Frequently Asked Questions

Secondary school-aged pupils not working towards formal qualifications this year:

Four timetabled live lessons plus a 30-minute session on personal development each morning.

Secondary school-aged pupils working towards formal qualifications this year:

Five timetabled live lessons plus a 30-minute session on personal development each morning.

We use Microsoft Teams to deliver live lessons and set assignments for independent work. All students have a username and password to www.office.com.

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

• The pastoral team, led by AHT (Respect) collaborate with families who make requests via phone for laptops or via a form on the JQA app.
• We identify where there are internet-access issues through welfare checks and address these through our IT technician with oversight from AHT (Respect)
• Families (via welfare checks) can make requests for additional printed materials to be sent home.
• We encourage all to be able to get online and submit assignments so they can receive appropriate feedback on their work.

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

• live timetabled teaching (online lessons via Microsoft Teams)
• websites such as EdLounge, Seneca and MathsWatch
• textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
• printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)

• We record attendance at each live lesson, and we alert parents to any absence at the end of each day. Where work is not completed to a sufficient standard, parents/carers can expect to be contacted by their child’s teacher(s).
• Where we have concerns over attendance or engagement that are persistent, parents/carers can expect pastoral staff to be in phone contact and collaborate with parents/carers and the child address barriers. If persistent disengagement continues, following significant intervention, we will class the child as ‘vulnerable’ and will insist they join students on site safely to ensure they don’t miss out on further learning.

Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children.
Students receive a range of feedback – ‘live feedback’ and ‘whole class feedback’ as well as self-assessment via quizzes, for example. Feedback is given frequently and appropriately in line with the sequences of learning.

Our Remote Learning Policy outlines the ways we will support students with SEND in detail.

We expect all ‘self-isolating’ students to be in touch with their teachers via Microsoft Teams so they can receive directions on assigned work and learning to remain at pace with learners who are on site. We also encourage students to use EdLounge to complete additional topic-related activities to support with this.
The most important aspect is to communicate with their teaching staff regularly to receive direction and support.

This is outlined in our Remote Learning Policy.

• We expect all students to be ready and online for virtual Tutor Time at 08:30am and to actively participate in all live lessons, following their online timetable and abiding by the clear expectations of online etiquette for live lessons.
• We expect parents to ensure their child is ready, respectful and safe, abiding by our etiquette and code of conduct in the appendices in our Behaviour Procedures on the Academy website.
• We expect parents/carers to pro-actively collaborate with us to resolve barriers to accessing live lessons.
• We expect parents/carers to familiarise themselves with the guides and timetables we have put online to support them to help their child continue to learn.
• We expect parents and carers to ensure they and their child abide by the national ‘Stay At Home’ restrictions in place.