Remote Learning
Practical arrangements
All students will be able to access personalised remote learning activities through Class Charts, under the 'Homework' section.
Work will be set by subject teachers on a daily basis and will follow your child’s regular timetable. Students will be set work for five lessons each day and are expected to spend at least 30 minutes on each of these, submitting their work on the same day once they have completed it. Some subjects such as PSHE, PE and Employability Skills will be setting tasks that last across the whole week, and some more detailed tasks may have additional time allocated before the submission deadline. Students should also read for at least 30 minutes every day, engage in some form of physical activity, and help out with household chores.
Students retain their access to the online content that they have previously used and can therefore extend their learning as much as they feel able to without input from their teachers. This puts them in a strong position to take charge of their learning and enhance their progress. As a reminder, these systems include: Tassomai, GCSEPod, Heggarty, Everlearner, PiXL, etc. We appreciate that they will also be accessing a range of resources including documentaries on TV, books at home, and other websites such as BBC Bitesize and Oak National Academy.
Teachers will be monitoring the chat feature in Class Charts, so students will be able to communicate directly with their teachers as much as they feel they need to, asking for help and receiving feedback. Please do not worry about your child falling behind with their learning. Once students are able to return safely to school, we will make sure we get everyone back on track, especially those who are closest to the end of their time with us.
Every student will receive a phone call from their Learning Mentor at least once a week to check in with them, motivate them and help to keep them on track with their learning. The feedback from families has been extremely positive so far. If you have any concerns about helping your child learn, or you need any other support from the school, please let us know by contacting your Learning Mentor via the chat feature in Class Charts or by discussing this with them during their weekly call.
Principles underpinning our approach
You may have seen different approaches to remote learning from other schools in the news and on social media. Since the previous period of remote learning, we have worked hard to improve our approach by focusing on training for staff that reflects best-practice, and by improving our access to technology. We acknowledge that everyone is still finding their way and that there are constantly evolving options out there for us to consider in terms of delivering remote learning, and we will continue to review and evolve our approach. You will notice that our remote learning now includes on-demand video content from teachers, a wider variety of activities to inspire and engage students in their subjects, and a better balance between activities designed to introduce new content and those designed to revised previously taught content.
From survey feedback and discussions with parents, we know that some families in our community still do not have the technology, time and circumstances at home to support remote learning in the way that they would like to. We will therefore continue our focus on supporting students to learn in the most widely accessible ways possible. Added to this, we have been successful in securing 56 laptops and devices that are being deployed to the families in most need of them.
We want to be fair and consistent; student and staff personal circumstances all vary greatly. This of course applies to family life, devices that are available to work from, how many children and adults need to use those and where, and the quality of the internet connection at home. Please be assured that we are acutely aware that everyone’s situation is different and that we will do what we can as teaching and support staff, to be on hand whether academically or in terms of your child’s and your well-being.
Research and background information
We are constantly evolving our approach to remote learning, drawing on best-practice, current research, articles and case studies. Some of the most recent information is listed below.
- COVID 19 and Social Mobility Impact Brief 1 School Closures
- EEF eef blog live teaching and pre recorded video lessons what does the evidence say
- Rapid Evidence Assessment summary
- Remote Learning Rapid Evidence Assessment
- Remote Learning The Digital Divide Final
- Whats working well in remote education GOV UK
School-specific information
- Remote Learning Survey Outcomes Laptops and Internet Access Jan 2021
- Remote Learning Survey Results June 2020 Parents
- Remote Learning Survey Results June 2020 Students
- Where to find support
- ZV update letter to parents 8 1 21