This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents or carers.’Here you will find what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.
For details of what to expect where individual students are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.
A student’s first day or two of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach, while we take all necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of remote teaching.
Remote education will be provided on Google Classroom.
Students will have a classroom for each of their subject areas. This involves a feed of notices and announcements of work and an area where they access the work/ assignments and submit completed work.
They can contact the class teacher via Google Classroom with any questions regarding the work.
Each subject will post resources and tasks onto the Goggle Classroom Stream to complete.
Year areas also have classrooms where important announcements are shared with the whole year group such as work experience opportunities or notices from the progress leader.
Each year has a Google Classroom on Be Inspirational, Collective Worship and Well-being.
Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, some subjects which have a large practical element will be taught the theory aspects of the course eg DT will be mainly theoretical and drawing rather than modelling with materials other than cardboard.
We have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, PE lessons will be a mixture of online lessons looking at nutrition, health and fitness as well as independent activities to be completed.
How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?
We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students broadly the following number of hours each day:
Key Stage 5 – 4 hours of online live lessons a week plus independent tasks related to the content covered for each A level subject studied. Remote learning resources are uploaded to Google Classroom for completion following the lessons and recordings of the live lessons are uploaded for access after the event if needed.
Key Stage 3 and 4 – 3/4 online live lessons per day. All subjects are covered throughout the week. Remote learning resources are uploaded to Google Classroom for completion following the lessons and recordings of the live lessons are uploaded for access after the event if needed.
All online remote work is accessed via the Google Suite for Education.
Google Classroom has a classroom for each subject studied by year group/ class.
Google Meet is used for the delivery of online lessons.
Following completion of assignments work is uploaded for the teacher to see and feedback is given privately to students next to their submitted work on the classroom.
We recognise that some students may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those students to access remote education:
All work is remote, any booklets needed will be posted out to students when needed eg Geography knowledge books.
Where there are known issues regarding connectivity the school has communicated with parents and supported so their child can access the lessons and remote work.
If parents have problems with their child accessing the work they must contact the school IT Dept ictadmin@becketonline.co.uk immediately to seek IT support with devices/ Wi-Fi.
The school has applied for Department of Education funded laptops and dongles and can apply for free data from phone providers on behalf of students who need access for educational needs.
The school has also received donations of devices from the local community.
Please contact the school for support with any Wi-Fi connectivity and devices if needed: mail@becketonline.co.uk
The Becket School Remote teaching approach will use a combination of the following approaches to teach students remotely
1. Engage in the online learning programme by:
2. Attending live lessons wherever possible
3. View the recording of the lesson if access to the live online lesson was not possible
4. Completing set work by the deadlines
1. Setting routines to support your child’s education such as getting up on time to have breakfast and be ready for any online lessons.
2. Helping your child by creating a weekly timetable to structure their day. Start with the fixed items, for instance the live lessons and then fill in the gaps around this.
3. Making sure that they have adequate breaks and ask them to come up with ideas and suggestions of what they could do in these times.
4. Ensuring they are suitable dressed and prepared for online live lessons.
5. Providing a suitable work space where they can concentrate and have room to work alongside the device transmitting the lesson.
6. Helping your child organise their own books and resources, such as calculators for Maths and other subjects where needed, so they can be prepared in time for the online lesson.
7. Encouraging your child to present their work neatly so it can be uploaded to Google Classroom and read easily by teachers.
8. Encouraging your child to communicate with the class teacher when they are having difficulties and need support.
9. Supporting your child to complete any independent work by helping, when needed, with the reading of instructions slowly to them to support them with their understanding of the task.
10. Encouraging daily exercise and activity. The PE department have released activities and challenges that can be completed.
11. Encouraging your child to have time away from screens, see the list of independent activities for ideas that doesn’t involve phones, tablets or PCs
12. Encourage your child to leave all phones and devices downstairs when going to bed and try to keep a suitable bedtime routine during the school week.
Subject teachers will monitor all assignments and deadlines met/ not met. If a deadline is missed teaching staff will contact the student via Google Classroom on the assignment page that is missing the work. Where more than one deadline is missed subject staff will contact home.
The school will track where a student falls behind in more than one subject and home contact will be made by the form tutor, progress leader or staff members from The Becket School’s Damascus/ Inclusion team.
The school will do its best to remedy any lack of engagement eg support with online learning access.
Form tutors, progress leaders and subject staff will contact home and try to support with the completion of work and discuss with students their well-being.
The Damascus Team and Inclusion staff make weekly checks with students and support families working with outside agencies where applicable to help with academic aspects and other needs where relevant.
Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on student work is as follows:
We recognise that some students, for example some students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may not be able to access remote education without support from adults at home.
We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers to support those students in the following ways:
Our school teaching assistants are used throughout the week in various capacities to help students engage in the remote learning programme. Where possible this is done remotely.
We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers to support those students. .
Please contact our SEND Co-Ordinator,
Paul Mullins p.mullins@becketonline.co.uk, with any specific queries regarding your child
Where individual students need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups.
This is due to the challenges of teaching students both at home and in school.
Work will be set on Google Classroom for remote access – this will include an outline of the lesson content, tasks and resources such as the lesson PowerPoint/ assessments/ homework
Where possible subject staff are setting up an online lesson link using Google Meet for students isolating to join the live lesson. If this is an option for the lesson it will be shared in the Google Classroom and on the students Google Calendar- see student/parent guidance booklet
When staff are isolating the school cover team also try to support the teacher lead the lesson from home where possible.
