As you will be aware, during this morning’s Ministerial Press Briefing, the Minister of Health, Dr Chilufya, has directed that all schools, colleges and university campuses should close by this Friday March 20.
Woodford School Lusaka will comply with this directive and close our school campus on that date. In the meantime, school programs are being adjusted to maximise social distancing and the enhanced hygiene measures introduced this week will continue to be in place.
As a leading school, our priorities include ensuring that teaching and learning should continue and academic objectives be met, especially as our children and families face this unprecedented disruption to our lives. Schoolwork will also give them something to focus on positively in what may be trying times emotionally.
Pupils will be sent home on Friday with some written material and more will be sent via email during next week.
In addition, we have been making preparations for the implementing of remote methods of educating and guiding learners. This will be trialled with various classes in coming days and will be more fully rolled out in time for the scheduled start of next term on May 11. (One of the only positives of the current difficult situation is that we have less than 3 weeks left in the term, so disruption may not be as great as could have been).
More communication will follow as the situation develops, but at this stage, we ask parents and guardians to ensure that their children will have access to devices on which to access the electronically delivered lessons and assignments to come. This is at least a smart phone and/or pc. We also ask you to be mindful of requirement for bandwidth and data access in your homes.
Finally, we ask parents and guardians to get themselves mentally prepared for a period when they will have to spend more time with their children and be more actively engaged with their learning.
Please be reminded of the dedicated Call Centre numbers are 909 (toll-free), 0953898941, 0964638726 and 0974493553 for reporting and official information relating to COVID-19.