These photos are part of a series titled 'The Look of Lockdown' and were taken by Will Brooke (Year 13).
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that they, like everyone else, could make use of Zoom and avoid a time-consuming journey to South London. House meetings may have been cancelled but competitions continued and, with the emphasis put firmly onto year groups, it could be argued that more boys were involved in writing poetry, playing chess or taking photographs. Of course, some activities suffered, Music and Drama in particular found it challenging to work with the restrictions and, while much good work was done online, live rehearsals and performances were considerably curtailed. Sport continued with both PE and Games running almost as normal during the week and hundreds of boys attending the Saturday morning squad sessions which focused on developing the skills of touch rugby. The turnout was indeed impressive given the complete lack of interschool fixtures during the Michaelmas term. Looking back, it seems clear that it was almost certainly the super transmissible variant of the virus identified in mid-December that was responsible for a noticeable increase in the number of Covid cases across all age groups, and within the teaching staff, from the beginning of the month. It would be difficult to offer another explanation for a school that can pride itself on keeping the number of positive cases extremely low up to that point. It certainly felt that we were back to where we had been in March, and it was not surprising when the College shut its doors and returned to teaching online for the last three days before the Christmas break. On Monday 4 January 2021, the Government moved rapidly after hearing warnings from their scientific advisers that the new variant was spreading so rapidly that the NHS may soon be overwhelmed. The country would return to something close to the first full lockdown; schools would be closed. This despite assurances only 24 hours previously that the Government would make good its plan to keep schools open and begin testing of pupils and staff. Like so many other schools, Dulwich had to spin on a sixpence. On the Monday morning we had taken delivery of 5,800 lateral flow testing kits and provided training for 41 colleagues to administer the tests. Twenty-four teaching colleagues were in school to support the Admissions team with the administration of the first session of the 11+ exams. The government has made no promises about when we will actually be back in the classroom. As hospitalisations and deaths rise to record levels, it seems unlikely that we will return straight after half term as was first suggested. Public exams have been cancelled and decisions are being made about how best to avoid the use of the much- criticised algorithm to award grades for GCSE and A-levels. There is talk of a combination of mini tests and teacher assessments. We shall wait and see.
out to six, seven or eight minutes. Technology cannot yet adapt to ‘just one more’ question and a scheduled five minutes means five minutes and not a second longer. Parents soon learned that eight seconds was not long enough to ask that ‘one last question’ about what their son would be studying for the rest of the year. Of course, boys and staff were directly affected by Covid. In fact, we had been back barely two weeks when a small number of boys in Year 13 tested positive, and it quickly became obvious that the number of close contacts was significant enough for Public Health England to advise us to send the entire year group home to return to online learning. They were joined by a small number of staff who had been identified as needing to isolate, and who then found themselves in the strange position of teaching from home while the boys were sitting in their usual classrooms. As someone who had to act as cover during a Biology lesson, it was slightly off-putting to be in front of twenty students all sat silently looking at their laptops, listening through headphone and randomly calling out answers to questions being posed by their teacher sitting in his kitchen in Streatham. The uniform rules were relaxed; ties did not have to be worn and anyone with a sporting commitment during the day came to school in the relevant kit, thus avoiding the need for crowded changing rooms. A marquee was erected beside the Christison Hall to allow lunches to be staggered by year group and staff soon got used to picking up lunch in a takeaway box to eat back in their Department Offices. The senior boarding houses were reorganised, with Blew becoming a home away from home for The Remove and Ivyholme taking the Upper Sixth. Adapting was more of a challenge for Orchard, but with the clever rejigging of space it was possible for dormitories to become year group bubbles. Much has been made of the importance of mental health during the pandemic and the College went to great lengths to provide support and activities beyond the classroom. Form Tutor periods allowed staff to ‘check in with the boys’ and the pastoral teams made sure that the most vulnerable were not allowed to slip below the radar. The staff too were looked after and a weekly publication Something For provided some much-needed relief at the end of a week so often spent glued to a computer screen; offering as it did Something For the Mind - possibly a book suggestion, Something For the Heart - often an exercise routine, Something For the Soul - a poem perhaps, and Something For... the Stomach! Co-curricular activities quickly adapted to the rules and regulations. We managed to complete several debating competitions online and, if anything, societies found it easier than ever to attract guest speakers, particularly when it became obvious
Much of what follows was written a year ago in January 2021 at a time when the spread of the Delta variant had deprived so many of us of a traditional family Christmas. The College was again closed and it was uncertain when we would reopen. Memories of a widely-criticised public exam process were fading and the summer of 2021 brought the prospect of Teacher Assessed Grades with the award of GCSE and A-levels coming in house; a not inconsiderable responsibility for individual Heads of Department to ‘get it right’ for each student, while at the same time navigating a raft of regulatory procedures normally carried out by the exam boards. As I write it is the start of the Lent term 2022 and, while things feel very different from a year ago, we are still mitigating against the effects of Covid. Although yet to be confirmed by the science, it would appear that the Omicron variant, although highly transmissible, seems to provoke symptoms that by and large are less serious. Despite a suggestion just before Christmas by the entertainment and retail sectors that it was pursuing a lockdown by stealth, the government has stuck to its guns and adopted a policy that allows the economy to function as normally as possible, and there is a determination that schools remain open. It is within that context that the start of term was accompanied by across-the-College lateral flow testing (far less invasive these days now that the gag reflex-inducing throat ‘tickle’ has been removed). Young people aged between 12 and 15 are currently being offered a second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and the College will be in a position to administer these in the Medical Centre by the middle of the month. Following government advice, we will be encouraging students to wear face coverings and assemblies will move back online. However, at the same time it is hoped that much of what makes a school look and feel like a school will operate as normal. Co-curricular activities including sports fixtures will take place and visitors will be allowed on site for the matches. School trips are going ahead where we can be confident that they will run safely. There are many that think that as the virus continues to mutate, it will do so into an ever more benign form, and that society, while treating the virus respectfully, will not be forced into making difficult decisions between saving the NHS or the economy. By this time next year, I very much hope that we will have turned our backs on the more challenging impacts of SARS-CoV-2, and that my next report will be able to look forward to the many educational opportunities that have arisen from the pandemic. This includes a move towards online teaching and learning that the College are to investigate further with the appointment of an Assistant Head: Digital Learning and Innovation. Trevor Llewelyn January 2022
that it was now the teachers who moved between lessons. With the requirement to keep classroom doors open in order to improve the flow of air, it was not unusual for me to hear a Chemist teaching about valences to Year 10 or a group of Remove Politics students discussing national constitutions while I was sat in the Geography Office. I looked forward in particular to a Tuesday afternoon Liberal Studies course on the Law. Members of staff carried with them their Microsoft surfaces which were simply plugged into a docking station located on their desk along with the obligatory hand sanitiser and wet wipes. The desk was socially distanced from the class, which itself was spread out as much as space allowed. Important too was the requirement that the boys should sit in the same relative position to each other from lesson to lesson, even if they moved to a different room. This quickly became a godsend to the Senior Management Team who had to track and trace boys who had had contact with anyone who had tested positive for Covid. Parents evenings went online and, with everyone at home, there were no longer queues snaking their way round the Great Hall, alive with parents catching up with friends or growing slightly irritated as a scheduled five-minute interview stretched
Main piece written in January 2021. The College reopened in September 2020 after the summer break, during which time a huge amount of work had gone on behind the scenes to make the school and its operations as Covid-proof as possible. At the heart of the many changes was a system of year group bubbles, each of which were located in specific area of the school. The South Block became home to Year 10 and the Lower Sixth while Years 9 and Year 11 were relocated to the North Block. The Sixth Form were housed in the Lord George Building while the Lower School continued to be home to Years 7 and 8. In order to accommodate practical science lessons, the Laboratory had rooms allocated to specific year groups. The Wodehouse Library remained open with individual years admitted only on prescribed days to allow cleaning to take place over night. Separate entrances and exits to each block allowed the movement of boys to be carefully controlled and everyone was expected to wear a mask while in transit within a building. Masks were not mandatory in lessons, though a significant number of boys and staff continued to wear them. We soon got used to the small team of cleaners in PPE who sanitised surfaces throughout the day. The most obvious impact of the reorganisation was
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