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

      

This message has been sent by St Bartholomew's School. Please do not reply to this email as it is automatically generated. Any contact with the school should be made through the St Bart's email address office@stbarts.co.uk

 

St Bartholomew's School, Andover Road,  Newbury, Berkshire RG14 6JP 

Telephone: 01635 521255                            

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