Notre hôte finlandais, Bernt, nous a envoyé ceci au sujet du premier confinement du printemps :

The Pandemic and Vasa Teacher Training School

On Monday 16.3 at around 4.30 pm, the government announced that all schools in Finland will switch to distance teaching. Only children in preschool-year 3, whose parents work in professions needed in order to run society, were entitled to show up in school. The decision was valid from Wednesday 18.3 and was unexpectedly radical - it is unparalleled in post-war Finland.

Last minute training

Already before this in Vasa Teacher Training School we informed pupils, students and guardians what a possible distance education situation would look like in different grades. We also distributed a communication tool (Zoom) to all the elementary school pupils' tablets. During Monday 16.3 we instructed the students in year 7-9 on how the tool works and quickly trained our digi-agents in the lower grades in order for them to pass on their knowledge to other pupils before the period of distance teaching began. The teachers also received quick training in Zoom and other tools during these days.

However, the main success factor when it came to the smooth transition to distance teaching we experienced, was not in last minute education, but in long-term school development work where the digital element has been strong.

Matriculation examination

As the pandemic spread, we experienced increased concerns about whether or not this spring's Matriculation Examination could be completed. Already in February, we had considered how monitoring and examination could work in case of a quarantine situation. In early March, the Matriculation Examination Board gave the instructions that examination in a quarantine situation is not possible. One week before distance teaching began, the Matriculation Examinations Board, historically also, decided that the examination date be changed and that the student examination exams be written every day the week that started Monday 16.3. Some students very much disliked this, since they lost precious preparation time. In this way, the writing could be completed also in the spring of 2020.

In school or not?

The school's management decided that all teachers teach from school for the first three days, Wednesday-Friday 18-20.3. Despite good digital readiness, it is a different thing to teach completely at a distance than just parts of the teaching. During these few days, learning between collegues flourished. The teachers shared methods, tools and tips. This also contributed to the fact that the teaching started at full scale right from the beginning and that the teachers felt reasonably comfortable in the new situation. From Monday 23.3, teachers could choose whether they worked from their workplace or from home. As of Monday 6.4, everyone who moved in the properties was asked to write down names and spaces and time in an online logbook with the intention of being able to more easily trace possible contamination chains. Everyone was also asked to keep a relationship log. The pupils present in the basic education were organized so that the children did not interact with each other to prevent the risk of infection.

School meals

Two hours after the government's announcement, the Vasa Teacher Training School sent out a survey to find out which children in preschool to grade 3 had parents in professions needed to keep society running. We also asked, in another enquiry, which pupils and high school students wanted to continue eating school lunch. About 55 pupils (10% of the total number of basic education) reported that they wanted to come and eat school lunch daily. In addition, 22 children in preschool to grade 3 were enrolled to study at school, but only about 20 participated regularly.

The school meals were organized so that the dining room was divided into three sections where the maximum number in each section was 10 at a time. The food was served on the plate by two supervising teachers (salad) and the kitchen staff (hot food). Between each eating pupil two chairs would be left empty.

From Monday 6.4 we changed to handing out food packages. The number of applicants increased to just over one hundred (20%).

Cleaning and maintenance

The agreement with the cleaning company found no exceptions for pandemics and the cleaning continued to cost us as normal. Instead, the cleaning staff had to do basic cleaning that would otherwise have happened in the summer at extra cost. Space for space or corridor for corridor was shut down for basic cleaning.

The property owner decided to carry out maintenance on the properties during the distance teaching period. Among other things, painting work was carried out.

From the school's side we were able to finalize e.g. installations of renewed audio equipment, new curtains and new screens in some of our facilities.

Support functions

At an early stage, we decided, that the pupils present at the school also work with tasks and assessments provided by their own class teachers with the help of the student assistants. In this way, the situation also did not become impossible for class teachers who could have had children both in the classroom and at a distance.

The special education teachers continued to function as before. Some students needed to meet face to face, but most of them were taught on distance.

Teacher trainees

One of the core areas of a Teacher Training School is the supervised practice for teacher students. Before the schools switched to distance teaching, the Åbo Academy University and other universities as well had already decided that teacher training cannot be carried out in the classrooms because of the risk of spreading infection. The solution was supervised distance training. In this, too, our teachers showed a lot of flexibility as the practice and supervision after one week's restructuring could be done entirely on distance. As a result, teacher students were not delayed in their studies.

Meetings and education

Scheduled teacher meetings and other meetings took place according to previous plans, but now remotely via the internet. The meetings were different in character, but also worked for decision-making to whatever extent needed.

Some teachers participated in newly launched webinars on various topics related to distance learning.

Network support

New forums on distance education emerged on social media and in other channels. Our teachers were active in presenting their methods of working. Our expert on IT pedagogy recorder small films about how we worked and published them in different channels.

A nice gesture was that most publishers offered all their digital material free of charge to all schools in Finland.

Through different kinds of networks we were able to discuss questions related to distance teaching. This was a good support in a difficult situation.

Partly back to classroom teaching

From 14.5 all Basic Education was back in the school buildings doing traditional learning. Most schools in Upper Secondary decided to continue until the end of the school year (30.5) in distance teaching. Hygiene and physical distance were stressed during these 2,5 weeks. We spread our pupils in several buildings, and partly rearranged schedules for teachers as well as for pupils.

Graduations were streamed this year. They can be watched on our homepage www.abo.fi/vos.

Bernt Klockars

Leading Principal of Vasa Teacher Training School