The main challenge in the first days following the closure of the school was to maintain the learning process by distance without overloading students too much.

A special methodology for distance education was developed and teachers started using Google Classroom. Its features - file sharing, taking photos and attaching them to tasks, sharing files from other applications, accessing information on-line and off-line, etc. proved effective for consolidating the new material and accurately assessing the students.

Another challenge was to adapt the curriculum and the teaching tools and methods to the new conditions. To organise their classrooms virtually, teachers have been using ZOOM. This software allows for eye contact with the students and to communicate in real time. We established a schedule of ZOOM consultations for students which help ensure the feedback loop between students and teachers and allow teachers to answer questions and provide support.

Motivating student through digital badges - students’ campaign "Clean hands"

To motivate the students, we have used digital badges provided by the platform Badgecraft. The digital badge allows setting tasks for students. Once a task is completed through the mobile application, the student receives a badge with their results.

We started using “quarantine” badges in order to motivate and raise students’ social responsibility. The students especially like the “Clean Hands” badges that they receive when they provide photos of washing their hands. There are also badges for students’ social responsibility’ – they wear masks when they are in public places. Such tasks are intended at the development of the competencies included in the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.

Digital badges “Clean hands”

Our students sang a song together in Zoom, to the singing of which they propose to wash hands for 20 seconds.

Zoom conference, where students demonstrate a song under which they can wash
their hands for 20 seconds to prevent infection with COVID-19

When we heard a six-year old pupil say that the Coronavirus can kill us, we realized that it was important to explain the crisis to the children. But how can psychologists and educators explain the COVID-19 pandemic to pre-school children?

Since the start of the lockdown, classes are conducted twice per day through the ZOOM platform in small groups of 5 – 6 children. Educators organise classes on different subjects (mathematics, grammar, logic, poems, the world around you, etc.) and separate classes are held for children studying English or the basics of programming.

A special lesson on COVID-19 was delivered for the group of six-year old children. The children were shown masks and respirators and how to wear them, and their usefulness for sick and healthy people was explained. We discussed how the virus spreads and its symptoms, asking children to remember how they felt when they had a cold. The children were surprised that sneezing and coughing should be covered with the elbow fold as they found it rather unusual. Personal hygiene and how to wash ones’ hands correctly were also discussed.

Having learned that the most effective way to protect themselves and those close to them from the COVID-19 infection is to respect the rules of personal hygiene and social distancing, the children started willingly to pay special attention to this, which we could also observe during the quarantine.