 My name is Joe Brennan and I'm director of studies and a teacher in whatever the English language centres. Fantastic. So just to kick off Joe, the first question is what challenges has the pandemic posed in your school or in your classroom? Well I suppose they're changing all the time but they're ever evolving challenges but to go back I suppose to the very beginning from March when everything closed down. Initially we found like our issue was I suppose a lack of knowing what was happening next and what to do. So we kind of tried to deal with what was immediately in front of us and essentially the first few weeks obviously was supporting the learners that we had here. The initial week was dealing with really sending people home and getting people home and dealing with various requests for deferrals and refunds etc. But once we got anybody who wanted to go home, especially I'm thinking of junior students, we really looked at the adult student cohort that were left here and there weren't many of them but it was very time consuming because suddenly we were dealing with the whole learner experience. Like I would live in a classroom if I had a choice, that's my little bubble, my safe space but outside that there's so many things that impact on students learning experience in Ireland and it just brought them all to the fore. So like people were losing jobs, people like problems with rent and accommodation didn't know how to get home, worries about family and it just suddenly there was a holistic student that needed support and there was a lot of stuff that we really had no control over and couldn't do very much about. But we did make ourselves available to listen and try and be supportive in that way. And as initially as well, we very early made a decision to try and stay in contact with the students as much as possible. And even when we weren't quite sure how we were going to do that but we worked through it and what's up was like for the initial couple of days when everything was up in the air. But we did the day after we were asked closed on March 13 I think we did just make contact with all the students and try and put together an element of a study plan so that it would be working for the first couple of weeks until we decided what we're going to put in place. As the time went on then and it was clear this wasn't going to be a short term thing and really had to look us right we have these students to whom we have promised a course and the delivery of that course now has to be completely different because we can't deliver in the way it was promised. So we, we went on zoom and thankfully we already had a learning management system in place which was a God sent so a lot of our materials were up there already. And they were even more importantly the students were used to using it because trying to like it just trying to get students to use technology by teaching them how to use it using technology is just an added layer of of complication. So we were very lucky in that regard. And, and most of this is engaged very well. I mean it was a huge learning curve for everybody. And, and obviously so many things are going on outside the classroom that sort of the classroom was what was happening inside the classroom was not so important for some of the students. But gradually, like we didn't start off and go back in 15 hours we started with a couple of hours a week and then kind of it went to 10 hours a week I think online and then I think it was nearly was the end of April before we kind of got back to full 15 hours delivery online. So that was one element so there was the students but then of course it was all the staff that we need to support the students and they're all going through the unknown, the unknown as well and what's happening next. And normally, before the pandemic we usually only communicated information when we had information to communicate and I think during pandemic, it was really important that we just communicate that we like, we kept in regular contact and said, we don't know what's going to happen next. We really, this is what we're doing now. This is what we hope to do. But in terms of when are we all going to be sitting down together in the staff room or in the classroom we just have no answers for that and we became kind of used to that communicating ambiguity and just the feedback from staff and teachers just to have even a weekly newsletter or just the feedback was hugely positive and I mean it was really important for us as well just to connect. And we also started very early on, it was a huge craze for pub quizzes that kind of petered out very suddenly as well but so we got on that bandwagon and we kind of had, we did a whole school pub quiz about once every two weeks and like some people were there some people weren't but it was just great to see everybody in a casual fistily competitive atmosphere but it was an important part of connecting with everybody and just make sure everybody was okay. And I think the third major challenge right from the very beginning and I don't think it's really being sorted out just yet is really a lack of clarity and direction from regulatory bodies and people, students and staff and people who are inquiring about the future, asking questions that we just can't seem to get the answer to and it's very frustrating and it makes it very difficult for planning as we go forward. In terms of the classroom situation then that was a whole different challenge. And I suppose just from a personal perspective and from the kind of philosophy we have teaching in the school where connection is so important we're a very small school and we try and really make, provide an environment where students feel safe and they feel comfortable making mistakes and it's very welcoming environment and to sort of lose that connection because zoom is fantastic but at the best of times, everybody's in their own individual bubble and each individual bubble is connected to the other bubbles, whereas in the classroom everybody is in the same bubble, and there's sort of cross pollination of ideas and possibly the most important thing is more than one person can speak at a time. So the issue with zoom is that as soon as one person speaks it cuts everybody else off even though it's very very quick and very clever, but so we missed that, we missed that connection that we were very lucky in a certain way that a lot of students who were made with us throughout the pandemic had met their teachers beforehand and so the rapport was already built up, but I do think that in terms of going forward when we were continuing to use technology as inevitably we will, that time, more time needs to be dedicated to rapport building and helping students feel that the classroom is their classroom and that it's their space to learning and I think that takes longer online. Obviously, second issue, it was just the technology, getting used to using the technology, well first of all learning how to use the technology and like fantastic, like very quick off the mark, organizations like Equals and Nile, they had online courses that we could access and learn what other people were doing and I think everybody was sort of learning on the hoof, and it was quite an exciting time for ideas, ideas like from a theoretical standpoint, if we weren't all just running as fast as we could to keep up, so it was great to have access to them and to be able to share that information and that it was freely accessible to all the staff and teachers, but then the other side was, of course, the reliability of the technology and the hardware and the Wi-Fi that students needed to consistently check in and that was always an issue. I remember there was one student who was kind of coming to lessons under mobile phone from a kind of in a corner of a shed of some sort of garden center where they were working, that was where the job was in the Wiles at Wexford, and that was the only place in the whole area of the garden center that they could get Wi-Fi, so not an ideal learning environment really, but I think if nothing else, I hope this experience has taught us a certain degree of patience, because it will be very easy to lose your mind, and when you have to repeat things again and again and people drop out and back in, and I think also I think another learning from this as well is sort of, I hope, we've learned that it's okay not to know the answers, because we beat ourselves up sometimes when things go wrong, especially in the classroom as a teacher, and you kind of go, like, you get very frustrated, and sometimes it's just not our fault, and we can't expect to know the answers, we just have to deal with it in the best way possible. And then as everything has dragged on, and as it continues to drag on, and as the uncertainty remains for the foreseeable future, I mean motivation and energy is just, it is really, really hard to keep people up and keep people interested, and keep a very positive atmosphere in the classroom, from like a teacher's perspective and from a student's perspective, and for teachers to go in every day, and like kind of some students are logging into their pajamas, and some people haven't had their coffee yet, and people are like some people drop out for just issues with technology, but to keep a positive learning atmosphere, it's a huge, huge challenge. And again, I think we need to be kind to ourselves as well in that regard, in that it's okay that some days it doesn't go as well as it might, and that not every lesson is going to be perfect. In terms of, like, there were a lot of the challenges and ongoing challenges, I'm not sure, like there are things that we have tried, and that we feel are important, and that we feel have worked, but it's continuing to be a work in progress, and we're learning all the time. But I really do think to go back to the communication is so important, and not to sort of silo ourselves in like kind of okay, we're not really sure what we're doing, so we're going to maintain radio silence until we have a plan. And I think both for staff motivation, but also for students across like the whole range of problems there, but I think when using technology I think students need a very clear idea of how we're going to communicate when they can expect communication when they would get an answer to communication and how they should submit assignments, how they should submit homework when they can expect to get back. And I think all of that should be delivered very consistently. And of course it will always be technical issues, but as far as it's possible that when we say they can expect an answer to get an answer. And because I think especially when dealing with technology, if you tell somebody that something's going to happen when they go here and it doesn't happen then they're less likely to both try that again, or to believe you the next time. So it's really important to check all the links work on everything that we tell them is going to happen when they click on a button happens when they click on a book. So, yeah, I think as well, I mean, as I said before, we're very much a learner centered school, and we have, I suppose the luxury in a small school is to be able to be very person focused and to be able to give individual feedback that that isn't not the situation in many schools I understand that due to sheer size, but I think in every conundrum and every challenge we came to where we didn't really know the correct answer, we always aired on the side of kindness, or the most immediately positive thing we can do for the student and then worry about consequences after that. And I mean, I would normally be considered to work as very fastidious when it comes to the rules of regulatory bodies, etc. And if you say you're doing 15 hours a week in the morning then you're in class 15 hours a week in the morning or you're not getting attendance, but I think there are times when the rules don't work. And if we can facilitate students to engage in their course in whatever fashion is possible in these times then it's important to do it in a way that supports the student as a whole person. Yeah, that's great. And can I ask you to show the pictures that you have there, Joe, to just maybe a little bit of what they what they illustrate and of the approach that you took. Okay, and just very early on, I just have a few, few slides. And very early on, we decided that no one was going to lose any hours that we were to teach out all our students, and whether that be to add hours in but that the face to face time would be there. And let me just shoot this moment to forget how to use zoom. Okay, so, for example, we had an academic year program last year, and this is some of the students in the world for exams, and usually we have a Cambridge exam before they go home. And it's one of the things they really work very hard towards and of course they're only six weeks left or seven weeks left in when when the pandemic came so when they all went home, we put all their lessons online and we continued and most of them did the exam in these are all from Spain, when like during the summer, I am quite successfully out by that, and some of them preferred the online lessons. And I think that was another interesting thing that never really occurred to me that there are some students who actually shine in an online environment who might be quite reserved in a, in a, in a classroom so but and also with our adult learners as well as soon as we could get back to and as soon as we could get them on zoom they were doing their full time lessons again. And again, with adult learners as well, when like the first thing was that we were going to teach everybody out their hours. The second thing was, we want to be back in the classroom. And I know some people will question like why you want to be back in class we love being in the classroom. And as soon as as was possible we we were, well we we planned, we tried to. We set several dates, and they kept getting pushed out and pushed out because well things weren't very clear. And, but the whole time, like our aim was to be back into the classroom as soon as possible. So, we set up our like, and this is this year's academic year program, and when they arrived in and we kind of went back. In July we started to go back, and we, we did it in a graduated fashion we went back for one day, we saw how everybody felt, did they feel safe. What did they were running suggestions we got feedback were desperate for part with enough sanitizers etc. Then the following week we're back for two days then we did two days two weeks and then by sort of the middle of August we were back for when we run the program for two days in the mornings. And so everybody was back and of course we were just used to be back when everything goes down in. Initially, I mean, it wasn't perfect and the really was especially the first week with staff as much as students it's strange it's like it to be even on zoom all the time you're still isolated socially and and to get people. Like, it was a little awkward, like it was a little awkward to like people walking in and it's almost people have stopped looking at each other and when you're out in the world now and so it took a day or two and then. And once we were back the four days, everybody looked, it was just it was fun people like we took on some students from other schools to have the match who live quite a distance away from us and those students were happy to be on zoom. But like, even all of those, like after some initial grumbling, they kind of skipped into the classrooms after the second week. So we were really, really delighted with that. And, and we can't wait to go back and someone said to me today what are you going to go back just for three weeks before Christmas, and I said, we will go back if there's one week before Christmas, because I think it's important for everybody, especially at Christmas to be together and to spend some time with other people. Because it is very, very easily to become psychologically and socially isolated and that's part of the whole student experience. Sometimes I think that this year, no matter what we do in inside the classroom and within the school, it will only obviously be a very small part of how students remember 2020. And, but nonetheless, we need to make it a positive part of 2020.