REMOTE LEARNING
Information for parents and carers
Students may need to learn remotely if they are sent home from the Academy to self-isolate, or if there is a full lockdown.
The following information is a brief summary of how your child will learn at home. More detail is included in the academies Remote Learning Policy.
The remote curriculum: what is taught to students at home
When students are sent home to self-isolate, they will be provided with details of how to access their lessons online. They will also be provided with any materials that they need in addition to those that they will access through MS Teams.
All students will have a personal reading book to continue reading at home.
The expectation is that students will access remote lessons as soon as their period of self- isolation begins.
Remote teaching and study time each day
We expect that students will spend the same amount of time working on a remote education day as they would in the Academy. This is because they will be following the usual Academy timetable for their lessons and completing independent learning / homework that arises from them.
Accessing remote education
Remote lessons will be delivered using Microsoft Teams (MS Teams). Your son/daughter has been taught how to access the site and how to login for lessons.
We will continue to use learning platforms including Hegarty Maths, MyGCSE Science, Seneca and ShowMyHomework to support students’ independent learning.
We are very grateful to parents for providing devices on which their children can access lessons and resources. We recognise that some students may not have suitable online access at home.
Please inform the Academy (daniel.hennessy@smallheath.staracademies.org) if your child does not have a laptop/tablet on which to work, or if you do not have internet access at home. We will do our best to support you.
Remote teaching
Remote teaching will be delivered through live lessons in the vast majority of cases. This will involve simultaneous direct teaching by subject teachers (who could be teaching from the physical classroom or from home if self-isolating) to their students (who could be learning in the physical classroom or at home).
Students will need to spend some parts of lessons writing in their workbooks or completing activities that involve physical resources. These will be provided by the Academy. Some activities will involve students completing work on their devices and saving or uploading it.
Some subjects, such as PE, do not lend themselves to online learning in the same way as others. Teachers will take into account the difficulties students may have in completing physical activity in a confined space and provide alternative suitable learning for students who are learning online.
Engagement and feedback
We have the same high expectations of students’ behaviour when they are learning remotely as we do when they are learning in the Academy. The STAR values should be consistently maintained. All students have been taught the protocols for working online and staying safe. Codes of conduct for remote learning have been given to students, parents and staff. The Academy will alert you in the event of poor behaviour or non-attendance.
We value your support for your child’s wellbeing and learning. Please continue to ensure that they follow good routines, including getting enough sleep and time away from screens.
We will keep a careful check on your child’s remote learning. We will inform you by text and phone call, (in repeat cases), if your child misses any lessons that they are expected to attend. We will phone your child at least once per week during their time learning remotely to check on their progress and wellbeing. We will inform you if we have concerns about your child’s work.
Assessment and feedback
Your child will work in a variety of ways when they are learning remotely. Sometimes they will submit assessments by ShowMyHomework. Sometimes they will complete work on paper that will be submitted to the Academy in hard copy form.
Feedback can take many forms. Sometimes your child will receive written individual feedback. Some feedback will be given on a whole-class basis and sometimes your child may complete quizzes that are marked automatically via ShowMyHomework.
Additional support for students with particular needs
We recognise that some students, for example some 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 students in the following ways:
• Provision on individual/ small group support during MS Teams lessons
• Provision of differentiated work matched to individual targets
• Enhanced induction for MS Teams access
Please click here Remote Learning Policy