Dear Parent/Carer

Further to the information recently provided by Mr Yates, I would like to expand in more detail on our plan for remote teaching and learning for the period of lockdown this term.  

Our priority is to provide as seamless a transition as possible between learning in school and at home in order to minimise disruption and ensure that your child continues to receive a high quality education.  This is why a significant component of our remote learning offer will involve teachers delivering well-planned, pre-recorded Loom video lessons that broadly match the sequence of a typical lesson in the classroom yet are also adjusted to meet the challenges of learning online at home.  

You may also find that some staff complement their own resources with those from Oak National Academy, the Greenshaw Learning Trust or other nationally recognised providers of remote education. We are fully supportive of our teachers utilising the best resources available. Oak’s online classroom, for example, has 10,000 video lessons created by teachers which are available at www.thenational.academy.  This resource is backed by the Department for Education and, last term, provided nearly 5 million students with 20 million lessons. 

Whilst our recent parent survey on remote learning showed a general preference for pre-recorded lessons as opposed to lessons delivered online in real-time, we are continuing to explore how we might safely and effectively offer some live lessons via Microsoft Teams in the future.  However, it is important to bear in mind research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) which clarified that ‘teaching quality is more important than how lessons are delivered’ and ‘different approaches to remote learning suit different types of content and pupils’ – https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/best-evidence-on-supporting-students-to-learn-remotely/.  Where a live element can be shown to be productive, we will endeavour to incorporate this into our remote learning offer in due course. 

All remote lessons and resources will be uploaded to Class Charts according to the students’ timetabled lessons on that particular day.  Teachers will indicate if students need to submit completed assignments for marking and feedback as necessary.  For most subjects, KS3 students will be expected to submit at least one piece of work per subject every fortnight during this lockdown.

To support parents/carers in monitoring their child’s engagement with remote learning, we have enabled a new feature on Class Charts which allows you to see if work has been submitted as requested and also view any feedback provided by the teacher on the submitted work.  Please note, however, that effective feedback can take several forms depending on the requirements of the curriculum and student need.  Some staff may choose to acknowledge students’ work as soon as possible and provide individual feedback online via Class Charts.  Others may provide more responsive, whole-class feedback either through subsequent Loom video lessons or by adapting other resources in order to directly address common misconceptions that have emerged during the period of remote learning.  In short, we do not advocate a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to feedback and trust our teachers to use their professional judgement to deploy strategies they deem most effective in closing any gaps in students’ knowledge and understanding. 

This plan is, of course, dependent on your child being well enough to complete this work and we recognise that individual home circumstances vary.  Please do keep us informed of any issues by contacting your child’s Director of Progress (DoP) and Remote Learning Champions (RLC) via the following email addresses – 

Year 7 

Mr Charlie Holman (DoP) – charlie-joe.holman@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk  

Mrs Caroline Scholes (RLC) – caroline.scholes@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Year 8 

Miss Lucy Ingham (DoP) – lucy.ingham@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Mr Martin Gardner (RLC) – martin.gardner@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Year 9 

Mrs Jessica Lomas (DoP) - jess.lomas@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Mr Greg Smith (DoP) – greg.smith@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Miss Laura Bowden (RLC) – laura.bowden@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Year 10 

Mrs Claire O’Brien (DoP) - claire.obrien@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Mr Greg Smith (DoP) – greg.smith@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Miss Claire Gillespie (RLC) – claire.gillespie@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Year 11 

Mrs Claire O’Brien (DoP) - claire.obrien@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Mr Greg Smith (DoP) – greg.smith@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Miss Stephanie Barratt (RLC) – stephanie.barratt@buxon.derbyshire.sch.uk  

Years 12 and 13 

Ms Jackie Cruse (DoP) – jackie.cruse@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

Mrs Christina Warrington (RLC) – christina.warrington@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk 

If you have a technical issue involving ICT such as user names and passwords for Office 365 or any other technical query, please contact our IT team by email at;?techsupport@buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk? 

Our progress teams, including form tutors, will also be in regular contact with all students during the period of remote education to check on their well-being and to resolve any issues that may be impeding learning at home.  In addition, students can contact their teachers via email with any questions regarding the work they have been set. Staff email addresses can be found on the school website at https://www.buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk/page/?title=Staff+Team&pid=16. 

Finally,  school will be open to those students whose parents are key workers or those who have been directly invited to attend school for other reasons. Consequently, certain staff have been requested to supervise these students according to a daily rota and therefore will be unable to set remote work for their own classes on this day.  Even on these occasions, there will typically be four ‘lessons’ worth of work each day but should you require additional work for any subject please make use of the remote learning material for self-isolating students. These can be found on the website at https://www.buxton.derbyshire.sch.uk/page/?title=Remote+Work+for+Students&pid=239. 

Yours faithfully 

Mr Simon Gort - Assistant Headteache Teaching and Learning