Remote Learning Survey Results for Parents

Dear Families,Thank you for taking the time to complete our remote learning survey last week. I have been teaching for over twenty-five years and I can honestly say that I have never before engaged in such challenging, uncertain times in schools. Yet, it is clear from your survey responses that despite the challenge, we are all committed to supporting our students’ wellbeing and their continued academic growth, even while we are physically apart. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to share a summary of the survey responses with you today.Tomorrow marks the end of only our second full week of remote learning at Greenhill, but it seems much longer than that since students and employees were on campus, thriving inside and outside of the classroom. All of our teachers are working harder than ever as first year remote teachers. They are learning new approaches to synchronously and asynchronously engage students, missing the daily routines and community of campus life, and striving to connect with every single one of their students, each of whom is experiencing this global crisis in a unique way.We recognize that you, too, are working harder than ever. We hear about your efforts at home. We share your anxiety about the future. We value your partnership. More than half of our families participated in the remote learning survey, and we received a lot of constructive, helpful feedback. Between that feedback and tweaks to our program that were already in progress, we continue to make decisions to maintain the wellbeing of our students.Through careful consideration of the survey results and some clustering analysis from members of the Administration Team, I have summarized some of the highlights and areas for improvement in the video and the Q&A below. Please watch for additional feedback opportunities in the future, and if you have questions, please reach out to me, your child’s teacher, or one of the division heads.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RESULTSYours,Jason Yaffe
Director of AcademicsQ. What did you learn from the Parent Feedback Survey?
A. 539 from families in all divisions revealed that:

• Many families expressed gratitude for the structure and routines that help maintain a sense of normalcy and purpose.

• Families are profoundly grateful for the creativity and care of their teachers as the school makes a big programming shift.

• Personal check-ins (from PS/LS teachers and MS/US advisors) were enthusiastically appreciated.

• Many families of younger children are struggling with their triple roles as parents, professionals-working-from-home, and teaching assistants.

• Many Preschool, Lower School, and Middle School parents expressed a desire for more synchronous class meetings and small group work.

• Parents are asking for communication to be straight forward and stripped down to simplest forms.

• Given that everyone’s context is different, there were varied opinions about the current student workload.

Q. What changes have resulted from those surveys?
A. Informed by the survey responses, our Administrative Team has already made the following decisions:

• On April 1, the very day the survey was released, synchronous meeting opportunities using Zoom were introduced for Preschool and Lower School students.

• The Preschool is leveraging Seesaw and asynchronous learning to offer pre-recorded teacher led mini-lessons and parent guidance on subject topics to lead students through the learning, model the concepts and content in a way that can be played over again to achieve understanding and age-appropriate independence.

• The Lower School shifted from a Tuesday to Friday schedule to a Monday through Friday one. Furthermore, both the Lower School and Preschool added a daily co-curricular synchronous class for students.

• The Middle School is reviewing options to its daily schedule to provide more direct time with teachers and classmates, while maintaining the robust advisory sessions in the morning and afternoon office hours for students to check in with teachers and seek additional guidance.

• The Middle School has made efforts to streamline assignment posting and due times.

• The Upper School adjusted its grading system to better reflect the realities of remote learning and the variety of environments in which students are living. [link]

• The Upper School adjusted its daily schedule to condense the synchronous school day so advisory and classes occur over a four-hour time frame instead of six, plus an additional office hour period was added for students to connect with teachers. [link]

• We continue to work with teachers to find appropriate balance points for academic engagement, social-emotional support, homework value, and synchronous/asynchronous learning.

• We are streamlining communication to parents and students, reducing the number of daily emails and Canvas posts.

Q. Will we have another chance to share our experience and opinions?
A. This first round of surveys has provided a baseline opinion of our remote learning program, leading to new iterations. We will continue to seek feedback from students, faculty, and parents. As always, we thank you for your patience (as we settle into another phase of this bold experiment) and your partnership (supporting students at home, keeping in touch with teachers, and keeping everyone’s wellbeing at the forefront of your thoughts).
CLICK HERE TO HEAR FROM MORE GREENHILL PARENTS