School updates from Mrs Jones 19.01.2021
Please see below updated information from Mrs Jones.
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you are staying safe and found my last communication useful. We intend to keep our remote learning offer under continual review and since writing to you last week we have already made some small amendments to how we would like to do things.
Remote Learning:
In order to help students in managing their workload, teaching staff will now upload their lessons onto ClassCharts by 8.50am on the day their lesson is timetabled. This means that your child will have all 5 lessons for the day available to them by 8.50am.
The due date for all lessons will now appear as the same date as the issue date. This will not prevent students accessing the lesson beyond the due date but the intention is that the work should not take any longer than an hour and should, where possible be completed on the day it is set. As you can see from the screen shot below, if your child clicks on the ‘calendar’ icon on the top left, they can use the drop-down menu to show all work set (regardless of due date) for particular time frames. This example shows that the student has customised their calendar to show all work set from 7th January to 13th February. Please can you check that your child has set their calendar to show all work set during this period of lockdown.
In most subjects, staff will plan to provide feedback on a given piece of work at least once every two weeks. For this particular piece of work staff will be making it explicit that students should upload the work to ClassCharts. Staff may choose to allow students to upload their work for other lessons as students may like to show the teacher that they have completed the work set but please note – staff are expected to only provide feedback on the work they explicitly ask for.
Please also remember that feedback can take several forms including individual comments via Class Charts or whole-class feedback in a subsequent lesson to address any common misconceptions. If the latter applies, your child’s work will still have been monitored and assessed. However, their teacher will have chosen to use their professional judgement to feedback on key strengths and areas for improvement that are most prevalent across the teaching group. This is characteristic of a responsive, research-informed approach to teaching and learning as endorsed by Ofsted. Furthermore, if individual feedback is not provided, it is still important that your child keeps all the work they do during lockdown for the purposes of long-term learning, as suggested in my previous letter.
During the course of this week the ‘announcement’ feature will be turned on, for both parent and pupil accounts, in ClassCharts. This is a one-way line of communication that our staff will be using to ‘give a friendly nudge’ to students who don’t seem to be engaging in their work. This may be because they have not viewed the work set by the class teacher or submitted work that the teacher would like to provide feedback on. As a parent you will receive the same announcement.
Please be reassured the announcements are not a judgement of parents and never a rebuke of children. No sanctions will be attached to them. It provides a reminder to students to submit the work they have done, gives feedback to families and provides valuable information for school. Its role is entirely supportive.
Live Lessons:
We are really pleased to report that the live lesson trial with the 6th form last week was a great success and we look forward to rolling this out to other year groups. Our remote learning champions are delivering staff training this week and live lessons with 6th form classes will begin to be scheduled from Wednesday 20th January. Our intention is to build staff confidence and skillset, initially with the 6th form, with a view to start delivering live lessons to years 7-11 from early February.
Safeguarding of students and staff is paramount therefore we kindly ask that you discuss the guidance attached with your child and ensure that they can log in to their school email account. If they cannot remember their log in details, please contact school: TechSupport@buxton.derbysire.sch.uk
Please then complete the consent form using the link allowing your child to participate in live lessons and confirming that your child fully understands the code of conduct. Without this consent your child will not receive a live lesson invite and therefore will be unable to participate. The consent form can also be completed (if you have not already done so) for students in Yr7-11 ahead of us delivering live lessons to these Year groups.
Summer Examinations:
Please find below the link to the consultation document released at the end of last week regarding the awarding of GCSE, AS and A level grades this summer. We would encourage you to read and respond, especially if you are a parent/relative of students affected. The consultation ends on Fri 29th Jan at 23.45.
Student Wellbeing:
We are very much aware that students are spending significant amounts of time looking at a screen and we are currently working on ways to reduce this as much as possible. In light of this, we will be running a ‘wellbeing day’ on Wednesday 27th January. This day is intended to reduce screen time whilst also providing some time for students to catch up on work they may not have yet completed. The day will also provide time for Year 11 teachers to contact a small number of students who may benefit from some one-to-one feedback on their mock exams. As I am sure you will understand, teachers will not be able to contact every Year 11 student on this day, but please be re-assured that the ‘whole class’ feedback that will be/has been provided (on Class Charts, in the normal way) will address most issues the students faced in their mock exams. If your child is in Year 11, please provide (by clicking the link below) a suitable contact number which staff should call, should they feel it necessary. This number must be either a line land or a parent/carer’s mobile number. We are not allowed to contact students on their own mobile phones.
The table below shows what we recommend students do on this day; the suggested activities will apply to both students who are in school and who are at home. A list of suggested activities will be posted on class charts ready for the morning of Weds 27th Jan. Students in school will be offered an activity run by a member of staff; these will, of course, be subject to our risk assessments and protocols.
|
Year Group |
Activities |
|
Years 7 - 9 |
Engage in the wellbeing activities as shared on ClassCharts. |
|
Years 10 -13 |
In addition – Year 11 students should be available to talk with teachers should they receive a call regarding their mock exams. |
I hope that this all helps to support your child whilst we are working in this way but, as always, if there is anything else we can help with, please call main reception in the first instance and we will do everything we can to help.
Covid -19 Testing:
As per my last letter, if you haven’t already and wish to do so, please can you complete the forms below giving your consent to Covid 19 testing.
Testing Consent for Yr7-11:
Testing consent for 6th form Students:
Finally, please can I remind you that if your child tests positive for Covid 19 you must contact main reception to let us know, even if your child is currently working from home. If your child is coming into school, they must not attend if they have symptoms or if they have received a positive test result. In either case your child should isolate for 10 days from the date of symptoms or from the date of the positive test result if asymptomatic. If your child is poorly with non-Covid symptoms and they are unable to complete their online work, please contact main reception and we will inform the relevant teaching staff, so they are aware that your child may not be able to complete the work set.
Take care and stay safe
Mrs Sam Jones – Deputy Headteacher