Remote Education

We have chosen to use Microsoft Teams as our remote learning platform for students in Years 7-13 for its capacity to create Teams for students and staff (e.g. tutor groups, year groups, subject class groups), deliver live lessons, set assignments, mark these and provide tailored feedback, and set quizzes e.g. for low-stakes assessment for learning. Every student has received training on how to use Teams and guidance is also available on the website.

All 6^th Form students and some KS4 students join live lessons each day, in line with the school timetable. Our live lessons follow an ‘interactive delivery’ model. In the ‘interactive delivery’ model, teachers share their screen, displaying a lesson Powerpoint for example, and facilitate a range of learning activities working towards the learning objectives for the lesson. This model sees teachers talking to their class through their microphone with students responding to questions and making contributions by using the ‘raise hand’ function and unmuting when invited to respond, or using the chat box for typed responses and contributions. This model mirrors a classroom-based lesson. Teachers use whiteboard functions or interactive tablets to support teacher modelling and use a range of assessment for learning strategies linked to the tools available (e.g. raised hands, polls with Forms, Kahoot quizzes etc.) to check for understanding. All Assignments are set through the assignment function in Teams or on a subject specific platform e.g. Maths watch for Maths or Educate for Science. In these models there is the premise that not all students might be able to join live lessons at the time of the lesson. Students, who might be sharing devices in the household with siblings and remote-working parents, need flexibility to access lesson resources and complete tasks outside the timetabled structure of the school day. For this reason, all lessons and tasks are uploaded to Teams before the lesson and checking for completion of work is based on the quizzes completed.

Heads of department guide the curriculum for remote learning and aim to keep this in line with the planned Programmes of Study to the greatest extent possible. Resources for live lessons are carefully selected for their suitability for remote learning delivery. Teachers have access to all department resources as well as the range of publicly available video/audio recordings made by teachers e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, and subject-specific websites. We aim to not set tasks which require students to print worksheets/documents so that learning is accessible to all. Students have their exercise books, and subject resources with them at home to support their remote learning. All students can access their half-termly Knowledge Organiser which complements their lessons on the school’s website. Students have log-in details and passwords for their subject-specific online learning platforms and can contact their teacher if they experience any problems with these sites.

Principles of St Marks Remote Learning

The key principles of Remote Learning at St Marks Academy:

High quality, lesson presentations and associated resources will be available through Microsoft Teams
Lessons will be high-quality and align as closely as possible with in-school provision.
All remote learning lessons will be delivered through the Microsoft Teams platform.
Lesson routines will continue. Students should access the Microsoft Teams at the time they would have been attending lessons in school.
Every lesson will have direct teacher instruction whether it be pre-recorded, feedback via Teams or ‘live’ learning.
Work will be expected to be routinely submitted for marking and feedback. Feedback may be personalised written annotations directly onto a students’ work, typed comments, verbal feedback or whole class feedback.

EXPECTATIONS

It is important that students get into good habits and routine whilst working at home. Whilst we know this is not always easy, we do encourage students to follow the expectations below:

Students should be logged on and ready to start lessons by 9am
Work for each day will be set on that morning by class teachers
They must follow their schedule of their normal school timetable for each day
If there are issues accessing a live lesson at the scheduled time, you should inform the class teacher
Use materials at home to help you such as:
KS3 knowledge organisers
KS4 knowledge organisers
School exercise books
Revision guides and workbooks

Students should complete all work to the best of their ability
Assignments and quizzes should be completed by the deadline

We monitor the engagement of all remote learning, and where there are concerns these will be raised with parents quickly via a phone call home. We also need your support to ensure that students attend every lesson and are engaging fully in their work. We recommend that you ensure that your child has logged on to Teams by 9am every morning and support them with getting into good routines for remote learning.