Cayman Current (https://www.caymancurrent.org/tag/nicholas-sherriff/)
Cayman Islands schools have been trying to manage COVID-19 related absences and associated learning loss during this school year, with varying degrees of success.
Cayman International School had put strategies in place to deal with COVID-19, placed accountability on senior leaders and focussed on the mental wellness of students and staff, Office of Education Standards inspectors said.
Teaching in the Cayman Islands during the COVID-19 pandemic has been, in a word, ‘exhausting’. Many of the country’s teachers say their current workloads are simply not sustainable, according to school inspectors’ reports.
Teachers at Footsteps gave school leaders good marks for being supportive of their well-being during the pandemic. The small primary school has had few absences due to COVID, seen minimal learning loss, and has not had difficulties recruiting new staff members, an inspector said.
With an enrolment of only 2 students (who are siblings), Little Cayman Education Services faced many of the same challenges as the country’s larger schools have during the COVID-19 pandemic, including additional public health measures and learning loss.
Delayed scores from CXC exams resulted in some students being ‘inappropriately allocated’ to the Dual Enrolment programme at UCCI and CIFEC, school inspectors said.
Staff at CIFEC were attempting to address student learning gaps in advance of external exams, particularly in Mathematics. At the same time, they were focussed on supporting the mental wellness of students who were increasingly demonstrating anxiety.
The new senior leadership team at Triple C is aware it needs to strengthen processes and systems to improve the school. Most staff had good reviews for support they have received from leaders and pastoral staff, inspectors said.
John Gray leaders have largely been able to mitigate negative consequences of COVID-19 on learning progress and the mental well-being of students and staff, but the pandemic did have impacts, such as delaying the planned opening of portions of the new school campus.
Calvary Baptist Christian Academy is dealing with student absences and learning gaps due to COVID-19, while investing extra resources into online learning.