GFA Students Switch to Second Rotation
By Will San Jose '22
The Greens Farms Academy Upper School completed its first eight-week rotation of in-person classes Monday, with students attending four of their eight cycles for longer durations to simulate a full semester’s worth of work in half the time.
Students will attend the next half of their classes in the following eight weeks; this year’s first semester is broken into two rotations to limit the frequency of transitions between classes, where a large congregation of students in the school’s hallways could have been an instance where COVID-19 might easily spread.
Yet with the rotation schedule in use, the Upper School has reported zero positive cases so far this semester.
“It’s been magical,” Head of Upper School Andrew Jones said. “Just getting to do school and have classes; it feels like such a gift.”
Reactions to the first rotation from both students and other faculty members were similarly positive.
“I think ultimately it went really well,” Student Council Chair Maeve Reynolds said. “Everyone was just happy to physically be in school, let alone be able to do that five days a week.”
“I am kind of blown away that we’re still here and doing this,” Assistant Head of Upper School Justine Fellows added. “I’m really happy with the way everything’s turned out. Our primary focus was safety, and I feel like we’ve accomplished that.”
Fellows also worked closely with Reynolds and the rest of Student Council during the rotation to monitor student feedback on the new system. Through this partnership, elements of the school day like advisory meeting times and dismissal procedures were adjusted, and ideas such as a weekly asynchronous school day were floated.
Jones, Fellows, and Reynolds all agreed that such communication between students and faculty is beneficial for both sides, and also allows the school to address challenges that may have arisen as part of the school’s pandemic response.
“We’ve definitely seen that some aspects of this have been really excellent and conducive to the kind of learning we want to be prioritizing, and then other aspects have been challenging, in ways we expected and in ways we didn’t expect,” Jones said.
“Seeing how the community responded helped us to make adjustments,” Fellows added. “We’ll always keep an eye on change and whether we need to make tweaks, but right now I’m feeling pretty good.”
Reynolds said that besides working with faculty to adapt to challenges brought on by the pandemic, the Student Council also continued to run events such as Spirit Week with safety precautions for this year in an effort to boost morale and lower stress amongst the student body.
Although the first eight weeks of school have progressed smoothly for most to this point, the second rotation may very well bring additional challenges. With colder weather approaching, Jones spoke of new factors administrators will be aware of this winter, including anticipating more students in the building at once and a diminished ability to take a break from the classroom.
“Being able to pop outside, get a little sunshine, take off your mask, we’re going to miss that,” he said. “And the boost you get from watching a game of four-soc or just going outside with your friends and feeling the fresh air in your face, we’re going to miss that. So we’re going to have to find other ways of building in some pick-me-ups, and that’s a place where I think we’ll look to the students, particularly Student Council leadership, to help us know what’s going to give us the best boost.”
COVID-19 numbers across the nation have also drawn some concerns from the school, as Governor Ned Lamont introduced increased reopening restrictions for the state on Monday, while positive cases in Connecticut and across the nation continue to surge.
GFA and its Upper School continue to monitor the situation, however, and the school year is set to proceed uninterrupted and in person after students return from their Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 days off. The schedule is in line to remain as is for the beginning of the second rotation, and the school also plans to keep the rotation system in place for the second semester.
“We’re probably in great shape for rotation two, and then moving into second semester, we obviously need to make some big decisions,” Fellows said. “We’ve never been pushed into a situation that would make us think so out of the box, [...] and when you think so out of the box, you learn a lot.”
“The best thing about doing something that’s really hard is that you’ve done it, and you know you can do it,” Jones added. “And I think we’ve shown ourselves and each other [...] that we can do pretty spectacular things together.”