After the previous lockdown, we learned a lot about remote learning, and undertook training on digital learning platforms, as well as receiving valuable feedback from you all. Each teacher has now produced their own plan which reflects the needs of the children and their age. These plans will be shared with the relevant families immediately. All plans follow these principles:
Daily practise tasks
Units of learning across the curriculum
Feedback mechanisms
Communication systems
The chart above shows how this has been planned across the school.
We know that many families struggled with devices at home, and that some elements of Google Classroom were a little tricky without training. All of the platforms are being practised in school with the children, and indeed we believe we have purchased some extremely good new ones too. Now that we are better prepared, there are also paper based tasks that will be provided as well as equipment that you may be short of at home. We have been allocated some devices from the DfE to be used when children need to self-isolate. There arenโt enough for everyone so if you feel that you desperately need to borrow a device in the event of your child self-isolating then please get in touch.
When children are learning remotely, we expect the children to be completing the work provided on a daily basis (unless they are unable due to illness etc). They should complete ongoing daily practise tasks, as well as the units of learning provided by the class teacher. There are a number of ways to keep in touch with us in school, so please let us know if you are struggling with anything. You can send completed work back to the teachers through Google Classroom for some year groups, and by email for all classes. It can be work completed on a device, or a photo of something completed, whichever is the most suitable.
The lessons and tasks provided will be what the children are going to be studying in class, so it is extremely important that they engage with it, so they are not behind other children when returning to school. We have selected Oak National Academy, as there are high quality videos for instruction, and excellent coverage across the curriculum in each year group.
I know some families have expressed a wish for live lessons, or virtual teaching, with the staff. On the face of it, this sounds a very good idea. Unfortunately, there are a number of issues with using virtual/live lessons:
The teaching staff have children in school who they need to support.
They also have to keep up with providing feedback and answering queries on Google Classroom/email.
Not all children would be able to log on to a virtual live lesson, or at the same time, which would make things very inefficient for the teacher, and also out some children at a disadvantage.
There are often a lot of technical issues with virtual meetings, which would result in lost time that could be better spent on other learning tasks.
There could be the possibility of someone from outside of school gaining access to the lesson. In some cases, offensive and inappropriate materials have been shared into virtual meetings intentionally.
We would not be able to control the behaviour of other members of households, who may accidentally use inappropriate language in the background.
There are privacy and confidentiality considerations when exposing different households to one another online.
Not all members of staff are comfortable broadcasting themselves through the internet, particularly when screen recording could be used.
It is very challenging to cater for different learning needs through a virtual lesson.
Therefore, on balance, we have decided to focus our energy on quality online videos, online learning platforms, personalised learning units and packs, and to provide live/virtual lessons. We do want to keep in touch with the children, and they can get in touch with their teachers through different mechanisms. If your children would like to speak to a member of staff on the phone, we will certainly call them. There is also the opportunity to provide messages etc through Google Classroom, which can be checked by the staff.
We will be posting paper packs to you in the coming days, indeed some of you may already have them, and this is another opportunity for the children to see a member of staff. Please send completed tasks to the teachers, and we will be sending more packs home through the next few weeks.
Nearly all of the daily practise online platforms can be used at anytime, not just in self isolation, and are very useful in bringing the children on in core skills. Donโt forget the Learning Zone, Hobby Zone and Relaxation Zone too - there is lots to do!!
