From: ST BARTHOLOMEW'S SCHOOL
<SC8695402a@schoolcomms.com>
Sent: 30 March 2020 10:31
To: ARobbins
Subject: Home Working
Dear Parents/Carers,
As we begin the second week of
students working from home, we wanted to keep you in touch with how we are
managing this unprecedented situation and how we see home working developing
over the coming weeks. We have received some helpful feedback from parents and
we are seeking to adapt in response to this.
Whilst the school is closed we are
trying to ensure that students are able to progress as well as possible with
their learning. As you are aware, we are using Show My Homework to set all
school work, so there will inevitably be considerably more work being set using
this platform than would normally be the case when it is only used for
Independent Study. We have been trying to ensure as much consistency as possible
in the setting of work by asking subjects to coordinate this and to set as much
common work across whole year groups as possible, whilst allowing for
differentiated work where this is needed.
We have explained that we are
expecting students to complete about 3-4 hours of school work each day. We
would encourage students to follow as much routine as possible in the way in
which they approach this. For instance, working on subjects which they would
have been taught on that day if school was open is a way of achieving this.
Some subjects are setting longer pieces of work to do, with deadlines that are
further in the future than would normally be the case. In these instances, we
would encourage students to work on these extended tasks as part of their routine,
completing 45 minutes or so of this work on the days when they have that
subject on their normal school timetable.
We are continuing to work on
developing approaches to providing feedback to students. This is an area which
poses far greater challenges in the absence of face-to-face teaching and
learning. We have staff experimenting with different ways of providing this
feedback and we are continuing to share good practice across the teaching staff
in order to find the most effective methods. This is an aspect of home working
where we will certainly be developing our practice after the Easter break.
It is not yet clear how long schools
will be closed for. We do want to stress, however, that all of us are here to
help and that we are conscious there could be a danger of students feeling lost
without the regular contact with their teachers that they are so used to in
school. If parents or students have specific issues or questions relating
to the work being set then we have published a full list of teaching staff
emails on our website, which can be accessed through this link: https://www.stbarts.co.uk/portals/parents/ As
long as teachers are well, they will get back to you with support and answers
to your questions.
In addition to the specific work which
we are setting, we would also urge all our students to carry out some
reading each day and potentially to access the increasing number of learning
resources available from organisations such as the BBC. It is also important
that students continue to exercise as much as possible within the constraints
created by the current situation. Our PE team is providing ideas via SMHW and
again there are many other sources for ideas on exercise such as Joe Wicks’ The
Body Coach TV. Please refer to last week’s
issue of Bartholonews if you feel in need of further advice regarding medical
and wellbeing needs.
Work will not be set by teachers
during the scheduled two week Easter break which begins at the end of this
week. We would, however, recommend that students continue to follow some of the
other advice here in terms of sticking to routines, exercising, reading and
looking after their own wellbeing.
We would like to thank all our parents
and carers for their continued support in such unique circumstances. All
members of our school community are facing extremely challenging times and we
will continue to do our very best to work alongside you in ensuring our
students, your children, can continue to learn and develop over the coming
weeks.
Yours faithfully,
Jeremy Sharpe
Deputy Headteacher
St Bartholomew's School
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St
Bartholomew's School, Andover Road, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 6JP
Telephone:
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521255
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