Remote Learning

The academy will endeavour to deliver the full curriculum to students, in line with the teaching which would be in place should the student be in the academy. Our curriculum offer remains broad and balanced and mirrors the KS3 and KS4 National Curriculum. Our KS5 offer remains the same.

Whilst we will continue to teach all the subjects, there may be some adjustments 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.

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.

In that case, students would receive distance learning through a combination of Show My Homework and Microsoft Teams. Assignments will contain all the documents you need for learning and completing your work including PowerPoints.

Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources. Students also have access to their Show My Homework accounts where teachers will upload work for independent study. The Academy will also use platforms such as Hegarty Maths and GCSEPod and Senaca for KS4 independent work.

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.

The minimum amount of time remote education should be in practice for Key Stages 3 and 4 is 5 hours per day. The Academy provides four live lessons a day as well as one tutor time session for KS3 and KS4 that begins at 8.40am and one independent lesson. Each live session lasts for 45 minutes and all students are required to attend their lessons. If students do not attend a lesson it will result in a non-attendance mark on the register and will affect their overall attendance for the year. As per normal expectations, homework may also be set.

Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources. Students also have log-in access to Show My Homework and for KS4 to GCSEPod. Students will have access to teachers for support and guidance. Where students do not have access to internet at home, a work-pack, textbook or worksheet will be provided for each lesson.

Where students 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 paper-based resources.

We will do our very best to support any student without access to a device or internet at home with the support to rectify this. We are doing this through providing laptops, dongles and tablets. Students are also able to attend the access provision within the Academy if they are struggling with remote learning. 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 at the Academy’s reception. Work can be posted home if organised with your child’s Head of Year. The completed work can be returned to the school for marking when they return to the academy in a safe environment for all

The academy teaching staff will run their timetable of lessons as planned with students logging into MS Teams for live lessons. Timetables for each year group can be found on this page. If you have any problems accessing these, please contact your child’s Head of Year who will be able to provide you with a digital copy of their timetable.

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 the academy will work closely with the National Education Team to agree an approach that blends the most effective methods of teaching and benefits our students best. This may include using lessons from websites such as Oak National to support.

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, or in-class engagement.

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. Please see our academy Behaviour Expectations here.

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 students 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.

If there are any concerns we will ensure we are in contact with you as parents and carers by telephone and email.

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.

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.