Remote Learning Offer Jan 21

By Kirsty Laing21st January 2021

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

School Closing

By Helen Lythe14th January 2021

Due to the snow, school will be closed from 1pm.

Please can you collect your child between 1pm and 1.30pm.

If you want to collect them earlier please ring school.

There will be no online learning this afternoon as Staff will be travelling home.

Start Time Changes for Crew Nicholson, Godley and Marsh.

By Helen Lythe8th January 2021

This morning it was a little busy in the area where Crew Nicholson, Godley and Marsh come into school therefore we have reviewed and amended the start times, starting Monday 11th January please;

Crew Nicholson- 8.45am

Crew Godley- 8.45am

Crew Marsh- 9.00am

We’re still planning

By Helen Lythe8th January 2021

Hi Everyone,

As you know we did a lot of fundraising in December with our pupils reaching the north pole!

We were super lucky and so grateful for the amount we raised, which Miss Laing will share with you next week!

With the crazy changes Covid has brought us this week we’ve had to concentrate on plans for this which has delayed us announcing our plans. Bare with us, we haven’t forgotten and hope you’ll be super excited to hear what we have planned.

Thanks

Mrs Lythe

 

Further staggered finish from Thursday 7th January

By Kirsty Laing6th January 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

Firstly thank you so much for your positivity and kind words during the last few days. We have had a really positive first day back with 80% engagement from pupils both at school and online- this is absolutely fantastic!

We have decided to further stagger the end of the school day timings for children in order to reduce the number of adults on the school site at any one time in order to ensure that we play our part in keeping the community as safe as we can.

A parent has mentioned today that there are more children on site during this lockdown in comparison to the first lock down which has resulted in more adults at pick up time.

I just wanted to briefly explain the rationale behind this and why it feels different on our school site in comparison to lockdown 1.

We currently have more pupils onsite this time due to a number of factors. The first factor is that the the critical worker list is much longer than it was during the first lockdown, the list for pupils who may be deemed to come under the vulnerable category for the DFE has also been extended this time as a result of lockdown 1; we believe this may be due to the fact that the Government has seen the impact that lockdown has had on a large proportion of pupils across the country in terms of education, heath and wellbeing and therefore have added further criteria this time. In addition, consideration must also to be given to those struggling to access online provision for one reason or another. Finally, it has been requested that schools provide provision for their nursery pupils if they can safely do so and because we are built to be a 2 form entry school we have plentiful space to be able to safely house nursery pupils during this lockdown. So, in summary, this has meant that this time, we do have a larger number of pupils in attendance but we do believe that we can house all pupils on site as safely as we did during lockdown 1, I would even argue even more safely than we did during Lockdown 1 as we have been able to learn a lot during the last 10 months.

This time, the Government has not put in a ratio in terms of bubble sizes unlike last time, whereby they stated that bubbles should have no more than 15 pupils per bubble. However, we are still continuing to adhere to this guidance and are keeping the children in groups of no more than 15 with the exception of Foundation Stage due to the age of the children and the way that they access their provision areas, however, F1 and F2 are kept as separate bubbles and will not mix despite being in the same big space.

In addition pupils are not mixing with any other pupils across school and will remain in their class bubble all of the time with the same two adults both at lunchtime and breaktime. I have also asked adults to limit the number of pupils they come into contact within their bubbles, for example, the Teacher to check the work of 8 pupils and the Support Staff to check the work of the other 7, again, this is much tighter than we had it set up last March. We will continue to consider ways to be even safer in order to keep our community as safe as we possibly can as we move throughout the next 6 weeks.

However, on reflection, one of the areas in which I do feel we could really tighten up on is our end of the day arrangements. With this in mind, I am going to trial the following from Thursday 7th January.

Monday to Thursday: F1 (Nicholson) collected at 2.30

F2 (Godley) collected at 2.45

However, pupils in other year groups can be collected at anytime between 2.30 and 3.15pm. For those collecting F1 and F2, please collect these pupils first and then make your way round to collect siblings.

On a Friday pick up times as follows:

F1 (Nicholson) collected at 12.45pm

F2 (Godley) collected at 1.00pm

Other year groups can be collected anytime between 12.45 and 1.30pm. Like above, please collect F1 and F2 pupils first and then make your way round to collect siblings after that.

Another school is using this same system as it ensures that parents do not have a long waiting time, however, we do need to ensure that it’s staggered. This will take a couple of days to get absolutely right, but I am confident that this can work for us too.

Please can I also ask that parents do not gather outside of the school gates (on the path) or on our site as this is not deemed to be safe in terms of Covid-19. We do ask that parents drop off/pick up on their own during the lockdown period. During the lockdown period, families are not supposed to be mixing with other families, therefore, it is important that we adhere to this guidance during drop off and pick up times too. Thank you for your understanding.

I hope that by making these changes, it might ease the volume of adults on site/on the street at pick up time whilst not asking parents to stand in the cold by setting fixed finishing times for every year group.

Morning drop off times remain as they were this morning as we feel this worked well.

Apologies for the late message, however, the leadership team has only just been able to confirm this change but we wanted to make this change ahead of tomorrow, so we can keep us all as safe as possible whilst continuing to provide in-house education to those who qualify for it.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding,

Miss Laing

 

Are you remote learning and need internet access?

By Helen Lythe6th January 2021

Anyone remote learning need help with internet data?

We can apply for additional data for you which is being supplied by the Department of Education and the following mobile networks: EE, Sky Mobile, SMARTY, Tesco, Three, Virgin Mobile.

Are you eligible for extra mobile data, you can apply if;

  • you don’t have a broadband connection at home
  • cannot afford additional data

One of the following must also apply. Your Child(ren):

  • in years 3 to 11 and whose face-to-face education is disrupted
  • who are clinically extremely vulnerable and need to shield on current official advice (this could be from a doctor or hospital consultant)
  • who live in a household that’s been advised to shield because a family member is clinically extremely vulnerable
  • who cannot attend school – even though theirs is open – because restrictions prevent it

We will need to collect the following information from you which will be shared with the Department of Education;

  • Adults name,
  • Mobile Telephone number
  • Network details from your households.

Information for how the Department of Education can be found in their Privacy Policy.

The schools Privacy School can be found on the website.

For more information about this offer, please check out the Guide to collecting mobile information from families

If you want to apply, please complete the google form; Extra Mobile Data Application

Thanks

Mrs Lythe