January Remote Learning Update

Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils, parents or carers about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require the school or entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home. For details of what to expect where schools are open and individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this document.

In line with the government announcement, all pupils will now learn remotely until February half term as part of the national lockdown. Our virtual school is up and running for all year groups via Microsoft Teams which students can access using their school log-in username and password.

Vulnerable students and children of critical key workers

The school site remains open for vulnerable students and children of critical key workers only. If your child is eligible for a place as a vulnerable student, we will contact you directly and we would encourage them to take up the place so we can support their learning. If you would like to request a place for your child as a key worker or are unsure if your child is eligible please email:  keyworker@aatrust.co.uk    All children attending will be able to access a limited lunch service.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

In the event of school closure due to national restrictions, remote lessons will be available to students from the next school day in line with their usual timetable.

Where a pupil has been asked to self-isolate due to contact with a positive case of Covid-19 in school and sent home, the remainder of this day might look different from our standard approach, while we take all necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of remote teaching and inform the relevant teaching staff. Parents can expect a full complement of lessons/work set from the first full day of self-isolation.

Will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

It is a priority that all pupils are taught a well-sequenced curriculum with meaningful and ambitious work each day. We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school, with an emphasis on delivering and retrieving important knowledge. However, we have needed to make some adaptions in some subjects. For example, where practical elements of a subject’s curriculum cannot be delivered online this will be taught upon pupils return to school.

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

The remote education provided will be equivalent in length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school (6 lessons per day) and will include live direct teaching time and time for pupils to complete tasks and assignments independently. Years 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13 attend Periods 1 to 6. Years 10 and 11 attend Periods 2 to 7. The times of virtual lessons are as follows:

Period 1: 08.45am-09.45am

Period 2: 09.45am-10.45am

Period 3: 11am-11.55am

Period 4: 11.55am-12.50pm

Period 5: 13.40pm-14.35pm

Period 6: 14.35pm-15.30pm (15.20pm finish for Years 7 and 8).

Period 7: 15.30pm-16.30pm

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 to teach pupils remotely:

• Live teaching. All live elements will be recorded for safeguarding purposes and to allow students to revisit content.
• Supporting knowledge books and lesson resources
• Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects, including video clips and revision sources such as Seneca and quizzes marked by digital platforms
• Wider reading and e-learning sources to support study and enrichment time of sixth form students

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?

Our remote learning plan has been made with our pupils and their families in mind. We believe that this strategy will work best for the children at our school. All children follow their usual timetable and therefore participate in 6 lessons a day. We expect that all children will attend each of their 6 daily lessons.

Expectations from parents and carers

• Make sure that your child is up and dressed ready for the start of their school day, preferably sitting in a quiet place with their laptop, pens and paper.
• Ensure that your child has access to a quiet space or can utilise a set of headphones whilst they are working virtually.
• Check in on your child as regularly as you can. Look to see if they are answering questions and if they are involved.
• If you can listen to the lesson for a few minutes and then ask your child a question about the lesson it really will help them to stay alert.
• Check their use of social media. In school, it is not acceptable to be on phones or accessing social media during lesson time. We all know how distracting this can be so remind them of our school rules.
• We don’t expect you to watch your child all day, and we wouldn’t expect parents/carers to get involved in remote lessons in place of our teachers. But, it would be really helpful if you can take an active role in your child’s learning by asking them about their day and what work they’ve done, distinguish between weekdays and weekends, and make it clear when the school day is over, to separate home and school life and plan breaks and exercise into the day to help keep your child active.

What we expect from your child

It’s important that your child engages with home learning and follows all 6 of their lessons.

• All children must stay online for the whole lesson and not just for their attendance mark.
• All assignments should be completed and submitted by the deadlines provided.
• Children should use the chat facility to politely ask and answer questions.

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

Pupils should be following their normal school timetable. Teachers take a register at the beginning of the lesson which is then reported to Attendance, Heads of Year and Curriculum Team Leaders. The Attendance team (including Heads of Year) monitor the daily and period attendance for each student. Calls are prioritised by the Attendance team and contact is made with parents and carers as often as possible. Concerns and problems are discussed and highlighted, and the team support where there are barriers to pupils online attendance. Student engagement is monitored daily by a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Where there is a major concern with engagement parental contact is made by phone call and/or email in the first instance. Where concerns still remain the Education Welfare Officer is notified and a notice to improve letter is sent out to the parents or carers.

Where there are concerns with pupils who are classed as vulnerable or who have an EHCP the relevant agencies support workers are notified. The school holds a database of all communications with parents and carers.

If your child is logging on every day and handing in their work, we’ll let you know that too. You need to know that they are doing well!

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

Teachers can direct pupils to submit their work in a variety of ways including but not exclusive to, uploading work onto the assignment page, posting work into the comments box on Microsoft Teams, sending work via email, using Microsoft Forms or other similar quizzing websites and using online whiteboards.

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. Regular feedback should be provided as in line with our marking and feedback policy and should aim to address any misconceptions. Under normal circumstances, not all pieces of work are formally assessed by teachers and this would continue to be the case should the school employ remote learning. Given the nature of the tasks, the type of feedback teachers can provide may not have the same format as marking an exercise book or assessment. Teachers are encouraged to ensure, when they set assessed work, that it is designed in such a way that meaningful feedback may be provided.

We use a combination of the following approaches across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 to provide feedback to pupils remotely:

• Written Feedback(for example, this may be a completed feedback sheet that is shared with the group on teams for pupils to read though and action, it may be immediate written feedback in the chat box or may be comments on work submitted).
• Audio Feedback (for example, this might be immediate feedback during a live lesson or in the form of a voiced-over PowerPoint/audio recording on Class Notebook)
• Live Video (for example, immediate verbal feedback during a class live lesson small group intervention)

Accessing remote education

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

Pupils will follow their normal timetable virtually using Microsoft Teams. This can be accessed using their school username and password.

Pupils have been automatically added to their class Teams, allowing them to access their usual lessons with their classroom teacher. At times, your child may be taught as part of a Masterclass session which will take part on their Year Group Team and subject channel. This will be communicated in advance to pupils, via their Year Group Team, by their Attainment and Standards Leader. All live lessons are recorded for safeguarding purposes.

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 pupils may not have suitable online access at home and will require a laptop and/or internet access.

Laptop Access

The school maintain a list of students who require a laptop device to access their virtual lessons and this is updated regularly by the Head of Year. In the event of school closure or a student needing to self-isolate, a laptop device is provided for students to use to access their virtual lessons at home. Parents will be contacted directly to collect the laptop from school by the Head of Year. If you feel that your child is in need of a laptop and has not currently been considered, please contact the Head of Year by email with the subject “Laptop Access” to enable us to action your request as quickly as possible.

Internet Access

The Government has recently contacted us with an offer to help support remote learning during the pandemic. In an effort to disrupt any disadvantage that students may have due to lack of internet they are offering 2 solutions.

• The first is an increased data allowance for mobile phone users which would allow users to access remote education on their mobile device or by using it as a hotspot.
• The second is 4G wireless routers. This scheme has been extended, with SIM cards for all routers providing 20GB data per month until the end of July 2021.

If you feel that one of these solutions would help you with your child’s remote learning please contact your child’s Head of Year using the email addresses below and if you could put the subject as “internet access” that would help us action your email quickly.

If you are still worried about your child’s ability to completed work online then please contact their Attainment and Standards Leader:

Year 7 and 8 – Mrs Evans hevans@aatrust.co.uk

Year 9 and 11 – Mr Ruthven sruthven@aatrust.co.uk

Year 10 – Mr Parsons aparsons@aatrust.co.uk

Additional support for pupils with particular needs

Where pupils are identified as having additional needs we work with the pupils and family to identify the best means of support. Through these discussions we will decide if Mini-School is the right provisions. We know by attending our mini school pupils can be supported by staff and teaching assistants to engage and complete the work set by teachers as they would do in normal lessons. Where parents and carers decide to continue with our virtual school at home the SENCO directs teaching assistants to support in the virtual classrooms as appropriate. An individual consultation will be carried out by the SENCO and the parent or carers as how to best support the individual child.

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 pupils, for example some of our students 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 pupils in the following ways:

• Offer of the Mini School as set out above.
• Parents and carers can contact Heads of Year directly for support either by telephone or email. Heads of year will then direct the concern and/or request for support.
• Teaching assistants are directed to support pupils by the SENCO.
• Dedicated help sheets and how to guides are sent to parents and carers to support with online learning.
• ICT support can be given, including laptops, dongles and additional data as requested.

School contacts

Year 7 Mr Szczepanski   CSzczepanski@aatrust.co.uk

Year 8 Mr Taylor  staylor@aatrust.co.uk

Year 9 Mr Rogers  lrogers@aatrust.co.uk

Year 10 Miss Hamilton  khamilton@aatrust.co.uk

Year 11 Mrs Bassi   sbassi@aatrust.co.uk

Sixth Form Mrs Bhangal jbhangal@aatrust.co.uk

Attendance Miss Dillon hdillon@aatrust.co.uk

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

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

Where school is open and individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their year group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole year groups or the whole school where local or national restrictions are in place. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school simultaneously. It is our priority that individual pupils who are self-isolating are taught the same curriculum as their peers who remain in school, with meaningful and ambitious work set each day for each of their 6 lessons. Students will follow their normal timetable, with work set for each subject area as follows: