that the care the level of care and trying to continue building that community at a human level was the best thing really, yeah. So if we have to look forward then what would you say we will keep from this this period what do you think will go back to where we were before and what new things might kind of come in in the in the medium to long term? I think that there's going to be a huge we're going to learn what the best of both world of the online classes and the and the face-to-face classes and merge and have a an even better model and I think that's that's that's what's coming we are we don't want to go back to what we used to do because there were there were flaws there and I think that we can learn from you know the more eco-friendly paperless model and there is huge resources huge resources online a lot of materials that we can use and and hopefully we'll be able to to combine them all you know the fact that you know with social distancing the pair work is is more difficult you know we can try to do that you know a different way you know and I think that there's huge potential to to to learn from the benefits of both and then merge them I we're not there yet ISI what we tried to do was to try to go back and give the students the ISI that they used to know and and also just to try to give a GNIB and ILEP the trust that okay we are you know doing these face-to-face we are you know don't don't hesitate to let anyone any students coming through immigration because we're going to be there for them but there's huge huge benefits from learning you know all the benefits of the online classes and and merge it so we will we'll we'll look at that model and in in the future as I say now we are just trying to keep the students the face-to-face classes as soon as we can again and but we are definitely looking into a hybrid model in the future so what you're saying obviously that's not possible now for for for for other reasons but that's something that I've heard where you I don't know if you were in any of the equal conference but I was gathering that from a lot of the speakers there that blended or hybrid if they're different things which I'm not sure about are going to be part of the model or need to be part of the model somewhere in between online and and and face-to-face that's how that's how you you see the future of us I I see the future there I definitely see it there and also having a bit more flexibility in that when and if you know another lockdown happens we are not okay you know transitioning again to something totally different but it's something that we can adapt a little bit more easily from one model to another but as I say we haven't implemented that yet when during the the few months that we were allowed to go back face-to-face we were fully face-to-face and and we had all the care and the safety that that was required to do that and it worked quite well there were there were a few hiccups along the way but yeah students were thrilled to to be back face-to-face and and we offered that to them but I think the future is something a bit more blended yeah do you want to show the some of the pictures there to kind of give an idea of what it looked like in practice when you went back into the into the school after the online period yeah so yeah so we had to be a little bit more spaced and distant so this is the the staff room and and we actually found that the staff room had never been so clean and tidy ever before than ever before it was just wonderful to see teachers tidying up after themselves so much this is these are some pictures examples of classrooms and how we distant everyone we had to put the tape in the on the tables because sometimes during pairwork activities students tended to move closer together so we needed to separate them make sure that there was something visible for them this is the canteen and these are the student lounges where students could you know have something to eat but be a bit more distant from each other again this is the staff room from a different angle and oh that's me and the kids dropping books that we you know the students still needed to to have books during the lockdown and that was our way of you know connecting again with the students and being there for them and so yeah we could see them then um so yeah that's that's us hopefully hopefully we'll go back to the classroom soon and we'll be able to offer the students you know being here back in the in the school but at the same time we are still connected we are still there for them in in everyone where every way we can