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Remote Learning - Lockdown 3

Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if and when local restrictions require entire cohorts to remain at home.

For details of what to expect where individual students are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to students at home

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of students being sent home?

As with the previous period of lockdown we will continue to deliver lessons remotely, with the majority of lessons being delivered via live streaming according to your son or daughter’s timetable. The main vehicle for delivering this remote teaching and learning will be Google Classroom. 

In order for this to work students should be online and ready to learn at the timetabled start of each lesson and registration in the morning (Registration takes place at 8.35am Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). 

Your son/daughter’s timetable can be found in the timetable section of your Cloud School account - please use either the Cloud School Parent App on your smartphone or visit www.progresso.net on you desktop or laptop .  The timings of the day can be found here.

Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, there may be some necessary adaptations to practical subjects such as PE, Art, Drama and D&T

Staff have worked very hard at streamlining their departments' curriculum to focus on key knowledge and skills ("what has to be learned"), helping students to re-engage with their learning,  as well as identifying gaps in learning and ensuring that these are revisited in lessons.  These curriculum maps can be seen here.

Remote teaching and study time each day

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students a similar amount of time as they spent on work prior to lockdown.  We will provide five hour long lessons a day in line with the student’s timetable as well as a 20 minute registration on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It is not envisaged that students will be listening to their teacher talk for the duration of each lesson nor that all sections of lessons will need ‘screen time'.  Teachers may also set homework that students should complete independently.

Accessing remote education

How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?

The main vehicle for delivering remote learning will be Google Classroom. This enables staff to set lessons online as each timetabled class is now a ‘Classroom’ with the relevant member of staff allocated to it.  Students have been using this software for a number of years now and should therefore be familiar with the software (we have uploaded ‘how to use’ guidance onto the school website for parents). Students should access the work when lessons would take place.  The work set will be in line with that delivered during normal school days/weeks/terms. This means that lessons will stop during the published school holidays.  All lessons via GMeet or Zoom will have their links posted to the Google Classroom.

Information on using Google Classroom can be found here

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you support them to access remote education?

We recognise that some students may not have suitable online access at home. If this is the case then we urge parents to contact us immediately either by phone on 02083654453 (Ms Brooks or Ms Harris) or email remotelearning@fortismere.org.uk .  We will try and make the necessary arrangements to ensure that all students can access the remote education that we are offering.

How will my child be taught remotely?

The majority of lessons will be taught via live streaming.  This means that the teacher will be online and oversee the learning in the lesson via GMeet, Zoom or an equivalent.  This does not mean that the  teacher will be lecturing for an hour.   Instead they may start by introducing the lesson and explaining the tasks then be available for the period of the lesson to support with answering questions.  The teacher may well then summarise the learning at the end and question students to ensure learning.  This will vary from subject to subject and teacher to teacher.

Ultimately, the teacher is there to ensure that the students are following and learning the planned curriculum and guiding students’ learning appropriately.  The tasks and lessons that are set for students by staff may take a number of different forms including (but not limited to):

  • recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
  • commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
  • worksheets and Google Doc written tasks
  • Activities away from the computer that can be uploaded later.
  • Working from online textbooks

Engagement and feedback

What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

We expect students to attend and engage in all remote lessons as set out in their school timetable in order for them to complete and learn the planned curriculum.  We ask parents to support students by:

  • where possible providing students with the means to access the lessons using a web enabled device (PC, Laptop, tablet )
  • where possible providing children with a workspace that is quiet, safe and free from distractions with an adult nearby if necessary.  Also ensuring that the workspace has a plain background for cameras if required.
  • ensuring your child is dressed appropriately
  • Helping them to follow their normal school timetable of lessons, including taking breaks
  • ensuring that face-to-face communication is only between teachers and students, any parent to teacher communication should be in the usual manner via email between 08:30-15:30.
  • In the event of an IT issue arising, please email helpdesk@fortismere.org.uk; a member of the IT Services Team will be in touch to help students continue their learning remotely.
  • Helping ensure that your child only attends the online lessons to which they are invited by their teacher through Google Classroom (Children must also not share the lesson hyperlink with anyone).
  • having a discussion with your child  about appropriate behaviour in a remote lesson for example treating other students with respect and waiting to be invited to speak so that the same standards are maintained remotely as would be in a real classroom.
  • we ask that parents are not present or involved in the online learning to support student engagement and independence and to maintain a ‘normal’ classroom environment for all parties.

 

We also ask that parents read through the ‘Fortismere Parent Remote Learning Agreement’  before allowing their child to log into the lessons.

How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?

Teachers will be taking registers at the start of each online lesson.  They will correlate this attendance with any missed deadlines and any submitted work that is below the quality of which the student is normally capable.  Should the teacher feel that there is an issue regarding any or all of these factors they will award a ‘Remote Learning Engagement Concern’ on Cloud School, this will be visible to parents.   Depending on the number and frequency of these concerns parents will either be contacted by the class teacher, Head of Department, Form Tutor or Head of Year.   This contact will seek to support the student with their learning and re-engage them.

How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on student work means that teachers will:

  • Acknowledge work posted each lesson
  • Where possible question, check or assess for understanding each lesson.
  • Feedback regularly on common issues relevant to the whole class
  • Feedback on individual issues where appropriate.

 

We will still be operating the school wide assessment policy with assessments, reports and parents evenings going ahead largely as planned.  For more information on assessment at Fortismere click here.

Additional support for students with particular needs

How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

We recognise that some students, for example  those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may not be able to access remote education without support from adults at home. We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers to support those students in the following ways:

  • By inviting your child to attend key worker school where they will receive additional support from teaching assistants
  • Through scheduled remote 1:1 sessions with key workers (EHCP students/students who received 1:1 support in school)
  • By sharing advice from SEND professionals regarding best practice remote learning for different needs e.g. visual and hearing impairments

 

Remote education for self-isolating students

Where individual students need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching students both at home and in school.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

In the case of a child having been asked to self-isolate by the school or NHS the School will do all that it reasonably can to continue to deliver educational services, in line with the planned curriculum.  Teachers will upload the content of their lesson to the google classroom/drive as soon as possible making clear the date of the lesson to enable clarity for the student working from home.  Where possible/practicable and where the school resources allow we will aim to ‘stream’ some or all of the lessons using audio and screen share capabilities through GMeet, Zoom or equivalent.

Students that are self-isolating must:

  • Be available during the hours of the normal school day (08:35- 15:20) to complete work set on Google Classroom.  Teachers will be available during their assigned lesson times.
  • Submit completed work by the deadline set by the class teacher.
  • Work on their subjects at the times specified on their timetable.