Owen Flattery, Lauriston Girls' School
director of senior school curriculum support and whole school initiatives
Owen Flattery has been credited for the early and decisive response of Lauriston Girls’ School to the COVID-19 outbreak, with Flattery implementing a successful and minimally disruptive school-wide transition to remote learning.
Flattery came up with a solution to support a significant population of Lauriston’s students, and even some staff, who self-isolated themselves following travel from China in January. He identified video conferencing as the best method of maintaining engagement and relationships remotely. After the success with the self-isolating group, Flattery then moved to upskill all staff and students in the use of video conferencing tool, Zoom, for classes, through small group workshops, video tutorials, checklists on how to navigate Zoom before, during, and after a lesson, and a student assembly about Zoom. Zoom was the only piece of new technology that Flattery introduced in the process of going remote, to ensure staff weren’t overwhelmed by too many new resources. Flattery also initiated such events as daily virtual performances organised by the music captains and PE videos from the sports department, as a way of improving the sense of community in this remote environment.