Remote education provision at Ark Soane Academy

 

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts to remain at home.

For details of what to expect where individual students are self-isolating, please see the final section of this document.

 

The remote curriculum: what is taught to students at home?

Remote learning will follow the whole school timetable as issued to students in September 2021.

The day starts at 8.30 with registration and is followed by six lessons each day, with the exception of Friday where there are five periods.

 

Remote teaching and study time each day

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students broadly the following number of hours each day

6 hours including tutor time

Lesson will follow a similar structure to lesson in school. A register will be taken at the start of the session. Students will be asked to complete a Do Now activity. This will be followed by teacher exposition and class activities with students being expected to submit their work via MS Teams.

There may be short periods of time where we have to suspend live lessons to enable teachers to complete other tasks or reduce screen time for all stakeholders. When this is the case, assignments will be set in MS Teams for students to complete independently.

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

All students were offered a laptop when joining the school.

If your child is without a device please or has experienced issues with internet connectivity please contact info@arksoane.org

If we are unable to resolve issues your child will be asked to attend community classrooms until we can help you to resolve the situation.

If you require printed materials please contact us for further details

 

Engagement and feedback

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

The expectation is that students attend remote learning as they would normal school. If your child is unwell this should be reported to info@arksoane.org

Registers are taken for each lesson and the expectation is that all lessons are attended by students.

As a parent we would expect you to ensure that your child is ready to learn by 8.25, having had breakfast and has an appropriate space to work in.

We would ask you to check in with your child to ensure that they are engaged in the lessons and that they are submitting all of their assignments each day.

You can log onto MCAS to see how your child is progressing especially with regards to merits which will continue to be awarded each lesson and staff comments.

If you feel that your child is struggling with either the work, staying on task or submitting assignments please let us know via info@arksoane.org.

 

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

Students’ engagement will be tracked in two ways:

1 Attendance through the registration process

2 Logging of effort and engagement through the lesson

If there is an issue with either of the above you will be contacted by a member of staff.

As a result of our contact with you an action plan will be put in place to support your child in engaging. Ultimately failure to engage may result in your child being placed on our vulnerable students list and being asked to attend community classroom.

 

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

Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on student work is as follows:

 

There are two main strands of our remote feedback policy:

1. In-lesson feedback: Regular ‘check for understanding’ tools to be planned for and responded to during every live lesson

2. Classwork feedback: Classwork submission to be checked and recognition given, with the teacher using data from this in the following lesson

 

There are five main tools we have at our disposal for providing feedback:

1. Teams Assignments – quick comments/ points

2. Microsoft Forms – self-marking, in-lesson feedback and end of lesson assessment/Teams assignment feedback

3. Show Call – based on a quiz, classwork submitted, and presentation

4. Whole Class Feedback – shout out, model, feed-forward, self-reflect

5. Intentional monitoring – live Teams assignment and whiteboard.fi

 

Additional support for students with particular needs

 

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

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:

SEND students are allocated a TA who will contact them on a regular basis to check on their participation and their submission of work

Students with EHCPs are accompanied on live lessons by their allocated TA when appropriate. TAs use MS Teams Channels and breakout rooms to guide and support students as they would in the classroom

Resources for certain SEND students are adapted and sent home, where appropriate

Students may have an adapted curriculum to reduce screen time and help them with the submission of assignments

 

Remote education for self-isolating students

Where individual students need to self-isolate, but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching students both at home and in school.

 

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

All students who are self-isolating will join lessons in school by accessing the work through MS Teams. They will follow their regular school timetable and submit work at the end of each lesson for feedback.