Cayman Current (https://www.caymancurrent.org/tag/thematic-visit/)
The COVID pandemic has challenged all stakeholders in the Cayman Islands education system — including teachers, parents and students — forcing them to adapt to new systems, routines and technology. The disruptions have led to negative consequences on mental health and academic progress, but lessons learnt from COVID will be carried forward to improve the education system going forward.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Cayman Islands schools are not limited to what occurs in the classroom – or via remote learning.
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.
Clear leadership and closeness among staff have helped Montessori By The Sea navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, an inspector said. There was no reported learning loss among students, who continued to make good academic progress.
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.
The small Clever Fish secondary school had experienced relatively few cases of COVID and minimal learning loss among students, an inspector 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.
From January to March 2022, inspectors from the Office of Education Standards conducted one-day ‘thematic visits’ to 31 public and private schools across Cayman. For our readers’ convenience, the Current has published a list of all the schools linking to the stories we wrote on their visits.
Staff at the specialist Lighthouse School have found creative ways during the pandemic to serve their students, all of whom have moderate to profound Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities. However, the additional workload related to COVID has left staff feeling ‘beyond exhausted’, a school inspector said.
The leaders of Truth For Youth School have invested significant resources into the school’s response to COVID and other issues, including student safeguarding and a new curriculum, an inspector said.