Headlines By James Saunders 8th January 2021
Welcome Back I realise that every time I have written to you recently the Government has made an announcement or u-turn the very next day, often voiding what I have said. So for now at least, all I can say with absolute certainty is that we don’t know how this will go, so here’s the position for now. We are staying alive to the facts and changing climate and, as difficult as it is, things will more than likely need to change further over the coming weeks - thank you for your patience and adaptability. If you have been confused by too much communication, or disappointed with the decisions we have had to take so far, I apologise. As always with schools, or any organisation, sometimes we won’t always get it right from the start. In a rapidly evolving landscape our aim has always been to strike a balance that serves both staff, learners and our community. Whilst we have taken the time to think things through before communicating with you, the urgency with which we have had to make decisions could mean that we will have to go back and change some decisions or issue further guidance. I hope that this is not the case but we need to remain agile and be prepared to adapt Remote Learning I would like to kick things off by talking about remote learning. There is a lot of momentum around this at the moment. I think you will agree that it is hard to do remote learning and given the choice we would all opt for in-class every time. It is certainly clear that there is a much greater national expectation of us this time round and we have already stepped up our expectation of what we require from our learners. It feels like a sequel more of the same but with a storyline that has moved on a bit. The very best sequels don’t simply repeat the story from the first one; they pay homage to what went before and acknowledge what was learnt along with introducing some new challenges. The Terminator is a good example of this.
If we take the main protagonist, Sarah Connor, she is very much the rabbit in headlights in the first movie - it is all done to her. That is a bit like us in the summer term. We got swept along with the narrative with no real understanding of the landscape or what we were dealing with - it was brand new. As we enter lockdown 2, the sequel, we find ourselves able to adopt a more informed, resilient and stronger stance, much like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. The narrative can’t simply be a repeat of what went before because we have been through it already - we have learnt what has worked well and have grown through the experience. And the audience expects more. In the case of Terminator 2, protagonists don’t come more up for a battle than Sarah Connor; there is nothing she cannot face head on - even judgement day. We face our own new challenge - stepping up our online learning provision to include a more personal connection, either through live lessons or prerecorded. I personally prefer pre-recorded however that is a personal choice. What is clear is that there is no evidence that one method is better than the other. There are many arguments in the public domain presenting live teaching as the panacea. I would argue that it is too early to tell. Here is an interesting article from Mark Enser should you wish to look into the debate further: https://www.tes.com/news/ coronavirus-schools-online-learning-are-live-lessonsreally-better-recorded-ones The model we will be using will be fluid and suit the individual teacher and the topic being studied. Our aim is for learners to actually learn something not for it to appear that they have learnt something. This is the message I have also shared with staff. I received much feedback after the first lockdown and we have fed this into our provision this time round. One of the things that you wanted was to be able to maintain the structure of the school day and for there to be more connections between teachers and learners. We will be sharing with families and learners our guide and expectations around remote learning. What we have asked for is a high standards model and have made a few requests to help maintain the routine of a day at school. For example, we intend to be live at the start of every lesson to welcome learners, we will take a
Headlines continued... formal register of attendance and will set the tone for the lesson. At that point the lesson may very well carry on live for all or a small group, or learners might be directed to complete some independent work or follow some prerecorded material via classroom. We will ask learners to put their school jumper on for learning. This may seem like overkill - indeed a few schools are insisting on full uniform. Really our intention here is to help keep the structure and routine going and our learners in the mindset to work. It also saves us having safeguarding conversations about anything inappropriate. As always with guidelines such as these not everyone will be in full support but I hope you will understand our overall aim. Like all best laid plans I expect there to be teething problems. My message to staff is to use professional judgement when encountering any issues. I would extend the same thing to families and learners - just use common sense.
Thank a teacher There's only a few days to go until nominations open for the 2021 Dedicated Teacher Awards! Teachers play a vital role in the lives of their students and often make a difference without even knowing it. The Dedicated Teacher Awards are a global competition in which you can nominate a current teacher for something wonderful they've done. Do you know a teacher who has truly gone above and beyond this year? Don't miss your chance to show appreciation! Nominations open 11th January 2021 follow the link here: https:// dedicatedteacher.cambridge.org/nominate/
We will also be sharing a home school agreement to further expand on how the provision will be working along with our expectations over the next term. Keep an eye out for further communications over the next week as we get these things working more effectively. In it for the long haul
Although Boris Johnson talked about this lockdown lasting half a term, I think it is worth considering the implications of a much longer period of remote teaching. The current rise in infection rates and hospitalisation numbers suggest that we could be far away from reopening. The vaccination programme needs to be extremely intensive to make reopening safe in any way. Let’s hope it is. Finally, after all that information, I would like to thank staff learners and families for being so ready and willing to adapt. I have seen many staff hitting the ground running this week just as they did during the summer term. It is admirable how committed they are to our community. I will share more details on the testing programme next week but for now I would like to thank those who have expressed an interest in volunteering the response was awesome. Have a safe and relaxing weekend James Saunders
Illness / absence from either virtual or physical school should be reported in the usual way via email to attendance@ honywoodschool.com
Follow us on...
Guidance and Expectations for ‘Live’ Lessons As of Monday 11th of January, we will be moving to a more personal approach to remote learning using ‘Google Meet’ for each session. This is to provide learners with a bit more structure than in our previous online learning model. It is expected that for every subject session, each teacher should be ‘live’ for the first 5-15 mins so that they can check all learners are present and a register will take place. t the start of each learning session learners need to access Google Classroom through their iPads. In order to ensure successful access to the Google Meet they must ensure that;
1. They are signed into Gmail on the device 2. They are signed into google classroom 3. They must be signed in to Gmail in SAFARI with their Honywood School email account. To test this go to https://mail.google.com and their Honywood School email account should open. If a personal account opens, please sign out and sign in to their Honywood email account.
At the time that the session is due to start they need to click on the camera icon at the top of the Google Classroom page in the subject/class page they are timetabled to have. Learners should join the session a couple of minutes before it is due to start. If they join too early, before the teacher has opened the meeting, they will be shown a message stating “You can’t create a meeting yourself.” They should press the “Reload” button periodically until they are admitted to the meeting. Please note: this is not a problem, it just shows that the teacher has not yet opened the meeting for learners to join.
The image they need to click on is
Direction will then be given as to how the session is to be conducted. This could be a ‘live’ teacher led session for the duration. It could be that staff have pre recorded using voiceover functions or presentations that learners can work through at their own pace. It could be that instructions are given and learning support materials available in google classroom. 1 x LS5 session will take place each week with learning groups commencing at 2.30pm - provisionally following the assembly rota plan (C7 on Mon, C8 on Tues, C9 on Weds, C10 on Thurs and C11 on Fri) although this may vary slightly for some learning groups. Learning Groups Leaders will advise learners of the day and time. For safeguarding reasons school jumpers are to be worn and must be visible. Any poor behaviour could lead to the removal of learners from the session. Should a teacher need to remove a learner this will be followed up with families via Cohort or Senior Leaders. Any technical difficulties with online learning please email helpdesk@honywoodschool.com. Ensuring your child's iPad device is updated regularly, will ensure technical issues are greatly reduced. Illness / absence from either virtual or physical school should be reported in the usual way via email to attendance@honywoodschool.com Should learners require new exercise books these are available form school and can be collected from the main hall between 9am - 3pm Monday to Friday. Books handed in by learners to teaching staff over the Christmas period are also available for collection from this space from Monday 18th January.