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Dear Parents,

Thank you for all you are doing during this circuit breaker period, for the many kind words of support and encouragement and for your useful suggestions and ideas. 

While our teams continue to work on remote teaching and learning and working from home, we are also dedicating much of our time to planning for June, August and beyond. There is much that is unknown – and the Singapore authorities will soon provide guidance in some key areas – but nevertheless we are planning. In the coming weeks, we will be setting up ways for parents to interact with us on key topics such as remote learning; safe return to campus; and the future of education. We write now with a snapshot of our current thinking.

Return in June

Our immediate focus is modelling our return on campus in June. Our first priority is the health of everyone in our community and we are supported by International SOS and their team of doctors as we determine appropriate measures. They are reviewing all our planning from a medical perspective. Some of our thinking includes:

  • The return in June will likely be staggered and differentiated by school section. It is clear that the needs of the different age groups are very different, but also that physical distancing expectations will not allow all students back at the same time. We will need to consider whether the optimal learning environment for each grade in June is remote or a combination of remote and onsite learning. The second option produces complexities that we need to unpack. Principals are considering a variety of scenarios as we wait for the essential guidance from the authorities that we need to confirm our plans.
  • Safe-distancing measures will likely require class sizes to be small (which may mean splitting class groups) and inter-mingling of students to be kept to a minimum. Again, this is one of the aspects that Principals are modelling.
  • Staff on campus will be limited as far as possible: all staff who are not critical for the safe running of the educational programme will continue to work from home. Vulnerable staff members will be protected and supported to stay at home.
  • We are working with medical experts to organise spatial and physical barriers that will support a safe environment for the community on campus. 
  • All staff and students will need to wear masks while on campus and we will continue temperature-checks and other health monitoring activities for the community before arrival, on arrival and during their time on campus. All monitoring will be recorded.
  • Access to campus will be highly controlled and limited to essential staff and essential deliveries; parents and visitors will not be able to come on campus. This will not exclude parents from dropping students off, provided they wear masks and remain in their cars at all times. Buses will have measures in line with provisions in place on public transport as well as additional measures.
  • Additional and continual sanitisation of high contact areas and equipment will take place and hand-washing and hand-sanitisation for all will be built into the school day.
  • Special considerations for the residential community on campus are already in place.

This list is merely to give you an overview of the areas under consideration, but our measures are extensive. We will provide a complete and detailed list for parents closer to the time of opening, and when we have all relevant guidelines from the Singapore authorities.

August and Beyond

Our focus for opening in August will continue to be on how to return on campus safely as a community. We are looking at what our measures will be if some community members cannot arrive back to Singapore on time for the start of school. We are also looking at how to support new families arriving into Singapore, most particularly our new boarding students and their likely need to complete a Stay-Home Notice on arrival. The issues are complex and we are working hard to address them, with the support of Singapore authorities and our medical advisers.

At the same time, we are looking at what next year’s learning programme will look like for our students. You will already have seen our decision to cancel all overseas trips for students during Term 1. Our focus is on the learning for students, and our goal is to deliver in different ways the mission-driven learning that is so fundamental to the UWC experience, while adjusting to the limitations of this new context. Our aim is to turn adversity into opportunity and we are determined to ensure that next year is a purposeful, challenging and fun one for all our students. 

This is just intended as a snapshot of some of our current considerations, and as the situation becomes clearer we will build and communicate our full plan. We are keen to engage parents with our thinking and will be in touch with invitations for those who are interested to join us in online conversations about the various topics. Please watch out for invitations, coming soon.

Thank you again for your ongoing support.

Yours sincerely,

Carma Elliot CMG OBE
College President