Remote Learning

At Helena Romanes School, we understand the importance of high-quality, consistent and connected learning, and have developed a strong remote offer which encompasses Google Classrooms alongside our Show my Homework app.

Google Classroom - Apps on Google Play

The following information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents/carers about what to expect from remote education in the following instances:

If a student is required to self-isolate due to medical needs.
If local restrictions or extenuating circumstances require entire cohorts to remain at home, for example, a school closure due to extreme weather.

Remote Education: Whole Class or School Closure

In the event of a school closure work will be set via ClassCharts which may include links to Google Classrooms or online resources, for example, SENECA, SPARX Maths, Educake or BBC Bitesize.

Staff will endeavour to set work before 9.00am so that students can manage their workload during the day.

Our Curriculum Offer

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school, wherever possible and appropriate. However, we will need to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, practical subjects may need to adapt their usual curriculum offer.

Teaching and Study Time - Expectations

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students broadly the following number of hours each day:

Secondary school-aged students & Sixth Form Students = 5 hours per day

Access to Online Remote Learning

All remote learning will be set on ClassCharts and Google Classroom.

Access to Digital Devices

If your child does not have digital or online access at home, there is support available. 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:

A survey will be sent to all Parents/Carers at the start of the remote learning period asking if you have problems accessing remote education. Please make sure that you respond so the school is able to offer support- there will be a small number of devices that the school will be able to loan to students
The school will work with parents to provide work if technology is causing a barrier to learning

Remote Teaching

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach students remotely:

Live teaching (online lessons)
Recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by our own staff)
Collaborative tasks using Google Classroom
Assignment based online work set by our staff
Paper packs produced by our staff (e.g. workbooks, worksheets) if applicable
Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences

Engagement, Support and Feedback Expectations

As far as possible, all students must be available on-line to take part in each lesson/carry out learning activities set by their teachers. They should do this for each lesson at the time that the lesson appears on their timetable.

We understand that this may be more challenging for students if there are limited devices in the household or additional demands on broadband. In this case, we would ask students to ensure they have listened to recordings of the live lessons and completed their work within 48 hours.

Your child is expected to:

Be ready for each lesson and appropriately dressed
Complete the work set in the Google Classroom (unless otherwise requested by the teacher)
Upload all work completed during the lesson slot within 48 hours of the lesson
Email their class teacher if they have any queries. Teachers will be on hand to answer questions during the lesson

For any live inputs, we would ask students to:

Ensure they are muted
Follow all instructions given by the teacher
Uphold the highest standards of behaviour as expected of students in school

Monitoring Engagement and Addressing Concerns

Teachers will monitor both the engagement of lessons and the quality of work on a routine basis
Heads of Year and Heads of Subject will contact Parents/Carers if there are concerns

Assessing outcomes and progress

Feedback can take many forms and does not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others.

Our approach to feeding back on student work is as follows:

Teachers will provide feedback opportunities in the majority of lessons, such as: response to queries online, individual email feedback, comments on work, whole class feedback, self-marking quizzes or providing answers for students to self-mark their own work
Teachers will provide either individual formal feedback on one piece of work or individual feedback on the overall performance of the student over a two-week period

Supporting students with Additional Needs

We recognise that some students, for example 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/Carers to support those students in the following ways:

The SEND lead will contact with all students with SEND and will provide bespoke support for any students that need it
LSA’s will continue working with students 1 to 1 if they require support
There is in school provision for students with EHCPs and any other students identified as being disadvantaged by remote learning
There is LSA support in school for every year group
A well-being check is sent for all students with SEND each week