After what has been a frustrating second term for the ESPFA students with no football being able to take place, we would like to commend the hard work that all students have put in so far this year. With limited face to face learning and a football season that has faced disruptions due to Covid-19, this year has been unlike any other and all the students and staff involved have coped tremendously well.
Ben Hayward, Chesham United academy tutor has been impressed with his classes hard work during remote learning in the past term. He said: “They’ve been on time each day and
without the distractions have been working hard. I think they’re a little frustrated by it all but are being surprisingly resilient. It’s been difficult to work with the non-mixing in class, when we’ve been able to get into the classroom, so group work has been less, but we’ve managed.”
While working around the challenges that comes with teaching predominantly practical subjects while students are learning from home, Hayward has managed this by teaching modules that require less face-to-face contact and are less hands on. Hayward said: “We’ve covered Sports Development which has been OK as there’s no practical components. It was entirely online with an initial lecture, then tasks set to complete and links to watch. They’ve done well and are still able to contribute some good ideas over Zoom.”
Max Connor, the regional manager for the Midlands has praised the reaction of both the ESPFA students and tutors to the disrupted learning schedule. He said: “Due to the current situation, it has been difficult adapting to online remote lessons compared to face to face. Both to our students learning, but also to our tutors who have to deliver the lessons on a daily basis. The way the tutors have delivered this has been fantastic and been shown by a great response from our students who have kept onto of their work at a high level.”
With the football season set to return on the 1st April and students returning to the classroom on Monday, we are optimistic that we can have a positive end to the academic year. Keep up the good work everyone!