Remote Learning

During Lockdown 3, we have implemented blended programme of live lessons, recorded videos and planned high-quality resources to support students complete work at home as part of our remote learning provision.

We have consulted with staff, students and parents and refined our plans to try to meet the needs of our students – both in terms of educational provision, safeguarding and well-being. Please find our Remote Learning Plan with FAQs in the downloads.

In response to our emerging philosophy and thinking about remote learning, we have made the following commitments:-

• The remote education curriculum will align to the classroom curriculum as much as possible. The curriculum maps for our curriculum offer can be found on our website. The learning is carefully sequenced, year on year and ensures that pupils learn by incremental steps and have opportunities for recap and recall to consolidate learning.
• Concentration: We know students find it harder to concentrate at home, as a result of distractions of home, their phones and younger siblings etc. Staff will try to use engaging resources, images and graphics, videos and chunk the tasks into smaller bites with greater explanation and examples than they might in a classroom. They will often model examples and then provide some time for students to practice or present their work to ensure they have understood.
• Balance: Feedback suggests that most students prefer to have live learning for a period and then time to complete tasks within the lesson time so most lessons will follow this pattern, maybe with a plenary at the end to share outcomes. One parent commented “Variety is your strength”.
• Feedback and assessment will be provided using Showbie where text can be annotated, voice-notes and written feedback can be attached to students’ work and a summary feedback will be provided in line with school policy. We have asked all departments to make it clear to students which work will be acknowledged and checked and which work will be formally assessed and graded, as we would do in their exercise books.
• Immediate feedback can be give through the chat function on Showbie, through questioning during live lessons or low-stakes quizzes and tests.
• Reflection Time: One positive function of the recorded lessons is that students can replay the lesson, pause and reflect or revise certain aspects they need to go over or to support them during their extended writing tasks.
• Showmyhomework operates as the student organiser. The teacher will indicate what work needs to be completed and whether the lesson will be live or pre-recorded and signpost students to resources.
• Showbie / Teams: Our main platform for delivery will be Showbie as students are familiar with this after 6 months’ engagement with the platform and have been interacting with staff about learning and assessment throughout the summer and autumn term where all assessment remained remote. We have used Teams for some collaborative meetings/forums and where we have external providers presenting to bigger groups of students. As a Microsoft school, both platforms are accessible to our students.
• Methods of Delivery: As Ofsted and the EEF made very clear, the quality of teaching is far more important than the delivery method. Although we are aware that some think that live lessons are best, and we can see that this would help you get students out of bed, structure their day, help their concentration and interaction with each other, research found that sometimes immediate feedback can actually be less effective love than when we use recorded lesson segments followed by interactive chats, or tasks with subsequent feedback. They also found that using recorded lessons produced externally can allow students to easily draw on high-quality lessons taught by expert subject teachers and so you will find these blended with the lesson material provided by Anglo staff.
• Why choose a blended model?  Different approaches to remote education suit different types of content, subjects and pupils. The research found mixed models may be effective. For example, you could use the so-called ‘flipped learning’ model. In this, new content is taught through an asynchronous method (when the material is prepared by the teacher and accessed by the pupil at a later date, e.g. through a recorded lesson or pre-prepared resources). Practice, tutoring and feedback are then done synchronously (through live learning). Or, we can reverse this, and teach new material live and then support students consolidate or revise that learning through pre-recorded tasks later in the week. This also gives students some control about managing their workload and prioritising their tasks.
• Method of reception: There is some evidence that the medium does matter, especially in digital remote education. Ofsted found that pupils tend to spend longer accessing a remote lesson when they are using a laptop than when using a phone (tablets are in between). This means that we need to think carefully about whether pupils have access to the right kind of device when we’re using digital remote education. If your child does not have access to a lap top or similar device for accessing live lessons, please let us know.
• Monitoring Engagement: Teachers are monitoring students daily and giving them “nudges” about work which is owing or if we think they are falling behind. We are acutely aware that students are managing very different and often challenging circumstances at home, sharing access to laptops and trying to work with younger siblings in the house. Using remote learning, it is much more difficult to engage and motivate students than in a classroom. We are also mindful that parents are often working from home and have not the time nor the skills to support learning at this level.

There are several ways we are trying to promote engagement. Firstly, through tutor time which was piloted this week. During this time, there will be live interaction and “chat” with their tutor to praise them where they have maintained engagement, talk though any common or shared concerns or worries and provide them with information and guidance applicable to their Year group. They will also be offered, through this meeting and through the students survey an individual phone call with their tutor or another trusted adult to provide individual help and guidance. Any students who are vulnerable will receive this as a matter of course. Teachers will, of course, track engagement through the work submitted and participation with on-line learning and live lessons.

If students are not engaging as well as they should or we are worried about their work submission, we will inform you about this in the following ways:-

1. You will receive a letter by e-mail from Mr Seager, Deputy Headteacher, who is monitoring teacher feedback on engagement, outlining the concerns and which subject has raised them. This is not a reprimand but a genuine concern being raised to explore the reasons for this. Please do not think you need to reply to this. It may mean that you just need a quiet word with your child to explore what difficulties they are experiencing but then, if necessary, let us know if we can help. We offer you some guidance on the best ways of doing this in the letter.
2. If, following the letter, engagement does not improve, a member of staff will call home or conduct a remote meeting to talk with the students, with a parent present, and discuss how we can best support your child moving forward to improve this and remove any barriers to learning.
3. If we decide, with you, that the student remains vulnerable, we may suggest coming onto school site for some days and joining the key worker students so we can monitor their work more closely and support learning on site on a limited timetable to get them back on track.