Challenge

Hillcrest International Schools in Kenya first had a subscription to EducationCity in 2015. Head of Hillcrest Early Years, Miranda McGovern, has commented on the school’s use of EducationCity during the school closures in Kenya and how it has been ideal in continuing children’s learning as well as supporting parental engagement.

Solution

Miranda has said that, “EducationCity was very useful during the school closure in Kenya. We had already set it up for our Early Years in Hillcrest for school use and all we had to do was now get parents on board. Especially during the first two weeks, when we were trying to find our feet, EducationCity provided a good alternative to coming to school. The children very quickly got into routines. After almost a full term of remote learning, we teach more online, but EducationCity still has an important part in our daily routines.”

What’s more, the school has also found that regardless of distance, the product enables teachers to track progress as they would have in the classroom by using the tracking tools, “​we have a look at what the children complete, it was also nice that one student got a reward for completing tasks. This was a girl, who had found it difficult to get used to learning at home.”

Miranda has also commented that the support has been a great addition for the school and said, “the support is there when we need it. It is not a constant flow of emails but knowing that there is back-up is really nice.”

Result

Hillcrest have also found comfort from EducationCity’s teaching tools during the school closures as well as the many options in differentiating tasks to support learning: “As a teacher, you can link the tasks on EducationCity to what you are teaching. The differentiated tasks can be completed by the children and the teacher can see how confident they were at the task. This will give information for the next lesson. Some children will move to something new, while others need more time.”

Following on from the usage during lockdown and the fact that the school has used the resource nearly 10,000 times since March 2020, Miranda has commented that the school will continue to use EducationCity now and into the future thanks to their excellent experience: “​I definitely think that we will continue to make links to what can be done at home. When school returns to a ‘new’ normal, we will keep the confidence that we gained in incorporating EducationCity activities.”