A GUIDE FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS
CONTENTS _____________
Introduction from the headmistress The timetable and different time zones St Swithun’s digital curriculum / summer term 2020 curriculum and lessons by year group Effective remote learning and expectations of behaviour Help and support Music, communication and performance, EAL, learning support Pastoral care: housemistresses, heads of year, form staff, chaplain, school counsellor Wellbeing Exercise E-safety Guidance / advice for parents
INTRODUCTION FROM THE HEADMISTRESS
This guide explains how at St Swithun’s we are approaching the opportunities and challenges of remote learning. We are building on, and refining, our experience from the summer term 2020, using applications in the Microsoft 365 suite such as OneNote Class Notebook, OneDrive and Teams. Our approach continues to be to offer a broad range of different experiences as far as is possible through the medium of a screen. Therefore, our programme blends live teaching with video clips and on-demand exercises. We recognise that a day at a screen can be tiring so we have reduced the amount of homework that we set, particularly for our Key Stage 3 students. In addition, we have retained our sports lessons in order to encourage all ages to keep active. We understand that human contact and relationships are at the heart of teaching and learning so we continue to have form times, registration and other ways of keeping in touch. Furthermore, pastoral care is available with ready access to our school counsellor, our chaplain and other members of our pastoral team. We also continue to provide some co-curricular activities such as debating, art, student guidance events, academic enrichment and science club. Inter-house competitions are also continuing and we are offering cookery master classes. Jane Gandee January 2021
THE TIMETABLE AND DIFFERENT TIME ZONES The school week, assemblies and registration The week is structured to allow assemblies, registration and form periods to take place, because these are very important ways to keep in touch with school life.
Assemblies take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8.25am and are accessible via a hyperlink circulated by e-mail. Students are expected to join these remotely. Registration is an important part of keeping in contact and occurs at 8.15 every day. In the afternoon, students are registered in their first lesson. Form periods are used in a variety of ways, for example for individual contact with a student’s form tutor or deputy, and for group activities.
Where students live in different time zones from the UK, they are encouraged to attend as many live events as possible, but where it is impossible, for example lessons at the end of the day, they should let their teachers know that they are unable to attend.
How have you found the remote learning experience?
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Have you had to change your routine to adapt?
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Timetable, classwork and homework The pattern for remote work reflects the normal school lesson and homework timetables.
Remote learning takes the form of a blended approach made up of a combination of (1) mostly ‘live’ lessons via Teams (see separate section below); and (2) some other lessons for which ‘on demand’ or ‘anytime’ work and resources are available in the OneNote class notebook.
There may be good reasons, when learning remotely, for students not to be able to access ‘live’ lessons at the precise time of the lesson, or to access other electronic resources, which are reasons for following the blended approach described above. We believe it is important to be sensitive to individual circumstances.
Work for each non-live lesson in the OneNote class notebook is in place the evening prior to the lesson so that students in different time zones can access it before school starts if that is their preferred way of working. The work set is in the format of ‘on-demand’ or ‘anytime’ tasks to help students to manage their work effectively at home.
Classwork may include a range of types of tasks or activities, some of which may be written but many of which will not.
Homework is set according to the homework time allocation for each year group. Consideration is given to setting homework that requires students to work away from their screens.
EFFECTIVE REMOTE LEARNING AND EXPECTATIONS OF BEHAVIOUR Live lessons via Teams
Live lessons are times when the class teacher is available. The format of these lessons may vary and include a range of activities. Some of these activities may use the video (or audio) calling functions, and some may use the Teams text chat function only. Breakout rooms may also be used. When students join a Teams video call they should ensure that their camera is on and that the microphone is muted. The teacher may ask students to turn on the microphone when appropriate. Generally live lessons will begin with a video call in which the students are registered and the teacher will explain the objectives and tasks for the lesson, and at the end of the lesson the teacher will summarise, clarify or recap key points either by video call or by Teams chat. During the lesson the teacher may use the video calling and/or the Teams text chat to respond to questions. Resources are placed, linked and distributed in the OneNote class notebook, and work or tasks should be completed in OneNote unless directed otherwise.
Expectations of pupils when using Teams When using Teams, remember that this is an extension of the classroom and you should conduct yourself as you would in a classroom and follow these guidelines:
Participate in an environment that is quiet, safe and free from distractions.
Ideally you should be seated at a desk or table.
You must be dressed appropriately for class: uniform is not required – but no pyjamas either!
Consider what is visible in the background when using your camera. You can blur your background or choose a different background.
At the start of your lesson ensure that your camera is on and that your microphone is muted, although the teacher may ask you to turn your microphone on when appropriate.
Interact patiently and respectfully with your teachers and peers. All chat is monitored, and the same etiquette applies to chat as it does for e-mail.
You must NOT record each other’s online interactions, record, screenshot or capture any live lesson communication.
You must only use your school account and only use Teams to interact with members of the St Swithun’s community.
HELP AND SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS There is a lot of help available from school.
Technical queries: If you have difficulties accessing your Microsoft 365 account, please contact the IT department by e-mail to IThelp@stswithuns.com or via the school office. Please provide a description of the issue and any error messages that you are receiving. Please watch the video playlist with Mr Butcher’s helpful video tutorials covering reminders about how to use key features of Microsoft 365, including OneNote class notebooks and Teams. If you need help or support from school, you can continue to contact your form tutor, housemistress/master and head of year, as well as members of the welfare team, by e-mail. If you are unwell when remote learning is taking place, you would not be expected to do schoolwork at that time, just as if you were ill in normal circumstances when school is open. You or your parents should e-mail your form tutor, who will be able to let your individual teachers know and, if you can, please write a note to your teacher(s) in your section of the relevant OneNote class notebook about any work affected.
MUSIC, COMMUNICATION AND PERFORMANCE, LEARNING SUPPORT AND EAL Individual lessons in EAL, learning support and music, and C&P lessons, continue to take place via Teams.
PASTORAL CARE During this time of remote learning, it is important for all students to look after their wellbeing and we want to help them to do that. To that end, the core of our pastoral provision has continued to operate remotely: Boarding house staff Boarding house staff are in regular contact with the girls, often via live video calls, to keep in touch, find out how they are progressing with their work and to deal with any specific issues that they may have. House staff remain available to parents and are in contact as required. All houses have set up a variety of activities and challenges to continue to engage the community, to maintain house spirit and to ensure that girls continue to connect with one another. Regular house meetings by year group take place to facilitate this further. Form tutors Form tutors also maintain daily contact with their forms and host online form periods at 8.15am twice a week. They monitor engagement with synchronous lessons as well as the completion of work set. Where there are issues they intervene, liaise with relevant teaching staff and offer support and guidance to the students. Heads of Year Heads of year maintain an overview of academic and pastoral issues that arise and meet regularly with our deputy head pastoral to discuss individual issues and to plan how to support their year group. They liaise with boarding staff as necessary to ensure that intervention is timely and effective. Chaplain Reverend Wallington continues to play a key role in school life and has already led a number of our thrice-weekly assemblies. He is available to offer pastoral support for students and his contact details can be found together with others at the end of this section. School psychologist and counselling Dr Helen O’Connor, our clinical psychologist, runs remote sessions with students and has been producing ‘Top Tips’ videos to reinforce and promote healthy habits.
All the support that would normally be available at school is still in place and we encourage students (and parents) to use it and to email staff as necessary. Under normal circumstances they should contact their form tutor, head of year and/or housemistress/master in the first instance, but the important thing is that they contact someone. We undertake a fortnightly wellbeing survey that is sent to all girls and pastoral staff will follow up with any that give cause for concern.
Members of the welfare team can be contacted via the emails below:
School counsellor: Dr O’Connor: oconnorh@stswithuns.com
School chaplain: Reverend Wallington: wallingtonp@stswithuns.com
Deputy Head pastoral and designated safeguarding lead: Mr Yates: yatesg@stswithuns.com
Head of boarding and deputy safeguarding lead: Miss Carruthers: carruthersh@stswithuns.com
Deputy safeguarding lead: Mr Brown: brownj@stswithuns.com
WELLBEING Student wellbeing website The girls have access to our own student wellbeing website which contains information and Top Tips on a wide variety of wellbeing topics. There is an A-Z of advice and support; links to the best apps for wellbeing and mental health; links to some of the best website for preteenage and teenage girls; over 90 strategies for self- care and even an area where they can visit distant locations and escape for a while. Health and wellbeing when working remotely We are aware that this pandemic has impacted on society and individuals in a variety of ways. From the start, we have acknowledged the different challenges facing our students. We have emphasised to our students the importance of keeping some basic principles at the heart of what we do. Further information on getting the basics right can be found on the wellbeing website. However, the key points are: Exercise and physical activity: We encourage all students to get some physical activity each day. All age groups have live timetabled PE every week which will focus on a combination of high intensity interval training, flexibility and movement exercises. We have slightly increased the lunch break to 75 minutes to give more time for them to get outside in the daylight.
Maintain routines as much as possible. Through basing our remote timetable on the normal school timings and by building in assemblies and form time we have a robust routine for students that finds a balance between time for learning, time for physical activity and time for self-care.
Establish a distinction between work and play - given that our homes are now our classrooms it is important to have a clear distinction between work and play. We encourage our students to clear work away at the end of the day or week and to be strict about not studying beyond a set time.
Practise healthy habits and self-care. We remind students and parents to pay attention to the basics such as getting a healthy amount of sleep (ideally 8-10 hours a night), eating well, drinking water and exercising regularly.
Take time out - not just from work but from screens, especially news and social media. We remind our students to get outside if possible and to take time to notice what they can see and hear.
Connect with people around you – students are reminded to keep connected to friends and family either remotely or through shared activities such as playing cards, doing a jigsaw or cooking together.
Give - the power of doing something nice for someone should not be underestimated. We are always amazed by the kindness of our students and we are encouraging them to think about others at this time.
DIGITAL WELLBEING As people have had to engage in social distancing and self-isolation, we have become more dependent on digital technology to live our lives. But whilst a more digitally-mediated life may help keep us safe from physical contagion, digital technology has the potential to propagate ‘mental contagion’ as emotions (e.g. fear) thoughts (fake-news, conspiracy theories), and behaviours (online panic buying) spread digitally but virulently through the population. Here are three evidence-based digital wellbeing tips for keeping our digital diet healthy during the coronavirus outbreak 1. Use digital to nurture relationships. Social distancing may be good for your physical health, but social isolation is known to be harder for mental health. So, take the opportunity of physical social distancing to re-connect digitally with that friend, family or acquaintance that you never quite got around to re-contacting. Seek to nurture existing relationships by scheduling regular online chats, using digital devices to share positive news, express gratitude, help others and practise acts of kindness. Helping others can provide a sense of purpose that can allay personal anxieties. Consider organising group chats, and regular group video chat meetups – seeing a friendly face, even via a screen can reassure. In sum, use the viral outbreak as an opportunity to build or re-build a sense of relatedness, care and affiliation with the people who matter to you and to whom you matter. 2. Use digital to be smarter. Our wellbeing is influenced by our personal sense of competence ie. our ability to rise to challenges, make smart choices and experience achievement, mastery or success. Therefore, use the opportunity to take an online course, learn a new skill or do the things that truly engage you. Day-to-day, consider using digital health and activity apps to get smarter about looking after your body during the outbreak. You may not be able to get to a gym or class, but you can use digital prompts to stand more, move more and exercise more – even in the confines of a restricted environment. To this end, you might consider downloading an exercise, nutrition, relaxation or mindfulness app. Overall, think about how you can use digital to establish or improve your self-care routine to help you sleep, exercise, and eat well. In particular, use digital technology to be smarter about your digital information diet. Use free online ‘fact-checking’ services to counter the viral spread of conspiracy theories, urban legends, unfounded rumours and misinformation. Reduce your information intake to just one or two trustworthy and reputable expert information sources (e.g. WHO, national broadcasters). Limit your intake to just one or two regular ‘information meals’ per day, rather than snacking and grazing on 24/7 anxiety and stress-inducing new commentary. Most importantly, get your information direct from a reputable source, and ignore regurgitated digital
information that is shared on social media, which could be a source of unfounded, inaccurate, and dangerous misinformation. 3. Use digital to ‘take back control’. We might feel powerless in the face of a global epidemic, but we can use our digital technology to regain some sense of control and autonomy over our lives. This is important because having a sense of control over our lives has been demonstrated to be essential to our emotional wellbeing. So consider ways you can use digital technology to take back control. This might be as simple as using digital technology to make plans for the future, manage lists or schedules, organise chats with others. The key is to use digital actively (rather than passively), and to think of digital as an enabler that extends your autonomy and allows you to develop strategies for coping. For example, you could consider timeboxing your passive screen-time (streaming, viewing, scrolling), and balancing passive viewing with active interaction, where you – and not the screen – are in control. There is more information on our digital Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/StSwithuns-Online-Safety-347792338998550/
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GUIDANCE/ADVICE FOR PARENTS
Remote working expectations of parents/guardians
Provide your daughter with a workspace that is quiet, safe and free from distractions, with an adult nearby if necessary.
Remote learning is a different experience that brings teaching into the home. The same expectations apply as a regular taught lesson, meaning that interaction in these lessons is only between the teacher and the students.
Ensure that communication through Microsoft Teams is only between teachers and students. Any parent to teacher communication should be done via e-mail in the first instance.
Parents may not record, share or comment on public forums about individual teachers.
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How would you reassure someone who is worried about remote learning?
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St Swithun’s School, Alresford Road, Winchester, SO21 1HA 01962 835700 office@stswithuns.com www.stswithuns.com Registered Charity Number 307335
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