The RGS Today

The RGS Today Monday 20 April 2020 Issue 434

General Reminders Welcome Back: Welcome back to remote RGS for Trinity Term! We hope you had a restful and relaxing Easter break and are refreshed and ready for the beginning of the new term.

There have been a number of significant changes to the daily routine since the last week of last term, so please read carefully through the headline details below.

Registration: Registration will take place from 8.45am to 8.55am each morning; Tutors will be available after then, if required. All students should be on Teams and should register with their Tutors at this time; this is a legal requirement and all students’ attendance will be recorded formally on the school system, as usual, in SchoolBase. Afternoon registration will take place at 1.50pm via the Tutor; again, this will be formally recorded on SchoolBase. There will be no end-of-school registration.

Assemblies: On days when there are assemblies, students will stay with their Tutors once they have registered and will be directed to any videos or links via the Tutors. There will be a ‘full school assembly’ each Monday morning; Thought for the Day will be broadcast during Thursday morning’s registration.

Tutor Period: First to Fifth Form Tutor periods/PSHME periods will take place as normal; others will be done at the discretion of individual Tutors/Heads of Year.

Lesson Times: Lessons will continue to start at standard RGS lesson times (i.e. 9.15am, 9.50am, 10.50am, 11.25m, 12.05pm, 2.00pm, 2.40pm and 3.20pm); however, all single lessons will now be 30 minutes in length. For double lessons, your subject teachers will advise you as to whether there will be a break in the middle of the lesson, and – if so – for how long or if they will teach the equivalent of the two periods (i.e one hour) in one block from the start of the lesson with an earlier finish. All students should be logged into the appropriate class on Microsoft Teams for all periods when they would be taught. For the First Form, Period 5 will continue to run from 12.05pm in line with other year groups.

Timetable: The school timetable will be followed as closely as possible. All academic lessons will occur as per the normal timing. The exceptions to this are Games sessions and PE lessons (further information will be circulated in due course) and Third Form ExAD (which will start Week 2); Period 8 and First Form Music (singing) lesson which will not, for the moment, operate. Use these periods as an opportunity to have fresh air and to take a break from screen time.

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General Reminders (contd.)

Rules for Remote Learning: Remote learning relies upon your co-operation and maturity as learners; your conduct during the final week of last term was excellent and we fully expect this to continue. Please, however, read carefully through the points below so that there is absolute clarity of acceptable and appropriate conduct during this remote learning period. Mr Woodman will also highlight aspects of this in Monday morning’s registration. Please, in particular, note: Students should have the highest expectations of themselves and should maintain a mutually respectful relationship with other students and staff alike.

Recording of lessons is not permitted at any time. The School will take any instances of recording of teachers or lessons very seriously indeed.

The Microsoft Teams chat function is not a social media platform. All conversations are recorded and, as such, students should communicate in a respectful and appropriate manner, at all times, as if via email or any other school correspondence.

Sanctions will be imposed on those students who disrupt the learning of others or indeed the structure or content of the lesson being provided by the teacher. Sanctions may include a discussion with Tutor, Head of Year, the Deputy Head (Pupils) or parents being contacted.

Eating during lessons is discouraged due to the regular breaks in between lessons.

Student Cameras: Absolutely no lessons or any part of lessons should be recorded by students. Cameras should only be turned on at the request of the member of staff. We have revised our policy on student cameras being on during a lesson; this is now permitted at the discretion of teachers. The reason for the change is to allow for a richer educational experience. However, please note the following: (i) dress code for students during the school day should be smart or school sports kit (i.e. the kind of clothing which would be acceptable in school in a classroom environment on a mufti day); (ii) backgrounds should either be blurred or one the standard backgrounds offered within Teams; (iii) lessons should not be recorded by students; (iv) student cameras should not be turned on until the member of staff makes the request – please do not assume this will be the case.

Homework: Homework will adhere to the following routine until further notice: First to Third Form: Any homework that is set will involve either reading or off-screen consolidation (e.g. vocab learning or short exercises). Homework will be restricted to one session per week per subject, only if required.

Fourth and Lower Sixth Forms: In the interests of consolidation, as an average in the Fourth Form, each subject can set one homework a week which will not exceed 45 minutes. In the Lower Sixth each subject teacher may set one homework which will not exceed 45 minutes.

Fifth and Upper Sixth Forms: No formal homework will be set for the first two weeks of term.

Remote Clubs and Societies: These have great benefit to students, as they allow you to “meet” and interact with like-minded people outside of lessons. However, many of our current clubs and activities do not transfer easily or usefully to the remote world directly, so we are going to create the co-curricular timetable from scratch. Staff are working on ideas, but some of our best clubs and societies have started as student ideas. If you have an idea for a club or society that would work well remotely, then please contact SJHY in the first instance to discuss how best to proceed. As normal, all clubs and societies need a staff sponsor and should not take place without first consultation with SJHY.

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