18.1.21 Update
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15.1.21 Remote education
With over 300+ pupils being educated at home, we have stepped up to the challenge to ensure that pupils keep on learning.
Our learning platform is Google Classroom and this provides access to Microsoft like products such as Google Docs (Word), Google Sheets (Excel) and Google Slides (Powerpoint).
Staff
We have dedicated teachers for our remote learners. These are teachers from the children’s year group, who are working to replicate classroom learning in the pupil’s living room, just as if they were in school.
Time
The government has asked for 4 hours of work to be available to KS2 pupils and 3 hours for KS1 pupils. Parents need to recognise that school can’t be replicated at home. Therefore, we are not asking for work to be completed in the same time frame as a normal school day. Make the day work for you and your family and know that tasks can be spread across the week.
Set work will include tasks, use of directed apps such as TT RockStars or self-reading. There are lots of resources out there if parents wish to take advantage to supplement the work directed by school, such as Joe Wicks, BBC website and BBC channels, or Oak Academy lessons to name a few. Baking cakes and going for walks are still great activities to learn from.
Maths and English task will be set daily with some foundation work such as history, geography, art etc… Keeping up with the maths and English should be a priority!
A typical day
Each day children are invited to attend the check in video call and the same again on the afternoon. Pupils at home get to see their friends in school and interact with a teacher.
We ask that every child shows that they are online by 2pm each day. This can be through attendance of the morning check in or commenting in the Google Classroom stream.
Teachers are sharing stories and reading to all children during some sessions. We are even looking to create lessons where pupils in school work with pupils at home in groups.
We have a duty of care to all pupils and parents will receive a phone call to check if everything is ok if we have not ‘seen’ your child online. We know that lots of things can get in the way of pupils being online, but ask that they access as much as possible.
Work is released each day to avoid overloading the children with lots of information and tasks all at once. Some task will have pre-recorded teaching videos to demonstrate or links to videos which will support.
Handing in work online
Pupils are becoming exports at using the Google package. They are asked to ‘hand in’ work when complete. Some may be electronic or completed on paper. Pictures of paper work can be attached to the online task by taking a photo from your device.
Teachers
Our teachers will be available 9am until 4pm each day. Some may mark work and leave comments after this time. There is no requirement for pupils or parents to look at or respond to this throughout the night. Please wait until the next school day.
Staff will not be contactable during the weekend.
Getting Help
If you have issues with log in or access to Google Classroom or apps, please let us know and we will do our best to help.
Questions can be asked on a task or written in the Classroom stream. Some children may wish to ask a work related question at the end of the morning video call.
Teachers should not be emailed with queries or questions.
On reflection
Home schooling is a challenge. However, this lockdown we have been tasked with continuing very child’s education. Do what you can and celebrate those successes rather than focusing on what didn’t get done.
These times are difficult and we continue to review how we maximise our offer whilst under the current restrictions.
Enjoy your weekend and stay safe.
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don’t have access to a fixed broadband connection
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cannot afford the additional data needed to access educational resources or social care services
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have access to a mobile device that uses a participating network
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are facing disruption to their face-to-face education, or have been advised not to attend school
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Account holders with monthly contracts need to be over the age of 18.
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the account holder’s name
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mobile number (a number beginning with ‘07’)
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mobile network
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whether you pay monthly or pay as you go
13.1.21 Contacting School
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Please refrain from emailing teachers directly. We don’t allow staff to reply and this allows them to focus on their job in hand.
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Instead email office@primary.co.uk from which your email will be passed on.
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Staff will reply to posts in the Google Classrooms for those working from home.
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Responses to Google Classroom posts should not be expected after 4pm or over weekends.
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Our phone number remains 0191 455 4504 and we are happy to speak to you.
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I do respond to Facebook direct messages when possible, but please recognise that this isn’t the best way to contact school if you have an urgent/important request.
To compliment the Real PE resource we sent you before the Christmas break, we are providing you with the fitness factor resource. This contains 28 days of fun, physical activities for your children to complete. Some are more suitable for older children so please pick and choose ones you think are suitable for your child(ren).
In addition the following free websites are available to support physical activity and mental health and wellbeing:
8.1.21 And that’s a wrap!
Please find below a list of the Google Meet times for week beginning 11.1.21.
We know that some classes may have sibling link clashes, please don’t feel you have to attend every Google Meet session. If there are conflicts on times with siblings you may be able to alternate days between children or chat to the teacher and let them know.
Please do not feel it is essential to visit each meeting.
The morning sessions will mainly be a discussion of the work set for that day and answering any questions children may have, the afternoon session will generally be a story time and catch up with the class both in school and at home.
Teachers are preparing pre-recorded videos to accompany many of the work tasks, we are very much aware that not all parents are able to be ‘live’ every day at the same time and we want to offer support wherever we feel it will enhance learning.
We’ll see you online!
Class | Morning Session | Afternoon Session |
6EM | 9:00 am | 3:00 pm |
6RD | 9:00 am | 3:00 pm |
6FH | 9:00 am | 3:00 pm |
5HA | 9:10 am | 3:00 pm |
5PM | 9:00 am | 3:00 pm |
5AM | 9:20 am | 3:00 pm |
4AS | 11:40 am | 1:30 pm |
4KR | 11:00 am | 1:30 pm |
4KA | 11:20 am | 1:30 pm |
3JDo | 10:00 am | 3:05 pm |
3JDa | 10:10 am | 3:05 pm |
3JG | 10:20 am | 3:05 pm |
2SK | 10:30 am | 2:00 pm |
2RF | 10:50 am | 2:20 pm |
2ES | 10:40 am | 2:40 pm |
1MP | 9:30 am | 2:30 pm |
1KM | 10:00 am | 2:45 pm |
1CS | 10:30 am | 3:00 pm |
7.1.21 What a week!
Here are the times of Google Meets for the rest of the week. The staff loved seeing the children today and we hope you enjoyed the interaction too. The times are deliberately different each day this week to allow children who may not have access at a set time to be able to see their teacher and have contact.
Moving forward next week you will have two set times for each class, each day. There may also be other invitations to complete group and individual tasks such as reading or phonic work with your teacher or teaching assistant. More information will follow. These times will be posted in the Google Classrooms and on the website by close of day Friday.
Tasks set within the Google Classroom may also have audio from your teacher explaining tasks over a PowerPoint or sharing a demonstration. These will be pre-recorded so that children will be able to access them at any time they need to while working. This will not be on every task but where we feel it supports learning.
A few things we discovered today:
- If you are using a Mac Book try to use Google Chrome not Safari to access the Google Classroom.
- If you are on a portable device have Google Classroom and Google Meet downloaded as Apps. Make sure that your child is logged into both using their school email.
- You can not access the Google Meet with your own email it must be a school email. If your child’s user name is DavidS then their email would be davids@mortimerprimary.co.uk.
We are here to help and will try our best to iron out any bumps by next week. Thank you for supporting us as we move forward and implement our Remote Learning Plan.
Class | Thursday
7th January |
Friday
8th January |
Anything else planned later in the day |
Y6EM | 9:30 | 10:00 | 3pm story |
Y6RD | 9:30 | 10:00 | 3pm story |
Y6FH | 9:30 | 10:00 | 3pm story |
Y5HA | 10:00 | 10:30 | |
5PM | 10:20 | 10:50 | |
5AM | 10:10 | 10:40 | |
4AS | 10:50 | 11:20 | |
4KR | 10:40 | 11:00 | |
4KA | 10:30 | 11:10 | |
3JDo | 11:00 | 10:00 | |
3JDa | 11:20 | 10:20 | |
3JG | 11:10 | 10:10 | |
2SK | 11:30 | 9:00 | |
2RF | 11:50 | 9:10 | |
2ES | 11:40 | 9:20 | |
1MP | 9:00 | 9:30 | 2:45 Story |
1KM | 9:10 | 9:40 | 3:00 Story |
1CS | 9:20 | 9:50 | 3:15 Story |