Here is Part 2 in our 3 part series. You can read Part 1 here

Part #2: Keeping School Community Connected during COVID-19

Schools are far more than the sum of the collection of classes taught. Instead, they are rich communities that thrive on an adverse mix of activities that build harmony and community.

With many parents stuck at home and working remotely, the challenges many families face may feel quite overwhelming. So how can schools help? Aside from the regular school curriculum, we encourage you to engage and work with these families to help in any way you can.

What do I mean by this? Well here are a few ideas…

10 Tips on Building Remote Engagement…

1. Movie Night: Suggest a movie for your families to watch on a Friday night and they get to share pics on Instagram, Facebook etc. Consider some of the old classics to get them thinking.
2. Art Competition: Let the community benefit. Consider a sidewalk chalk art competition at home – photos can be sent in. Have your Art Director review and give out awards.
3. Lego Challenge: Have kids build out something amazing with a fixed number of lego blocks. Use 100 lego blocks to build something that extinct and share the outcomes online and deliver free pizza to the winner!
4. School Dine In Night: Have the entire school community participate in your own “Iron Chef” challenge, you provide the list of ingredients and they all cook and eat the same time. They, of course, would post their pics online.
5. Live Streamed Story Time: Most appropriate for our younger audience, select a book (or play), allocate a cast and have the Head of Drama & Senior Drama students conduct a live read to help out families at home.
6. Health & Fitness: Not only for families, but students and staff. Think about an exercise routine for all so people can stay in shape while they are at home.
7. Book Club: Keep older students and families engaged by running a regular book club and meet online to review and discuss amongst yourselves.
8. Hack Night: Encourage your coders to participate in mini hackathon on a project where teams can collaborate remotely with one another.
9. Isolation Activities: Encourage your community to share their activities like indoor mini-golf or a DIY project and post the results on social media for other families to replicate.
10. Community Check-in: Have your staff call a different family every day to see how they are doing and gather important feedback to know what is working and where they need help.

– Greg

At Enquiry Tracker, we believe it is more important than ever that we all come together as a community and help one another. We hope you find these tips helpful and useful, and for you to take action and make a difference in your community.