From March 2020, Brighton Girls has been delighted to provide a full timetable of lessons to all its’ students. Through our pioneering and holistic Guided Home Learning initiative, Brighton Girls and other GDST schools have found that their educational experience has remained engaging, exciting, varied and uplifting in spite of the limitations and challenges imposed by the pandemic.

Dr Kevin Stannard, Director of Innovation and Learning at GDST comments “When we set up Guided Home Learning last March, it rapidly became clear that EdTech could be so much more than just a facilitator of live teaching and learning. It presented opportunities for collaborative teaching and learning between our schools. GDST teachers work across the family of 25 schools, pooling and sharing ideas, resources, pedagogy and expertise, thereby enriching and broadening their students’ virtual classroom experience and bringing the curriculum to life.”

Guided Home Learning is so much more than academic courses: we are proud of the wide- ranging and exciting extra-curricular activities the GDST as a family of schools can offer. Outside academic lessons, Brighton Girls’ students continue to access a rich extracurricular offer: sport, music, art, drama, careers guidance continue, in innovative and creative ways.

Our students’ wellbeing and happiness lie at the heart of everything we do, which is why expert, bespoke pastoral care underpins all elements of Guided Home Learning. Students continue to have daily access to form tutors, heads of year, school nurses and school counsellors, as well as a raft of resources and support through robust PSHE provision.

All Brighton Girls’ pupils also have access to the Positive programme, which sets out to equip them with age-appropriate tools, such as the ‘Emotional Barometer’, to monitor their emotional wellbeing, identify warning signs and address them early.

And while technology has provided a lifeline during this period enabling schools to facilitate and reach students, learning opportunities have not all been screen-led. Guided Home Learning necessarily encourages young people to learn away from the screen, too. The Brighton Girls Virtual Running Club and GDST Gets Active challenge will hopefully inspires the whole school community to get exercising with the latter ask each GDST school to compete to see who is the most active during the month of February.

Brighton Girls has received some fantastic feedback over the last year from parents and students across the whole school. Below is just a selection:

           

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This booklet Guided Home Learning highlights the approach taken by the GDST across its family of 23 schools and two academies within the UK.