Ms Fish Kok, 30, firmly believes that it takes a village to raise a child. A centre leader at E-Bridge Pre-school’s Corporation Drive branch, she realised that even more during the circuit breaker, when pre-schools were closed, leading to many parents having to juggle working from home with childcare.
Besides wanting to ensure that the children continued to receive social and emotional support at home, Ms Fish (as she is known to the children and their families) and her team also wanted to help parents keep their kids engaged.
Apart from weekly electronic home-based learning kits, the school also introduced ways to engage the children — such as recorded storytelling, and Zoom singalong and storytelling sessions — progressively, after most families would have settled into a routine.
Ms Fish says: “During that time, we were very mindful not to stress the families. We encouraged them to focus on building positive relationships with their children.”
ADAPTING TO THE NEW NORMAL
With her team of teachers, Ms Fish had to pick up digital skills quickly to connect with the children and help them with their learning.
“These new skills, ranging from video-making to planning for a virtual graduation, were beyond our capability pre-Covid-19. I’m proud to see how quickly my team managed to adapt to the new demands placed on them due to the pandemic,” says Ms Fish.
One of her key takeaways from this challenging year is maintaining a calm mind in order to focus on making decisions that best benefit the children.
“Covid-19 or not, the education landscape is ever-changing. What worked today might not work tomorrow. The best we can do is to show the children who look up to us as role models how we can adapt to changes and stay grounded,” she says.
