Integrated & Holistic Virtual Schooling by Billabong High International School – Ensuring Children Continue Their Journey of Learning Even During Lockdown

New Delhi: In the midst of a national lockdown, Kangaroo Kids Education Limited’s (KKEL) education brands like Billabong High International School (BHIS) and Kangaroo Kids International Preschool (KK center) have begun several new initiatives to help their students to continue with their journey of learning. Both institutions are leveraging the power of technology to continue the academic progress of students and have begun the new academic year with virtual schooling & virtual preschooling. While BHIS students are studying through ZOOM & Billabox app, in-house preschool tinny toddlers are connected with their teachers through ZOOM.

BHIS continues to adopt the 360-degree approach to learning despite lockdown. Teachers are going the extra mile to ensure learning outcomes are met, across levels and grades. There has been a consistent approach towards strengthening technology and back-end operational capability, safety and efficiency. With the integrated School Management System (SMS), customised online Learning Management System (LMS) and a robust Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS), KKEL has been able to ‘normalize’ schooling & preschooling operations across stakeholders: employees, partners, parents and students at the time of this crisis.

The transition to 360 degree holistic virtual learning has made remote learning smooth both with children, teachers as well as parents who are now spending more time at home.

For K-12 BHIS there is the exclusive integrated learning management system & app: ‘Billabox’ and for Kangaroo Kids Preschools there is the proprietary ‘Skippy Tech’ app. The content for both these apps has been curated by in-house subject matter experts and the content and the practice is aligned to what is taught to students in the actual classroom.

For the K-12 students, BHIS has started online sessions for the new academic session that started in April. Teachers use videos and presentations to facilitate learning. Teachers continue to optimize resources from home, build their own ‘teaching aids’ and ‘fun and engaging explainers’ at home to make sure each session is exciting and engaging. This makes the teaching- learning process interesting and caters to all learning styles. Besides being interesting, the applications allow the students to interact with the teacher and their peers.

Just like BHIS, all Kangaroo Kids students are also attending online classes with their teachers. Teachers are making these sessions interesting by teaching through puppet shows, clay modeling, using items readily available in the house. The learning objectives are sent out to parents in advance with the equipment required (that are readily available at home) so that students are ready for the class. Through various interactions and online reviews we know that all our children are enjoying these lessons. Not only this, children are being exposed to all-round education as they are also doing yoga, arts, music, dance and craft sessions and lots more through the online route. The schools are also sharing different extracurricular activities that parents can engage their child in their free time.

Commenting on the initiative KKEL CEO, KVS Seshasai, said At KKEL we believe, the current global pandemic poses a challenge, but the journey of learning must continue. As an educational institution, we have to provide a safe, engaging, and productive learning environment for our students at home. We are leveraging the power of technology to continue the academic progress of our students. All our schools continue to adopt a 360-degree approach to learning – not limited to academics. Keeping this in mind, in addition to virtual classrooms that provide academic sessions, we have joined hands with partners that offer the best tech-based solutions to our students and parents in areas of sports and physical fitness, music, design, and creative thinking. Our school leadership teams, curriculum development, IT, and academic teams have done a phenomenal job working round the clock to ensure learning continues. Our teachers also rose to the occasion and are delivering the curriculum fabulously. Teachers have been putting in extra hours, using their creativity, and keeping children engaged. There has been no compromise on quality in delivery. We are humbled by the positive response we are receiving from our parent network and network of partners who are successfully executing and reaping the benefits of our virtual schooling program.”