Class at 9am Provides Reassurance – No Matter What Else is Going On

Declan McClure, Lecturer with @S_ERC Foundation Skills Academy has given us an insight into the adjustments, flexibility and the extra efforts staff have made to ensure our students, many dealing with complex everyday challenges, have some semblance of normality in the wake of Coronavirus and that includes the reassurance that no matter what, there is class online at 9am:

Buzz, buzz, “Are you having a good weekend? It will be great to get back online tomorrow.”

The message from a Downpatrick Job Club student came at 4.32 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon when I was peeling the spuds. Luckily, I had deleted Facebook, Messenger and a few other Apps from my phone to make space for Microsoft Teams and of course I replied straight away. “Yeah loving it thanks, are you?” (Animated smiley emoji).

Another message was received at 2.54 a.m. “I can’t do my Spreadsheet on this computer. Can you tell Lawrence?”

“Hey, how are you? Good to hear from you. N.P. Don’t worry, we’ll get it sorted. Keep in touch.”

Many of our students have mental health problems, physical disabilities or are on the Autistic Spectrum and they are finding this whole Covid-19 experience a bit harder to handle than most of us. I know great work is going on across all the departments of the College, but I just wanted to give a special shout out to the team I work with in the Foundation Skills Academy. Their professionalism is unquestionable, but their humanity, empathy and kindness are what has really shone through these last few weeks.

Training Support Officers, tutors and learning support staff have been calling mobile and landline contact numbers for students again and again until somebody answers. “Are you having trouble getting online?”, “Is everything ok?”, “Do you need to borrow a computer?”

There have been weekly live chats for Skills for Work and Skills for Your Life groups just to offer a chance to check in and to make sure everyone knows what is going on.

Creative tasks like Tattoo design, drawings, poetry, photography and sports challenges have all been set as assignments for City and Guilds or Duke of Edinburgh Awards In fact, some of the work produced in lockdown by our students has been the best I have ever received, from lockdown video diaries, to self-care leaflets and nature poems.

Paradoxically, I have never felt so close to some of my colleagues and students even though everyone is so far away. During these weeks of confinement everyone in the Foundation Skills Academy is doing their upmost not only to ensure that all our students complete whatever work and preparations they need to progress to the next stage of their academic journey, but most importantly, to find out if they are doing ok.

Connecting, reassuring, and supporting emotionally has become an even bigger part of our role since moving classes online. Undoubtedly, indiscriminate acts of kindness are exactly what is helping us all to get through this.

To all our students the message remains the same, if you are worried about anything, work or otherwise, get in touch and talk to us. We miss College life and we miss you – until we meet again, we got this, together.

See you online at 9am in the morning.