‘I’ll never regret changing to online learning’

In our latest blog, Net School student Maddie shares her experience with changing to online learning with Net School and why she’d recommend it to anyone considering the move!

My experience with online learning:

I left my physical school in Year 7 to join Net School and whilst being excited at this new style of learning, I was also incredibly nervous about such an enormous change. That nervousness went away within my first lesson. Back in school, learning was a chore and I didn’t enjoy it. I had no connection to the teachers and my results weren’t at all that great.

Net School has made me look forward to lessons while challenging me with a gentle and successful approach – I no longer resent certain lessons, and maths quickly went from my dreaded subject to my favourite. Net School has encouraged me to share my ideas and contribute to class more than I have ever done before – I engage in my lessons happily. I am very proud of the improvement in my grades, which has inevitably resulted from all of this. Smaller class sizes really ensure I can learn and improve from mistakes before the topic moves on.

Another reason I love online learning is the flexibility it gives you: the timetable I particularly love, as it enables me to ride my horse more and means you can leave the house during breaks (in comparison to being stuck in a school, being able to take the dogs on a walk during a lunch break is amazing).

How does it work? 

Learning online closely resembles how many children learned during the pandemic. Once students log into an online classroom, they can share slideshows, audio, and video. There is also a main chat box (where everyone in the classroom can share answers, ideas and questions) and a private one (where the student can contact the teacher directly). Net School classrooms have other features which enable other styles of work, such as a feature which allows the administrator (the teacher) to split students into groups and the ability to set a question which children can vote the answer too. Additionally, the teacher can give students permissions to annotate the slides (students can then add text, drawings, highlights and lines onto the board).

You can find any notes and supplies needed in lesson folders. Different subjects have different styles of organizing the work, but it is all accessible and easy to find.

When I first started Net School, this sounded extremely daunting and complicated, but I can promise it’s not – the site is ordered in such a clear and concise way that adapting to the style only takes a few minutes and you can easily navigate it.

My message to families exploring the possibility of Net School: 
Making the change to learn online is something I’ll never regret and although for many, it is a huge a change, the biggest piece of advice I can give is to go for it. As I’ve mentioned, Net School transformed my views of learning and as education is a huge part of a child’s life, it has been incredible to enjoy my hours spent at a desk rather than wishing for them to end. 

Thank you for reading and I hope this helped increase your understanding of Net School.

Maddie D