Remote Learning Guidance

NBHS Remote Learning: Parent Information

 

 

North Bromsgrove High School is dedicated to providing high-quality remote learning in support of our students across our North family. 

We are committed to:

• Actively engaging all students with tangible learning opportunities that adhere to schemes of learning, thereby equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and confidence to excel in their studies.
• Delivering engaging transformational education to students, whether they are physically in school or accessing their education remotely from home.
• Developing opportunities to enable staff to foster student relationships so as to ensure student mental health and wellbeing is supported across our North family.

We've compiled all our parent and student remote learning guidance into a booklet you can view by clicking the image below or it's all here on this page and the student guidance and wellbeing pages.

 

Remote Learning Curriculum: What is taught to students?

Students will follow the same broad curriculum at home as they would do normally within the school. Students will follow their normal timetable, which is on ClassCharts, which comprises of subjects, tutor time, assemblies all delivered remotely. The timings of the school day can be found below:

Remote Teaching and Learning: How much learning does my child do each day?

In response to parent feedback, we have streamlined live lessons to 60 minutes so as to provide a respite from screen time for the last 10 minutes of every lesson; we encourage our students to take in fresh air, hydrate, stretch their legs, and do a simple exercise in between live lessons.  We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students broadly the same number of hours as if they were studying within the school.  We understand that access to technology may be an issue; so students may have a mixture of online learning and learning away from the computer.  It is also important that students continue to read both fiction and non-fiction texts so as to develop the literacy strategies that they have been using in school.  

 

How does my child access remote learning?

Students are taught by accessing online ‘live’ lessons; these will be delivered via Microsoft Teams and the student will log in with their school details which have been provided. Webinars, letters, and guidance documents have been provided and we encourage every family to click on the link below:

Click here for MS Teams Student Guide

 

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

We recognise that some students may not have suitable online access at home.  We take the following approaches to support those students to access remote education:

• Where possible the school will provide a loan of a laptop to access the online resources and/or WiFi/ dongle.
• If your child does not have access to any device to access remote learning please contact Mrs Ingram Deputy Headteacher on ain@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk
• Importantly if you are a family who is pupil premium then you are entitled to a laptop for your child. It is vital that you contact Mrs Ingram if you meet the Pupil Premium criteria.

 

How will my child be taught remotely?

Staff will use a variety of approaches to teach students remotely:

• “Live” lessons will be the commonality across all lessons which directly follow the students’ timetable and department scheme of learning. The ‘live’ aspect of the lesson we feel is important as it promotes opportunities for students to check understanding, ask questions, and benefit from important human interaction (also benefits our staff wellbeing as we know we are making a difference!).  
• There may be occasions whereby pre-recorded lessons for students are utilised which could be film and/or PowerPoint based and involve voice recorded teacher instruction so that students can work at their own pace with clear modelling and explanation from the teacher.
• Staff may use links to high-quality external produced resources such as GCSE Pod, MathsWatch. 
• In light of the pandemic, many agencies are developing new resources that are continually coming online and staff may provide links to external support materials e.g. Oak National School which the government has been tasked to support online learning nationally.

 

Where will homework be set?

Homework will be set as usual and information pertaining to homework will be set on ClassCharts.

 

Where will resources for the lesson be placed?

All lesson resources will be placed into MS Teams (and not on ClassCharts).

 

What if I cannot attend my lesson?

In the unlikely event that you are unable to attend a lesson, you should email Ms Belmonte Attendance Officer jbe@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk on the morning of your absence at the latest. You will need to catch up on the work in the next lesson please email your teacher for the work to be sent to you directly.

 

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

We expect the same high level of engagement from your child for remote learning as we do in the school. Students should be ready to learn and on time for the start of every lesson with the correct equipment and resource. The teachers will follow the same behaviour policy praising students and rewarding excellent work during online lessons using positive house points through Classcharts. 

 

How will you check student engagement?

Our online learning platform allows teachers to keep track of attendance, engagement and completion of work.  We feel that is important that students are rewarded for their efforts during these periods of learning online at home and the majority of our students will receive positive house points.  Parents may be contacted by text, email, or telephone call from class teachers or the Progress Leader if there are concerns about a child’s engagement, online behaviour, or if they require additional support. As parents, you can see this on the Classcharts app.

 

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

Our approach to assessing work remotely is very similar to that within the classroom.  We place high regard on ensuring that students receive timely and high-quality feedback.  Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual students.  For example, we will use rich questioning which can either be feedback verbally or through the comments, use of hands up to check understanding. Whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. In response to students and parent feedback we are placing an emphasis on scaffolding learning with careful consideration of pace and have found that low stakes testing can check students' understanding of any misconceptions and also help identify how they can make improvements to their work.  

 

Students with additional 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 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:

• In some cases, a teaching assistant will assist the student remotely in online ‘live’ lessons.
• Work will always be provided at a suitable level for a student’s ability and where necessary the student will be provided with additional help such as scaffolds and models to help complete the work.

 

What is the situation if the area is not in lockdown and my child needs to self isolate? 

Where individual students need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, the format of the remote education provided will differ from the approach for whole groups. The resources for each lesson will be uploaded to Teams so that students can access all of the learning. If you wish to discuss your individual child's needs regarding remote learning please contact Mrs Jenkinson rje@northbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk

 

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

This will depend upon the number of students isolating and the resources available within the School. Where possible the student will follow their usual timetable but when this is deemed not to be possible. Students will access their lesson resources directly from their class Team and teachers will give feedback on their progress and learning.

 

Tutor Time

As you will see from the timetable in the earlier section, tutor time takes place at the end of the school day. Students will be expected to be prompt to the session and tutors will follow the CARE scheme of learning which supports students pastoral, social, mental health, and well-being.

 

Assemblies

Students will continue to have Heads of House and Progress Leaders assemblies to support them pastorally and these will be delivered through Teams following the usual schedule.

 

Parents’ Evenings

We have had excellent feedback on our Virtual Parents’ Evenings and have found the following benefits:

• The format supports the confidentiality
• Easily accessible for parents to engage through a range of their home devices (we have seen excellent attendance by families) 
• Greater efficiency and ability to speak with more families in the window of time
• The avoidance of queue jumping (not that NB families are guilty of this!)

To support our North families we will be having two parents’ evenings for each year group this academic year to support our students and offer valuable feedback.

Support

If you need help for whatever reason there are details of the support we offer here and a Covid specific one here.