Remote Learning Provision at Monkwearmouth Academy

• Students will receive work throughout the school day equivalent to 4.5 hours of guided learning
• Teachers will provide direct contact through a ‘live’ element of teaching – following a 4 part lesson plan – giving opportunities for students to complete an independent task and review their learning
• Students will receive face to face contact with their Form Tutor everyday for a wellbeing check

Accessing Remote Education

3.1. How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?

Our preferred delivery model will be Microsoft Office TEAMS, which we use in school and students are already familiar with. Work will be shared by teachers via a discrete TEAMS invite for each subject/class. From TEAMS, each student will be able to access:

• live teaching through a link to TEAMS
• remote learning resources
• options to submit work online

Students can access our remote offer using a variety of digital devices, e.g. laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, phones and iPads. All devices will require internet access and students should note that Apple iOS devices can sometimes alter the formatting of documents. If you have any problems accessing our Remote Education, please contact school reception and we will support you. Departments will also use a variety of ICT resources to develop assessment and feedback.

3.2. If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you support them to access remote education?

We understand that some pupils may not have a suitable device to work with at home therefore we can offer the following:

• Those students who cannot access a remote learning device have access to the loan of a Google Chromebook from school; parents need to contact school and then arrange to come into school to collect it
• All of our Chromebooks are webcam and microphone enabled, allowing the necessary live interactions with teachers during lessons
• Where students have significant data issues, the school has access to a small number of data cards, which can be accessed from school upon request (please note our supply of these is very limited)
• Where remote access is difficult, the school will organise hard copies of learning materials upon request and ensure these are posted along with paper resources to support learning
• Students can also access lessons via Classcharts where necessary, if requested
• Parents can collect additional materials from school (via appointment, if preferable to posting)

4. How will my child be taught remotely?

We know from our experience and through feedback, since March and September, what tends to work and what doesn’t. All staff have been excellent at trialing different strategies and adapting their approach so that it is more effective in supporting learning. Key observations have included:

• Access to an appropriate device is essential for students
• Students of all ages struggle to manage their workload and can quickly become disenchanted especially if there is little or no contact with teachers

Students benefit from access to their teacher through:

• Live virtual connections
• TEAMS is an ideal platform for sharing resources and lesson material. In our most recent communication to parents we advised that online ‘live’ lessons would follow a 4-part lesson format. The plan is to utilise this for all lessons (as per the table below) from Monday 4th January.

• Work uploaded to Classcharts / TEAMS
• Printed paper packs or workbooks emailed or posted home
• Textbooks and reading books pupils have at home or shared by departments
• Web based commercial platforms such as Active Learn and Educake
• Long-term project work where appropriate, for example, Non-Examined Assessment material in some KS4
• Pastoral support through Form Tutor
• School assembly programme

5. Engagement and feedback

5.1. What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

We expect all students to engage fully in remote learning so that lost learning is kept to an absolute minimum. As we are following a familiar timetable and timings, with ready access to the class teacher, we believe that students will require limited support from home. We are confident that our approach will provide students with a clear structure enabling them to progress well through learning but it does require commitment on their behalf to ensure good attendance and meaningful participation in live lessons. We recognise that some students may find this approach to learning more challenging than others for a variety of reasons. Where this is the case, we will work flexibly with parents to manage any constraints or difficulties in accessing the full curriculum. Our wider pastoral support team will also engage with parents and students on an individual basis in such situations.

Whilst we trust that our approach places fewer demands on parents / carer we do know that parents play a vital role in supporting their child whilst working at home. Parents can support both the school and their child by:

• Ensuring students are dressed appropriately and ready to engage in learning by 8.35am every day
• Ensure students have access to the necessary equipment for learning
• Where required, contact the school to request the loan of a Chromebook and arrange to collect it form school
• Take an active interest in what your child has been learning through conversations about what they have studied and learned as this will promote greater understanding
• Support good online participation and behaviours (see Lils protocols which were shared on the 3rd January)

5.2. How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?

We will check levels of engagement through:

• Taking a lesson register and recording attendance on Classcharts
• Monitoring lesson attendance data; this will be undertaken by the years group Pastoral team
• Monitoring engagement with academic work through subject trackers that are completed by subject teachers
• Digital engagement through the TEAMS app

Where concerns arise about attendance and/or work completion we will contact parents.

6. Safeguarding

We have clear guidelines and expectations for both students and staff around online learning and live lessons – see our Remote learning policy: January 2021, which is available on the school website. We have identified potentially vulnerable students and have a regular contact plan in place for those students; this is led by our pastoral teams. Staff and students are encouraged to raise any concerns, no matter how minor they feel they may be, to a trusted person and/or key individuals including:

• Kenny Graham (Designated Safeguarding Lead)
• Karen Moan
• Mike Grummett (Headteacher)
• Victoria Cramman (Deputy Headteacher)

Where concerns are raised they will be managed sensitively and professionally. We will investigate any and all concerns to verify the facts and take appropriate action as required. Investigations into student absence from lessons will carefully consider all evidence to ensure safety of students is paramount in our considerations. Where appropriate we will work closely with parents and outside agencies.

7. How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

Ongoing assessment and feedback is incredibly important and a crucial component of remote learning. The school will continue to regularly assess student progress in each subject area through a variety of effective strategies. Each department will utilise a broad range of assessment strategies with the clear aim of enabling our students to recognise what they are doing well, where there are mistakes or misconceptions and what they need to do to improve. Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual students. Our approach to feeding back to pupils will vary and some of these strategies may include:

• Correct and Perfect feedback on key pieces of work
• Effective and directed questioning to establish student understanding during live segments of lessons
• Apps and extensions to enable quick and effective feedback, e.g. FORMS quizzes, socrative, Seneca and GCSE Pod
• Retrieval practice activities as a component part of ‘live’ lessons
• Review and marking of activities
• Others as appropriate to the assessment plans of each individual department

8. Additional support for pupils with particular needs

8.1. How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

We recognise and understand that some pupils, for example, some pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may not be able to fully access remote education without support from adults. We are aware of the demands this may place on families therefore we will work with parents and carers to support those pupils to replicate the support in school as much as we can, while utilising technology to offer additional support to students with additional needs. Specifically, this could include:

• Attending school each day if the student has an Education & Health Care Plan (EHCP) (LAC)
• Most SEND students will be able to independently access the live lessons and access resources such as videos and presentations in TEAMS
• The SEND team will keep in close contact with students to ensure that their needs are met, on a regular basis
• Where necessary, the LSA can also join live lessons and offer support
• All teachers have been given guidance and strategies designed to best to support SEND students via live lessons. Parents can contact Paul Vipond (SENDCo) at any time for additional advice and support.

9. Remote Education for self-isolating pupils

9.1. If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their Remote Education differ from the approaches described above?

The simple answer is that it won’t. During the period of main school closure, self-isolating students will still be expected to access and engage in their live lessons; this assumes that their health allows for this. Work will also be set on TEAMS for each subject area so that students can continue to access their curriculum studies at home. When we return to full time education self isolating students are invited to join lessons in real time via TEAMS so that they can join their class and not miss out on the benefits of being in the lesson with their teacher.