Home Learning

Dear Parent/Carer

Covid-19 update:Home learning

Thank you to those of you who are following government advice and minimising social contact by keeping your children safe at home.If you do not have access to a computer at home, we might be able to lend the family a device so please let us know.Please note we only have a limited number.

I appreciate that parents may also need to use the family computer for their own work and if you have more than one child, time for each online will be limited.We have given every child who was at school today a new exercise book in addition to the books they already have for their subjects.Children should be able to do a lot of their written work on paper.It can then be photographed and uploaded onto itsLearning or Google Classroom.This should help.

I am aware that you may not be able to sit down with your children and teach them.I am also conscious that they need a routine and enough to keep them both occupied and on track so when school returns they have not lost too much learning time.I am extremely grateful to you for providing them with a quiet place to work.We aim to set more work than they may be able to do so please don’t worry if you can’t do it all.The following is a guide.Each family will find its own way of managing this situation.

I am suggesting that for Y12 and Y13 students should spend at least 5 hours a week on each subject as a minimum.For Y13 this will be until they have completed enough to meet the requirements of Ofqual to enable teachers to predict a grade.We are awaiting further information about this.

For Y11, similarly, they will need to complete all the work set in order to meet the requirements once we know what these are.Further details will be sent.

For Y7-9, I will ask teachers to set enough Maths and English for 4 hours a week each.Teachers for each other subject will set an hour a week.For Y10 and Y9 after Easter they will need to do an hour a week on each option and each of the 3 sciences in addition to the Maths and English. The deadlines will be flexible and I have asked staff to feedback on roughly a fortnightly basis.

If you would like a suggestion about how to structure a day this is an idea:

Spend 2x 30 mins on each language studied

Spend an hour a day on Maths and English

An hour on one other subject

An hour on a creative activity eg Art, Music, Technology, cooking, craft etc

An hour on physical activity- Its learning has a challenge on it to help with this

Allow break times.

I would advise limiting access to social media and the internet after 10pm at night (earlier for younger students) as otherwise they will be tempted to ‘chat’ all night.Sleep as you know is vital for good mental health.Children are great at playing adults off against each other and if you can all say, ‘the school has advised me not to let you use this after 10pm’ it makes me the bad guy and might save you some rows.

We are deeply aware that this will be really hard on children as time goes on.Each tutor has been asked to set up a group for pastoral purposes to support children.Support for Learning staff are also arranging to keep in contact with more vulnerable children who are staying at home.

Thank you as always for your understanding and support.Keep safe and get in touch if you need further advice and help.

Kind regards

Sue Moore