The Perrott Hill Guide to Remote Learning

R E M OT E LEARNING A COMPLETE G U I D E TO R E M OT E L E A R N I N G AT P E R ROT T H I L L

From the Headmaster Having transitioned from physical to vir tual school almost overnight, to say that the final week of the Spring Term was unconventional is somewhat of an understatement. I am immeasurably proud of the way the entire school community pulled together to rise to the challenge – and that is the way we move forwards now, together, as a team.

A distinguishing feature of the education we provide at Perrott is that it is tailored to the individual and this is a characteristic we fully intend to preserve during this period of remote schooling. There will be something on offer to cater for all learners be they visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or those with a preference for reading and writing.

Remote learning brings along with it a new modus operandi, and in this guide you will find relevant key information about our plans for the coming weeks. It is simply not possible to recreate a school-type experience remotely from your home so please do not put too much pressure on yourselves to do so. Instead, read and digest the following information carefully and then make a plan that works for you and your child(ren) before term starts next Monday 20th April.

Please remember that we are only ever an instant message, email, or phone call away – and we are here to help every child get the best possible experience from this unique term.

With very best wishes,

Alex McCullough

With sincere thanks to Robbie Innes for the front cover artwork and the artwork on page 6 3

TIPS FRO M TEAC HE RS

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Parental Feedback Many thanks to those of you who have taken the time to feed back your thoughts on Microsoft Teams. We have highlighted below the main issues raised by parents, pupils and staff during the trial week at the end of last term.

“Look after yourself by taking regular breaks - a change of scenery, some fresh air and a drink will help to keep you motivated. We are here to support you and your family so if you find that you are struggling in any way please get in touch.”

Mr Silk

These have provided a firm base from which we have been able to form a longer term plan that works for all.

• Pupils are saving completed work in the wrong place, so it does not show as completed; • Pupils are struggling to follow their normal timetable; • Teachers are, on occasion, setting too much work; • Not everyone has access to a printer ; • Working on Teams is quite daunting for some children, who can feel slightly lost without the teacher physically there to suppor t them; • Broadband speeds are variable so some children are ‘missing out’ on live lessons;

“Help yourself by getting all your equipment ready before the day begins and making your work area suitable and distraction free.

Make sure you read any instructions carefully. Don’t panic or get upset if you can’t access or understand something – we, your teachers, are here to help.”

Mr Finch

• International pupils are finding Teams difficult to navigate; • Families with multiple children are sharing devices so the children cannot follow their normal timetable.

Taking the above points into consideration, we understand that a fair amount of give is going to be required from all sides this term and our aim, as set out in this guide, is to help our pupils and parents by providing as much flexibility and suppor t as we can.

“I’d recommend that PrePrep children get their maths and English learning done in the morning and, where possible, work outdoors.

Look for shapes in the clouds, order sticks by length and quiz their French knowledge - they all know their colours and how to say hello and goodbye. Finally, read every day and keep talking to us.

We all miss you!”

Ms Williams

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The Perrott Hill Plan for Remote Learning How Lessons Will Work Most academic lessons will star t with a pre-recorded video tutorial by your child’s teacher, followed by the set work to be completed. We have taken the decision to run pre-recorded rather than live lessons, to enable all our children to access the lessons – our aim is for no pupil to ‘miss out’ because of broadband, device or other restrictions at home. Pupils will have live access to teachers during normal school hours (0820-1745, Monday to Friday) so will be fully suppor ted and will be able to rewatch the lessons if they miss any par t of it. We think this is a robust system which offers all children the individual suppor t they need at prep and pre-prep level. Non-academic lessons will continue with weekly set work as before and those with individual music lessons as arranged with Mr Shor tman will continue with these.

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When Lessons Will Take Place The school week will run from 0820-1745, Monday to Friday, with no Saturday school or exeat weekends. The week will star t as it usually does, with the Headmaster’s Assembly at 0830 (this will be pre-recorded so can be viewed at any time). Lessons will star t at 0900. We would recommend that pupils follow their usual daily

How to use Microsoft Teams Mr Andrews has put together a series of simple ‘How to’ guides for parents and pupils. Just click

timetable where possible, as it provides a balanced framework

on the links below:

along with regular breaks. However, we realise that this simply isn’t

An introduction to Teams

possible for many families so our remote learning plan has been

How to submit assignments

designed with flexibility in mind and pupils can complete work at their own pace during the week. Pupils in Years 5-8 should do their Saturday morning lessons on Wednesday afternoons.

How Work is Set

Differentiated Work

All work will be set through ‘Assignments’, so that it is easy to see what has and hasn’t been completed on any given week. The general guide for keeping on top of work is to ensure that all work set on the Monday is completed by the end of that week.

This will be monitored by teaching staff, although clearly they will take into account individual circumstances so do please keep in touch and let us know if you are having difficulties.

Please note that work will be differentiated as it is in class, and those requiring extension work will receive it as usual so please do not assume that all the children are completing the same work. If your child needs further breadth, please see the ‘Websites’ section on page 9.

Live Tutor Time There will be two live Form Tutor sessions per week, which will take place every Monday (0845-0900), and Friday (1600-1615).

During these sessions, tutors will chat with their tutees to make sure they are all planned out for the week, check pupils understand what is going on and, on a Friday, to wrap up the week. We know that some families have multiple children and single devices, so we would ask for parents to make their own judgement calls on this – perhaps alternating the tutor sessions each child ‘attends’.

Overseas Pupils All overseas pupils will be contacted by Mrs Grieve as part of their remote learning plan and will be fully supported by teaching staff and Mrs Grieve.

What Your Child Will Need We request that all children have their usual pencil case and some paper with them for all lessons, in case they need to make notes or work something out. Any work that requires a printer will be made available as an editable Word document, so that those without one can complete it online.

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Additional Support Teaching staff will be available via the live chat function on Teams, for those children (or parents) requiring further support.

Enrichment as such, we would be delighted to hear about and celebrate any

How do I contact my child’s Form Tutor?

extra-curricular work our pupils take par t in or create during

You can contact your child’s

A Perrott Hill education is about more than just academics and,

this period. This could be anything from shor t story writing to an ar tist study based on a tour of a vir tual ar t gallery – or the simple pleasures of gardening, helping their parents or learning a new skill. We want to hear about it all! Interaction, enrichment and engagement is even more crucial in this new vir tual environment and staff will be awarding commendations to pupils for any innovative projects and outstanding extra-curricular work.

Form Tutor via email as you normally would, or you use the chat function on Teams.

If you would prefer to speak to your child’s Form Tutor, you can make an arrangement to speak with them.

Recommended Websites To aid enrichment, we have curated a list of recommended websites on Teams for pupils to access if they wish to extend their learning. This is par ticularly helpful for those pupils with a keen passion or interest they’d like to explore fur ther. The list includes everything from BBC Bitesize and BBC Sounds to mindfulness sessions and some incredible museums, ar t galleries and zoos you

What do I do if my child is ill?

Please email your child’s Form Tutor and they will let staff know.

can explore at home.

What if I’m having trouble using Teams?

Mr Andrews is available during normal school hours (08201745, Monday to Friday) to assist those pupils or parents having trouble with using Teams.

He has also made some ‘How to’ video guides for pupils and parents; please see page 7 for the links.

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Guidelines for Remote Learning Safeguarding Information All online activities will be conducted to the same standards of effor t and behaviour that is expected in the classroom at Perrott Hill. If any pupil feels uncomfor table or feels that anything inappropriate has happened in the vir tual environment, we would be grateful if you could contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Mr Silk, on wsilk@perrotthill.com with your concerns.

The Perrott Hill Circle of Care At Perrott Hill we provide a Circle of Care for children in order to safeguard their welfare. This care exists 24 hours a day and will continue in the remote learning environment. All children are made aware that there is always somebody they can talk to in times of trouble. By maintaining close communication in our Circle of Care we can detect and act upon any worrying behaviour from individuals or groups.

YOUR TUTOR ANY MEMBER OF STAFF

CEOP

FRIENDS

MR OR MRS McCULLOUGH

CHILDLINE

BY THE NSPCC 0800 1111

The Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, has a legal duty to protect children’s rights and her office can be contacted on 020 7783 8330.

HEADS OF SECTION

DEPUTY HEAD

YOUR PARENTS CEOP is the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre. Google ‘ThinkUknow’ for full, child-friendly information.

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Remote Learning Rules for Pupils We will be asking all pupils to read these rules and agree to them on the first day of term, so would be grateful if parents could read them with their children in advance.

1.

Pupils are expected to behave online as they would in a class;

2.

Pupils should communicate with teachers with the same level of formality and respect as they would in school; high levels of literacy are a key component of a Perrott Hill education and this is not confined to an exercise book. This is especially impor tant when taking par t in live-typed chats with teachers;

3.

Pupils should be polite and cour teous at all times when using the ‘chat’ function with their friends on Microsoft Teams, and should be aware that teaching staff have access to these messages;

4.

Pupils should not take par t in any ‘live’ lesson or chat from their bedroom. Please use the dining room, kitchen, study or any other appropriate room;

5.

Pupils should not have a mobile phone with them while taking par t in a lesson;

6.

Pupils are not permitted to take photos or screenshots at any point during live chats or lessons;

7.

All work uploaded to Teams should be the pupil’s own work and submitted via the Assignments section;

8.

Pupils should not eat or drink during a lesson;

9.

Pupils should not seek to disrupt or distract either their own learning or those of others with inappropriate use of the digital tools;

10. Be kind and try hard.

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Remote Learning Guidance for Parents Parents can play a vital role in suppor ting their children during this period. We would appreciate it if you could read these guidelines in advance of the term star ting next week.

1.

Keep in regular contact with your child’s Form Tutor ;

2.

Get to know your child’s timetable, and check which lessons they have and when;

3.

Ensure your child has all the appropriate materials for constructive learning: pens, paper, fully-charged laptop, reliable wifi connection, calculator, textbooks, and so on;

4.

Be mindful of their learning environment; ideally your child’s work should be completed in a place where interruption and distraction is kept to a minimum, such as a dining room or study. A bedroom is not appropriate;

5.

Check that work being set by teachers is being submitted and that deadlines are being met;

6.

Keep asking questions of your child: this is new for all of us, so get suggestions from them about how it could be improved, and feed this back to your child’s tutor ;

7.

Encourage your child to take regular breaks to drink water, eat healthily and get some exercise, just as they would do at Perrott;

8.

None of us will get everything right this term and we appreciate the enormous strain all parents are under. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself! If you need help, we are here.

And Finally...

We are looking forward to embracing this new way of working together and, though we know it presents many challenges, we believe it presents many opportunities, too.

The children will not miss out during this period; on the contrary, they will be learning new skills and lessons that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. We hope you will join us in our optimism for a term well spent (no matter how long or little is in or out of school) and please remember we are here to support and guide you through this. We are in this together, for as long as it takes.

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Time and space for a full education

North Perrott Crewkerne Somerset TA18 7SL T: 01460 72051 E: headmaster@perrotthill.com W: www.perrotthill.com @perrotthill

/perrotthillschool