Remote Learning Provision

During the most recent period of forced partial school closure, we provided students with an engaging remote learning provision. Our remote learning provision was been carefully planned and considered and the feedback we received from parents suggested that it provided students with a very high quality learning experience. All students were expected to access and engage with our online provision, whether they were at home or attending our onsite childcare facility.

 

Welcome from Mr Ward

 

Lessons

Lessons were created using a platform called ‘Screencastify’. This enabled staff to utilise screen recording technology to share lesson content with students. These videos were uploaded to Google Classroom for students to access. Students are familiar with how to use Google Classroom as this is a platform we already use on a regular basis in lessons. If a child could not join the relevant Google Classrooms for any reason, a list of the required joining codes and joining instructions is here. We asked aprents to please spend a few minutes with their child ensuring they could navigate Google Classroom effectively to access the learning resources set by their teachers.

 

School Day

Students were expected to complete 4 lessons a day, following their timetable which can be found in ClassCharts. Each lesson had a piece of work set that the students needed to complete and submit via Google Classroom. While we wanted you to encourage your child to be creative, it was also important they continue to have a level of structure in their life. We therefore recommended they follow this timing of the school day if at all possible.

 

Daily Challenges

We also set daily challenges that were shared with students each morning via learning mentor time and included reading, PE activities, DT activities, Food Tech activities and Drama activities. We really enjoyed seeing photos of our students attempting the daily challenge or any other creative task they were proud to have undertaken on our official school twitter account. 

 

Live Learning Mentor Time

As part of our remote learning provision, students were also expected to attend a live learning mentor session from 8:45 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. every day. This was led by the child's learning mentor and included assemblies, PSHE sessions, topical news sessions and weekly quiz sessions. Students were invited to join the Google Classroom for their learning mentor group. Once they were on the relevant Google Classroom, students clicked the Google Meet link at the top of the classroom to join the daily session which was enabled by learning mentors at 8:40 a.m. to allow students to join in time for a prompt start at 8:45 a.m. If students were unable to locate the relevant Google Classroom they could do so by selecting the correct Google Classroom code from this link. As with a normal day at school, any students who were not present in their morning live learning mentor session were contacted by the office so their absence can be explained. If your child was unwell and therefore not able to attend, parents were asked to call the absence line as they would normally do on 01737 919491 or email info@mersthamparkschool.org.

 

Support

Teachers were available during the timetabled lesson times to support students. If a student required any support they could click on the Google meet link at the top of the relevant Google Classroom to join a video call with their subject teacher. These calls were recorded to safeguard staff. Students were welcome to remain on the video call for the entire 60 minutes or simply ask a question to clarify their work and leave the call again. Students did not have to join these video calls, they were simply in place to support any students who require it and would like to join. The timing of these support meetings were linked directly to students timetables, e.g. Monday lesson 1, if a student had English, their English teacher would be on their classes Google meet for the duration of that lesson.

If parents had any learning related queries during this period of closure, they were asked to either email the class teacher directly or the school office (info@mersthamparkschool.org).