Dulwich Prep London Deputy Head (Teaching & Learning), Ed Matten, reflects on home learning and gives his top tips for ensuring remote learning is a roaring success.
?Could you keep the noise down" I?m on a work Zoom,? a Year 5 boy instructs his parents whose coffee-fuelled conversation was beginning to distract him from the live lesson unfolding on the iPad screen in front of him. As the lesson finishes, small digital boxes of long-haired friends disappear one by one as if making an instant return journey from his kitchen to their own homes dotted across South London. A quick glance at the fridge sticker on DPL@Home reminds him that he?ll be finishing off his pointillism fish on Adobe Illustrator before competing against St Paul?s in a virtual sports fixture later that afternoon. ?At least I don?t have any homework,? he muses.  
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. The announcement that schools would be closing from Monday 23 March as a measure to control the spread of COVID-19 was not unexpected at the time but it signalled the moment to weigh anchor on ?Remote Learning?, a ship not yet sure of its sea-worthiness compelled on an unknown voyage. And yet, as the imagined scenario of the Year 5 boy suggests, the journey became increasingly comfortable and familiar as the weeks rolled on. It was not always plain sailing, though, and it took the extraordinary efforts of the whole school community – staff, pupils and parents – to stead...