It seems hard to believe, but we are entering the 6th week of Lockdown in the country and our virtual school is in full swing. At Aldenham, we had in place a good range of technology as the backbone of what we use daily, and this has enabled our online learning to be high quality too.

Naturally, there have been challenges for all along the way. Teachers have had to get used to interacting with their classes entirely digitally. Pupils have had to learn how to manage everything more independently, as there are no other pupils around to lean on. Nevertheless, Aldenham pupils are resilient and we have been impressed with the manner in which they have risen to this challenge.

It has been great too to see the way in which the staff have thought creatively about how to carry on with the extra-curricular side of our provision, which is so much a part of life at Aldenham. We have had to create different competitions which can be run entirely digitally with participants working remotely. And we have encouraged pupils to take part in a range of other activities now being provided nationally at this time, whether it is attending virtual tours of museums, or attending live-streams from the National Theatre. Some of our pupils are expressing their own creativity in other ways, like these siblings (a current and a former pupil).

Pastoral support of pupils continues to be a strong point, with tutors having video conference meetings with tutor groups, and the House teams supporting those who are understandably finding things tough at this time.

We all look forward to being together again on our beautiful campus, but it is clear that the Aldenham spirit is alive and well even if for the moment at least we are at Aldenhome.