Dear Parents,
This week your son or daughter will receive their grade card which will give their attainment and effort, together with a comment from their teacher, which is there to help them progress. We are very aware that remote learning has been embraced in very different ways by our students. Some have made a seamless transition and easily settled into good daily routines, have been fully engaged in their lessons and adopted a positive attitude and work ethic. Others have found this much more difficult.
We, more than most are aware that teenagers can be difficult to cajole, encourage and motivate and while we are doing our utmost to deliver engaging, dynamic lessons we know that the persuasion to complete them is now predominantly falling on your shoulders. We know for some this is proving a stressful experience and want you to know we appreciate your efforts and are here to support you and the students in any way we can.
Expectations have been delivered to the students via assemblies, both whole school and Senior/Junior sections. However, I thought it would be a good idea to reiterate these here to help support you in managing home-schooling.
- Students should have a clear daily routine.
- They should have a specific time for being dressed and ready to begin.
- Students should have a designated space to work at. (preferably in a communal area)
- They should have their timetable accessible and should check each day.
- They should adapt the timetable with regards to timing to suit their own and family commitments e.g.
Lesson 1. 9 am – 10 am English
10.00 – 11.00 walk the dog
Lesson 2 11.30 – 12.30
DT 12.30 – 1.15 lunch
Lesson 3 1.15 – 2.15 Maths
Lesson 4 2.15 – 3.15 Geography
3.15 – 3.45 Break for some fresh air
Lesson 5 3.45 – 4.45 French
- Each day students receive their five timetabled lessons, apart from games, not all lessons will last a complete hour so this will give a chance to stretch legs and move away from the screen for a short while.
- Over the coming weeks, students will be invited to attend ‘live’ lessons by some of their teachers, these will occur where they would normally appear on the timetable and both the student and yourselves will be pre-warned about when these are happening so that you can schedule the rest of your day around them.
- If at all possible students should attend these ‘live’ lessons as it offers an opportunity to interact with their teacher and their class.
- Pupils know that they can contact their teachers through google classroom if they are experiencing any difficulties with their work. If they require face to face assistance then a google meet can be arranged.
- Students must be appropriately dressed when attending an online ‘live’ lesson or google meet.
- All work should be handed in by the deadline set.
- Students are reminded that they should always approach staff with respect and that when emailing they should address their teachers formally as in Mr, Mrs, Miss with the correct surname or Sir.
- Please and thank you should be used appropriately.
- We are aware that some students are completing work extremely late at night and would ask you to encourage them to keep nearer to school hours during the day so that they can relax in the evening and adopt a more normal sleep pattern.
- Tutors will continue to contact home on a regular basis, so please do raise any concerns you may have during this time.
Thank you for your ongoing patience and support both for the school and your children. We are all desperate to return and resume normality, but in the meantime will continue to work together to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Yours sincerely,
Jackie Griffiths
