Remote Learning

The academy will endeavour to deliver the full curriculum to children, in line with what teaching would be in place should we be at the academy in person. Our curriculum offer will remain broad, balanced, and mirror the KS3 and KS4 National Curriculum. Our KS5 offer will also remain broad and balanced.

Whilst we will cover the subjects, there may be some adjustments that need to be made to the existing curriculum for more practical subjects (such as PE, Art, Design Tech and Music). We thank you for your support and patience with this.

Please click here to see what we are teaching during the current lockdown.

In the instance that children need to engage in remote learning, due to self-isolation, bubble closure or whole school closure, the academy will work hard to ensure that no child is left without work to do in the immediacy. Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources  Students will have access to teachers for support and guidance. Where students do not have access to a device or internet at home and are unable to attend the academy, a work-pack, textbook or worksheet will be provided for each lesson.

Please click here for an overview of our online offer and help resources. 

We are sticking to our full curriculum offer as much as possible. This means that we will deliver five hours of live teaching a day, Monday to Friday.  We are also continuing with normal home learning timetable being set and completed via satchel one: Show My Homework. Click here to see an overview of your child's online timetable and here for information about home learning. 

Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources.  This can be done via the a laptop, desktop computer, iPad, tablet, smart phone, Xbox or PlayStation.  To do this please search for ‘Microsoft Teams download’ and follow the instructions to install the software on your device.  From here students will have access to their own online timetable via the calendar tab that will allow them to join live lessons.   Teachers will be on hand during these lessons to support and guide. Where students do not have access to internet at home, please contact the school immediately and we are happy to help.

Where pupils do not have access to internet at home, we will be in contact to discuss the support available for either a place in the academy, support we can offer to provide internet access at home or access to technology such as a laptop.  If we have not contacted you please get in touch.

We will do our very best to support any children without access to a device or internet at home with the support to rectify this. We are doing this by providing dongles, laptops, tablets and advice.  If we are unable to rectify this then a child without internet or device access is able to attend our on-site provision, in line with the government guidance.

For students with no online access, paper based work is set in line with the usual curriculum, which is accessed by collecting from school and can be returned to the school for marking when they return to the academy in a safe environment for all. This will only be used as a last resort as our curriculum has moved fully online.

The academy teaching staff will run their timetable of lessons as planned with students logging into MS Teams for live lessons. Your child’s online timetable can be fully accessed via Microsoft Teams, once logged in, click the calendar tab and select the relevant lessons.  We acknowledge however that there may be some situations where a full timetable of lessons may not be possible – particularly in the instance of significant staff sickness. In these situations we will either provide a cover teacher who is fully versed in online teaching and/or merge a class with another to allow online teaching to continue.

We expect every student to engage in lessons as they would in the classroom, and similarly our staff will be checking student understanding in the same manner as well. This could take the form of online quizzes, marking/assessment of assignments or work returned by email or other apps in-class engagement, asking for verbal responses during the lesson, written responses in the chat or by submitting images of their work.  In most cases your child’s learning will be checked via the completion of a Microsoft form. 

Student behaviour practices are expected to be in line with those within the academy, and additional rules will be in place for things such as microphone and camera use, raising hands, or class conversation through MS Teams. We expect your child to have their camera turned on and make appropriate use of the chat and microphone.  Teachers will provide advice on the safe use of technology at the start of each lesson alongside advice on how to get the best out of an online lesson.

We know that strong parental engagement is important to make this successful, and therefore endeavour to communicate regularly with you around how the remote learning is going. We will be there to offer support on how to access the information remotely around resources, lessons and your child’s attendance, behaviour and engagement.

We ask that you support your child by creating a quiet place for them to attend lessons at home, and do not record any lessons for your own use due to GDPR and data protection.

We will be checking in with children during lessons and online-check-in sessions to ensure we have a good overview of their understanding and engagement. Online quizzing and assessment tools also help us to see how many children are actively engaging in lessons, and as always we will be monitoring attendance.   Lesson drop ins by the senior team, subject leaders and pastoral team will also add an extra layer of checking.  We will of course keep you updated if your child is not online or is online but not engaging in work.

If there are any concerns we will ensure we are in contact with you as parents and carers by telephone, text message or in writing.

We will be assessing your child’s progress through work submitted daily via Microsoft Teams, engagement through questions in lessons, using online quizzing/marking tools and other work returned by email/other agreed communication. This will help us identify needs of the individual or needs of the class quickly and effectively. 

We recognise that some pupils, for example some pupils 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:

-        Provide breakout rooms in live lessons that will allow bespoke support to be given by TAs

-        Assign TAs to class with students who need additional support.

-        Make use of the accessibility options available via teams.

-        Adapt lessons and resources to meet the needs of all students

-        Offer in school support.

-        Make regular welfare calls to offer support and gain feedback.

Students will have access to live lessons as if happening in school, through a Microsoft Team meeting. In the instance they do not have access to this all provisions will be made to ensure work packs are delivered to ensure no work is missed.