A Digital Education for A Digital Age

To find out more about the growing popularity in permanent online schooling, L-J Andrew spoke to Euan MacLean, Principal of My Online Schooling, about the digital schooling environment and experience.

What is the biggest benefit of an online education?

There are so many benefits to learning online, however the most striking one we have consistently seen is the flexibility it affords children and families. Whether a family are home-educators looking for a more structured approach, travel a lot or their child simply isn’t suited to bricks-and-mortar school for whatever reason, online education provides people with an alternative pathway for their child’s education that can align with their individual needs, ambitions and lifestyle. Learning digitally also has the added benefit of preparing young people for what is only becoming a more digitally-advanced world, setting them up to thrive in the 21st century.

How do you find children are coping with the transition to the online schooling medium and what support do you offer new students during this transition process?

In our experience, children and young people are so adept to technology these days, so it is largely second nature to them. However, we use specific educational technologies to engage young people in their learning, so there is a bit of learning to do. We offer comprehensive inductions for our pupils and their families, and ongoing technical support post-enrolment, to ensure a smooth transition. Our dedicated team of Success Coordinators work closely with our families and our fantastic team of teachers to provide ongoing support. We also provide ongoing professional development for our teaching team to ensure they are up-to-date with key developments with the platforms we use.

How does MOS keep abreast of technological advancements?

Innovation is one of the key pillars of our school and we advocate for lifelong learning in every sense. Our Education Team is proactive in continually engaging with conferences, webinars and workshops to find out about the latest developments in educational technologies. We also welcome feedback from our whole school community about the services we provide and how this can be made better. We work, in consultation with our school community, to implement any new teaching and learning tools to ensure they are suited to learning online. We are delighted to engage with advisors in educational technology who provide guidance and strategic support to ensure we continue to be ‘ahead of the curve’.

How does MOS manage the pastoral care needs of students?

We are a caring school and understand that pastoral care is fundamentally important to the holistic development of children and young people. Our teachers provide frontline pastoral support for our pupils in the first instance. Further to this, we are launching Forms and Form Tutors from our next academic year. A child or young person’s Form Tutor will be a key pastoral figure for them during their time with us. Pupils are allocated a House when they join the school and there are associated activities which help build community. Our school’s Wellbeing Team, additional support needs specialists and dedicated school counsellor are on hand to support our pupils with regards to their wellbeing. We offer specialist Anxiety Management, Social Skills, and Mindfulness classes which assist pupils beyond their academic studies. Anxiety is one of the most predominant challenges experienced by children and young people and we are proud to offer these classes to our community.

Studies suggest that extra-curricular activities are an integral part of the learning experience. How does My Online Schooling fulfil this need?

In our endeavour to ensure development of the whole child or young person, we offer a large number of opportunities for extracurricular engagement including: many free after-school clubs, such as Wellbeing Club, Creative Writing and Coding Club; assemblies and house meetings to build community and to teach our pupils about social, moral, spiritual and cultural elements of our world to encourage intercultural respect and understanding; Adventure Weekends (post-COVID); and whole-school awareness days and months i.e. Black History Month, LGBT History Month, and Mental Health Awareness Week. Our extracurricular offering allows pupils to interact with peers who share common interests and to make new friends outside of lesson time. We’ve found our families very much value our clubs and additional activities.