In the midst of the pandemic, the School continues to offer students the choice of a hybrid learning option or fully-online, concurrent learning options. While most Upper Schoolers are physically coming to school, some students decided to stay home.

COVID-19 is a contagious virus that has spread around the world and affected many lives. Since returning to school may seem daunting for some, the School has taken major precautions to ensure sure students stay safe on campus.

In the Upper School Reopening Plan, Head of School Judith Guild wrote, “The School will continue to monitor several internal and external factors while making decisions, including the pace in which students adjust to the new normal at school, their ability to follow our health and safety migration strategies, including maintaining physical distancing and wearing masks, and the virus metrics provided by the Commonwealth.”

However, for the students that might not feel safe going into school just yet, the School is also facilitating concurrent learning. Students who choose to stay home are able to attend classes with fellow students through Zoom and webcams in classrooms on-campus.

The Upper School Reopening Plan explains, “If a student is home for concurrent learning, but a class is occurring in person at school, the student will log into the live class.”

While both concurrent and in-person learning have their benefits, they look very different to students.

Ugo Adiele ’23, a concurrent learner, shared his thoughts on staying home.

“My parents were worried about the virus, so they thought it would be best if I wait a little before going back to school,” Adiele shared.

For him, it has been easy to roll out of bed every morning and log into Zoom. His parents explained, “Students live in different communities and parents work in different communities. There is no vaccine yet, and [we] can change [our] mind at any time, so it is an evolving decision.”

While Adiele is at home, he doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on any learning. “Communicating with teachers through Zoom can be a bit harder than being in the classroom,” Adiele said. “Sometimes I feel a bit hesitant to answer if I’m one of the few online students. Luckily for me, my teachers have been very eager to let everyone answer questions.”

Although the curriculum is the same, the social experience is not. Adiele said one of the biggest changes is, “I’m missing out on seeing my friends face to face, and I’d like to be able socialize better with them.”

While there are experiences that can’t be recreated virtually, Adiele said one of the main benefits of staying home is not having to constantly worry about his safety.

“I feel safer [at home] because I know that whatever risk that comes with going to physical school is eliminated by staying home,” Adiele said. “I definitely feel that the school is taking great precautions, but staying home is just another precaution that I’m taking.”