An Unexpected Challenge
It was the second day of Chinese New Year, back in January, when the GESS Crisis Team convened for their first meeting. While the rest of the world held the view that Covid19 was just a crisis in another country, the GESS Crisis Team quickly realised that this would become an international problem that would affect Singapore too.
Within 24 hours, they developed a protocol and matrix action plan and the next school day, the school started with temperature screening.
GESS made sure it took a proactive approach and was consistently ahead of government regulations on safe distancing and protecting the campus.
“None of us had ever experienced a global pandemic before. For me as the Principal, the biggest challenge during the first months of the crisis was the constantly changing requirements due to changing situations and government guidelines.” – Mr Christof Martin, GESS Principal
The guidelines often had to be obtained from various authorities in Singapore and weighed against each other in terms of their importance and impact. The school then had to implement the measures under immense time pressure. This meant long working hours for the Crisis Team and weekends spent working on staying on top of the ever changing situation. Especially when the borders starting to be closed in March.
Julian Keith, Director of Marketing and Admissions and in charge of Crisis Communications, said, “It does not matter how many courses, degrees or years of experience you have in handling crisis communication; nothing can compare to the COVID 19 situation. It has been a long, exhausting and ever-changing six months.”
“The challenge was not just with setting our standards high and reviewing them daily, but we still had to effectively and empathically communicate these regulations to our community”
Meike Angelicia, the Operations Manager at GESS, also had to deal with the massive task of ensuring that bus and canteen services and CCA activities which are primarily provided by external vendors proceeded safely and smoothly. “We needed to ensure that we’re operationally in compliance with all the rules, keep our students safe, and at the same time not compromising the quality of the services.” said Meike.
The Crisis Team understood very quickly that it was not going to be business as usual and started to address one problem after another and to rapidly design risk management plans that include a pandemic response and mitigation measures.
The Human Resource team had to quickly adapt to the changing situation as well. From ensuring all staff on campus record their temperature twice a day to compiling travel declaration from staff going on private and business travel and introducing flexible work arrangements like staggered teams and working hours, a lot had to be done. As Helena Santos, the Pandemic Manager and Director of Human Resources shared, “The most important thing for us was and is safety of our students, our staff and our community and we always put them in the center of any decisions.”
As the cases in Singapore increased and the government tightened travel restrictions and issued more Stay Home Notices, the First Aid Team was kept very busy.
The First Aid Team, under the leadership of Melanie Simon, Assistant Pandemic Manager and Senior First Aid Officer, had to create new procedures to handle COVID19 suspects and set up an isolation area while still managing their daily work. They also had to learn how to triage suspected cases accordingly and trace GESS community members including family members under Stay Home Notice and Quarantine Order and advise them on the best course of action.
Soon after, the government introduced Circuit Breaker and for 2 months home-based learning and remote working became the norm as the campus was closed. Throughout this time, the GESS Crisis Team continued to work hard, preparing for future scenarios.
About Home-Based Learning from Parents‘ Perspectives
GESS parents became even more active partners of the school in their children’s learning during the home-based learning phase. Positive words from parents such as Katja Paus, who is also the President of the Parents‘ Committee, kept the school, teachers and staff going.
“Homeschooling was organised professionally and worked very well for my child. We did not have any major problems. The teachers planned it professionally and executed it well,“ remarked Katja who was also appreciative of the seamless cooperation between the school and Parents‘ Committee during these tough months.
Hanne and Henrik Bloksø were also incredibly appreciative of the effort that went into home-based learning:
“All the teachers were very well prepared and were able to engage our children and keep them interested throughout the lessons even though this is also a new situation for the teachers.
We were very happy that our children could continue with lessons to the end of the school year and within the planned curriculum.
Our children were also able to follow the lessons in a focused and independent way without our help and achieved a high outcome! They were very positive every day and extremely prepared; even after school they would study maybe 1-2 hours to prepare for the next day!
For our kids the biggest challenge, however, was the reduced social contact with their friends!”
Learning for All
While the students continued their learning, the rest of the school was also learning how to keep the students safe and ensure they are able to experience as much of their school life as they can in spite of the extraordinary circumstances.
The GESS Crisis Team, especially, had a steep learning curve during these times.
For instance, Meike Angelicia, the Operations Manager, and her team quickly learned how to use the right technology to lessen some of the operational issues during the crisis. Her team used Zoom and other platforms like YouTube to continuously deliver after-school activity programmes (CCA, LEP and VIP). “Things that we never thought were possible before could actually be carried out brilliantly,” said Meike.
Others like Melanie Simon, Assistant Pandemic Manager and Senior First Aid Officer even attended professional development courses such as Harvard Online Courses on Pandemics. “Using the knowledge I learned, I was able to draft a pandemic policy during the crisis,” says Melanie.
“The major learning experience for many of us in the crisis and leadership team was that in a time of need, a time of crisis, GESS can truly function as one school. The spirit of teamwork, togetherness and dedication towards our community was first-class.” said Mr. Martin, the Principal of GESS.
The Silver Linings
“We are very fortunate that our GESS community is highly supportive and really rallied around during these challenging months. The messages of support we received, really gave us the energy and spirit to get us through the long hours and exhaustion levels.” said Mr. Martin with a lot of pride in his voice.
Mr. Martin was also especially amazed by how much high quality education was still possible even during the crisis and how pupils, teachers and parents used their digital skills, then expanded them and used them in everyday life in an enriching way. “I could have never imagined the things that were made possible even in kindergarten and in the first grades of elementary school and what enormous creativity the crisis unleashed in people’s minds.”
The wonders of the human spirit and the resilience displayed really impressed Meike Angelicia who is the Operations Mangager. She saw firsthand that when the going gets tough, the GESS Community can endure, adapt and excel even as everyone from the youngest to oldest adapted to the “new normal”, practicing safe distancing, wearing a mask all day, using safe-entry, wiping down their own tables and so on.
Working closely with staff members of the bus and canteen services, she was gratified by their willingness to go above and beyond what they were contracted to do.
“The school’s ability to react so quickly and the absolute dedication of all GESS colleagues and contractors to keep our children safe was amazing to see” said Meike.
Julian Keith, the Director of Marketing and Admissions, made the best of the many mornings he had to spend at the bus bay to ensure smooth flow of temperature screening and hand sanitizing procedures. “For me personally, the highlight of my day was meeting GESS students each morning at the bus bay during temperature screening. It was a unique experience for me to get to know our students better, share jokes and also to see the very many unique ways in which our students were creating artwork out of the daily temperature check stickers,” shared Julian.
Helena Santos, our Pandemic Manager and Director of Human Resources reflected that she found it important to stay positive: “I think the worst situations tend to bring out the best in people. As I was facing isolation for 3 months myself, it seemed that in every moment of darkness, there were countless moments of light — small gestures of compassion from family and colleagues that allowed me to see what matters.”
Teamwork is Dreamwork
All members of the GESS Crisis Team emphasised that teamwork was what kept them going and what a positive experience this has been for them. This was also valid for the First Aid Team: “The First Aid Team had so many challenges and we all worked together, everyone brought in their expertise and was flexible enough to shift plans and accept last-minute changes of responsibilities.” said Melanie Simons.
“In a crisis it always shows how well an organisation is positioned and what spirit reigns in it. I am really proud of the entire school, how everyone stuck together and also supported and helped each other out.” said Mr. Martin, knowing that many of them worked long hours, 7 days a week, over many weeks in order to be there for the students and families as best as possible.
For Meike, the chance to work with colleagues she otherwise might not work so closely with was great and she is convinced that through this shared difficult experience, people have bonded more.
“I personally was very impressed with the absolute dedication of the GESS Crisis Team and all GESS colleagues towards keeping our children safe,” emphasised Julian Keith, Director of the Marketing and Admissions Department.
Helena Santos reported that switching to remote working was difficult for her at first but that the team spirit and the positive atmosphere between the GESS Crisis Team members helped a lot. They even used an informal WhatsApp group chat to keep each other motivated.
To Remember for the Future
A lot has transpired in the past months and Mr. Martin is already looking to bring the lessons and experiences into the future.
“What we all have learned during the last months is that there is no one hero in a crisis like this. COVID 19 is not a fire in a building or an earthquake. It has been over six months of constant dedication and understanding from the GESS community. The last six months and how we as a school and a community dealt with it felt like mission impossible at times. However, we made it so far and we are well prepared for what is ahead of us.”
“Everyone involved in school life deserves great praise for their disciplined behavior and work towards the common good. I am very proud to be the principal at GESS! I would like to thank all students, teachers, staff and parents for this.” said Mr. Martin. “COVID 19 will remain a feature of our lives for the near future, however, I hope the one school approach and community support continues well into the future.”
