Guidelines for September 2021

For remote learning all students will need to follow their normal school timetable, with tasks set by their teachers each day using our ClassCharts system. We also highly recommend for all students to complete at least 1 hour of personal reading each day.

Please be aware that teachers setting home learning will also be teaching those students still in the building; self-isolating students will receive work from each individual lesson by the following morning at the latest. Access to three online platforms has been arranged so that personalised, unlimited practice for key curriculum areas is immediately available to all students.

Full details are included in our Home Learning information booklet

For more information/support, please read the FAQs below, or contact learningsupport@acklamgrange.org.uk. If you do not have access to an email account, you can call the school on 01642 277700.

Frequently Asked Questions

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, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, the practical PE curriculum cannot be appropriately recreated in a remote setting. We value physical exercise greatly, and encourage students to use this time to stay active as they prefer, but this time may also be used for students to:

• catch up on or extend work from other timetabled lessons
• complete indepedent study using Tassomai, Hegarty Maths or Seneca Learning
• undertake some personal reading

at their convenience.

This does not apply to KS4 courses in GCSE PE or BTEC sport, where work will be supplied in line with the curriculum delivered in school.

In other practical-based subjects, re-sequencing of the curriculum may take place to allow students to consolidate key fundamentals of course content or rehearse for live performances to be arranged on their return to school.

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you support them to access remote education?

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

• where available, laptops, internet dongles and other necessary hardware is available for loan. Parents can contact the main school office or dedicated remote learning email address to request support.
• where families are identified from stakeholder voice surveys, contact from school will be made at the point of isolation to offer support.
• where low student engagement is highlighted, contact from school will be made to identify potential barriers and offer solutions.
• in the event that assistance with online access can not be provided and students are not able to attend school, printed materials will be curated by subject leaders, in line with the intended curriculum. Students can return this work on their return to school, or at the point that they receive the necessary hardware to get online.

What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

Students are expected to work solidly for 45 minutes, without distraction, for each hour on their timetable. The remaining 15 minutes can be used to organise necessary equipment, share evidence of work completed with their teacher and make a comfortable transition to their next task, taking a break where required.

In addition to work set, students should actively pursue opportunities to read for pleasure. We recommend an hour per day at student convenience.

Our systems are designed with flexibility for home situation in mind. Where possible, parents should encourage their children to begin their first lesson at 9:15 each morning, with time taken from 8:30 to get organised and undertake some personal reading as they would do during form time in the regular school day. Where home situation dictates that students work asynchronously to the timings of the school day, parents should help to ensure that students can work, distraction free, for 45 minutes within each 1-hour scheduled lesson. This may require removal of mobile phones and other entertainment systems, and creation of a private study space where possible.

How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

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 pupil work is as follows:

• teaching staff will signpost tasks which will be marked in detail, in line with each subject area assessment plan. The frequency of these tasks will echo the in-school curriculum and will occur at least twice per half term for core subjects and once per term otherwise.
• feedback on these deep marking tasks will utilise a range of strategies, including auto-marking online assessment platforms and whole class feedback. All teaching staff will also adapt their planning and delivery in response to information garned by marking student submitted work. Where individual comments and guidance is applied, this is likely to take place via email or ClassCharts messaging on an ad hoc basis as and when it is required. 

You can also find useful information for parents via our Tips for parents.

AGS Share a story – All episodes of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ from our 50 books to read before leaving School

You can also find the following list of episodes from our AGS Success Video Blog – Bringing the Science of Learning to you at home:

• Episode 1 – Retrieval practice
• Episode 2 – Getting revision strategies right
• Episode 3 – Spaced study practice
• Episode 4 – Chunking revision
• Episode 5 – Sleep
• Episode 6 – Habit stacking
• Episode 7 – The benefits of stress
• Episode 8 – Study space
• Episode 9 – Distractions
• Episode 10 – How to get better sleep
• Episode 11 – Mobile phone distractions
• Episode 12 – AGS Enhance
• Episode 13 – Self Quizzing