Taking your activity programme online during school closures

We have entered uncharted territory with the outbreak of Covid-19 across the world. The spread of the virus is presenting challenges across all industries and communities, and in particular throughout education. Keeping children active and engaged during school closures is becoming one of the most talked about and concerning issues for educators and parents throughout society. SchoolsBuddy is particularly aware of the plight of schools trying to keep in touch with their community of parents and students, providing not only information but activities and resources for children to keep active in self isolation. Among our school network we have become aware of the incredible efforts of some schools to take their enrichment programmes online from virtual chess tournaments to arranging a singing club to take place via Zoom! Some of the great ideas we have found:

Nature Club - live online stream of teacher showing the wildlife in her garden, inviting children to look at theirs. Choir Club - group singing via zoom Chess Club - online tournaments and challenges Zumba - live streaming of routines to copy at home Basketball Club - Skills challenges to complete and submission of videos to share with others Reading Club - Weekly discussion group on Zoom Dance Club - Learning a routine from an online resource then all joining together on a live group stream once a week. Yoga & Mindfulness - online streaming and downloadable resources Food Technology - Online recipes and cooking challenges with online sharing of photos

Whatever programme your school community chooses to adopt, you can be sure that SchoolsBuddy will support you throughout from signing up to online activities, to parent communications between groups. Of course, as parents and students go stir-crazy being kept isolated for weeks or months, demand for online activities could be great.  SchoolsBuddy can help you limit places for each activity where licences are restricted (in the case of online chess software for example) or where too many contributors would be impossible to manage. Our unique preference based signup options will ensure that activities are fairly distributed as evenly as possible.  Once places are allocated, the activity leaders can use the SchoolsBuddy message centre to communicate Zoom meeting links or online username and passwords to just to the parents of the students selected for each activity. Find out more about our Activities Management and Parent Communications modules. Don’t forget, during the Covid-19 pandemic we are offering free-access to our software to new customers: Covid-19 free access offer For more information about how SchoolsBuddy can help your school, Schedule a Demo