Many of our parents immediately turned to our school as a source of information at the start of this crisis, as we, like many schools, especially in the international arena, were ahead of the national government and news outlets in sharing details about coronavirus. In order to get ahead of the demand of information from our families, we set out a schedule of regular communication that would allow for prioritization of crisis communication on specific days, and for returning to day-to-day tasks and remote learning on the other days. This schedule was centered around semi-weekly emails to parents from the Head of School (Mondays and Thursdays), which included general announcements of cancelations or changes to our programs, and messages of support and encouragement. On Wednesdays, our section principals would delve into more details about the changes in programs in their email to families, enabling families to receive more detailed information that was specific only to their child(ren).

The flow of information is overwhelming on the best of days, so during this time we knew we needed to make it as easy as possible for our parents to read information pertinent to them. By having regularly scheduled days, and a delegation of the type of email that was sent, families knew when, who, and how to get the information they needed. We saw that this consistency gave parents a sense of control in an uncontrollable situation, and we have received, and continue to receive, a great deal of appreciation from our community for each communication.