FAO Remote Learners (home learners)
Dear Parent/Carer,
I would just like to update you on our remote learning offer in which we have in place for those learning from home during Lockdown 3.
As you are aware, we have been working with parents to seek their views regarding the offer and in addition we have sought views from the Teaching Staff team too.
We decided upon an approach called a synchronous approach, whereby the Teacher delivers to those in school and those at home via a live stream. We wanted to trial this in order to keep things as consistent as possible for both groups of pupils and hoped it would also support to meet the learning needs of both groups.
Although in the first week this seemed to go pretty well, it’s not felt as successful in the last week or so. Mrs Fox and Mr Longley, both Senior Leaders at the school shared that they were finding the approach difficult to get right for both groups of learners, therefore, I sought views from the rest of the team. Staff feel that they are struggling to provide the correct balance of learning for both those in class and those at home, as we have learned that pupils at home need a different balance to those in school. In particular, we understand that pupils cannot be expected to sit in front of a screen for most of the day, nor can we expect them to engage in the same way as those in school.
Therefore, in light of this, we have made some adaptations to our delivery model for those at home, in order to see if we feel this is a better suited model. We are going to trial this model starting from today and will seek feedback from parents and staff next week in order to gauge with this is a better model and make any changes we feel necessary based on feedback.
All pupils (Year 1- 6- we are working with EYFS slightly differently)
All pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 are expected to continue to sign in at their registration time via Google Classroom (Google Meet) and will take part in a crew session with their crew.
Children across Key Stage 2 will also be asked to check in throughout the morning with their online Teacher and will also be asked to check out with their Crew and Crew Leader at the end of the day. Therefore, they will still have lots of face to face interaction throughout the day.
KS1 (Year 1 and 2)
Year 1 and 2 pupils will access 3 x 30 minute live sessions throughout the day in order to cover their core subjects including RWI, Writing and Maths. These will be delivered by the Year 1/2 team- staff will be in touch regarding timings for your child.
KS2 (Year 3-6)
Pupils in Year 3 to 6 will be placed into a specific online learning classroom. There will be a Year 3 and 4 Classroom and a Year 5 and 6 Classroom. Therefore, after Crew registration (log into their current classroom), they will then be allocated a classroom for their learning. These Classrooms are being led by Mr Longley in Year 3 and 4 and Mr Gerrard in Year 5 and 6. Mr Gerrard will also be supported by Mr McCusker too.
The model may vary across KS2, as we are finding that the age range of the pupils is too wide to deliver a consistent model, however, it is likely that there will be some ‘live’ lessons, as well as the use of ‘modelled slides’ whereby the Teacher uses a pre-recorded voice over for the children to listen back to. In addition, sometimes, if it’s an ongoing activity or fairly independent, as we know many of our children are ‘doers’ and like to get on, there will be a task uploaded with an explanation for them to just get on and do.
Staff will be available throughout the school day to chat on the chat function or on a meet call with pupils to support with independent tasks etc.
We hope that this model is a better blend for our online learners and better meets their individual learning needs too.
As I shared, we are trialling this and in school, we are calling this our ‘Plan B’. However, it may need further tweaks, in which case, we need to know. I will send out a Google Form in the middle of next week, once we have given it a go for a few days running.
We will continually strive to get this right for everyone and thank you for your support during this time, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries or require any support.
Miss Laing
Headteacher
