Harris Academies
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Working From Home

Working from home for students and staff

Students

Lockdowns and periods of self-isolation are unsettling for students and their families. Fortunately, at Harris Academy Morden we have been working hard to put systems in place to ensure that the curriculum can continue and the impact on young people is minimised as far as possible.

Online Platforms:

www.twinkl.co.uk – you can also register for free access to high-quality resources like Twinkle. Please ensure you check the full details and terms and conditions before choosing to activate your account.

In addition, we advise you to read as many books as possible linked to the topics you have been studying in each subject and also complete independent research using the internet as well.

The following information should answer most questions you may have. If you have further issues, please call Reception on 020 8687 1157 and our team will direct your enquiry to the right person. Please be aware that staff may be teaching or working from home which may mean it takes a little longer for us to get in touch.

What immediate remote education is provided for my child?

Live lessons are available via MS Teams as soon as your child needs to work from home. If your child is unable to access this you should inform Reception on 020 8687 1157 so that we can support your child to access the curriculum.

What curriculum will be delivered to my child?

We continue to deliver the full curriculum during lockdown, although Subject Leaders may adjust the order of topics covered to suit home learning.

If your child is well, they should continue to follow their timetable whilst at home. Live lessons run for all of the following subjects: English, maths, science, computing, geography, history, RE, art and Spanish. In some practical lessons, it is not possible for the full lesson to be live, but assignments will be set via MS Teams; this is the case for PE, technology, drama, music and EAL. If a teacher is absent there will not be a live lesson, but tasks will be set via MS Teams. Students are not required to attend live lessons during Tutor time.

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

By following their normal timetable, each student receives approximately 5 hours of study per day.

How will my child access this curriculum?

Students have immediate access to the curriculum in one of the following ways:

  • Accessing MS Teams via Student Sharepoint – we recommend using Google Chrome for this
  • Downloading the MS Teams App to a Windows or Apple computer
  • Downloading the MS Teams App on an iOS or Android phone or tablet

Students can log in to MS Teams in any of the above ways using their @hfed.net school login. This will then enable them to access the ‘Teams’ for each of their classes and attend each of the lessons at the normal time.

If your child is having difficulty accessing the lessons they should first make use of the student guide available here. If they continue to experience issues or are unable to access digitally, you should contact Reception on 020 8687 1157. Please see below for information on the loan of digital devices.

How will my child be taught remotely?

Our main platform for delivering the curriculum to students at home is Microsoft Teams. This enables teachers to lead students’ learning and provide them with a range of resources for them to access and tasks they can complete. Students working from home can expect to complete a variety of different activities through the week – for example a week’s science lessons may look like this:

Picture 2

Teachers will provide a mixture of live teaching and explanation, combined with independent tasks, videos and quizzes. Some subjects may direct students towards subject-specific learning platforms such as Mathswatch and Educake (science) for part of the study time. Teachers will remain available during lesson time (absence permitting) so that students can ask questions and get help where they need it.

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

If your child is well then they should attend all their lessons. If they are ill please report this in the usual way (020 8687 1157 – Option 1). You should also call the academy if your child is unable to access the online learning so we can support you.

Please support us by helping your child to have an effective routine at home. They should wake up in good time to be ready for their first online lesson of the day. Look together at your child’s timetable and talk through when they will have their breaks throughout the day. All students are free between 10.10am and 11.00am so this would be a good time to get some fresh air if needed. Lunch is from 12.40-13.10 for all year groups. Students should not be having to work for long periods outside of lesson time. Teachers have been asked not to set additional homework so your child’s study day should end when the school day ends.

As far as possible, please check in with your child throughout the day and ensure they are working on their school work and not being distracted by other media. Encourage them to ask their teacher for help using the online chat function if they are stuck. Remind them to upload the work requested so that their teachers can see how they are getting on.

How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?

Teachers will set out from the start what they will be teaching over a sequence of lessons and which pieces of work they will expect students to submit. Teachers will use many different ways to check students’ understanding, for example:

  • Online quick quizzes
  • Completion of tables, grids or spidergrams
  • Answering a sequence of short answer questions
  • Paragraphs or essays
  • Photographs of artwork etc.

Teachers will clearly define what needs to be submitted, by when and how. There are a number of ways that work can be submitted, for example:

  • Through MS Teams ‘Assignments’
  • By sending photos and files through Teams or via email
  • By submitting information or files via MS Forms

The Academy tracks online attendance electronically. Each week teachers will rate your child’s engagement High/Medium/Low/Didn’t Attend. If your child does not log on to their online learning you will receive a text informing you of this. These texts are sent daily and will be followed up with phonecalls for persistent non-attenders. You will receive a phonecall from your child’s tutor or other pastoral staff at least every two weeks.

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

Students will receive regular feedback on their work. Forms of feedback will vary according to the subject, activity and task. In the course of a week of remote learning your child can expect to receive many of the following forms of feedback:

  • Verbal feedback when they ask or answer a question
  • Replies to their queries in the ‘Chat’ module
  • Quick written comments on their work when working collaboratively via ‘Assignments’
  • Scores from online quizzes
  • Written comments to groups or classes via the MS Teams ‘Posts’

In addition, once or twice per half-term (depending on the subject)

  • Formal written feedback when they are set an assignment in line with our marking policy. Students will then be expected to submit a response to this feedback.

Additional support for pupils with particular needs - How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

We recognise that some pupils, for example some pupils 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 pupils in the following ways:

  • Provide simple, easy to follow guides on how to access the software
  • The offer of an onsite placement for any student with an EHCP.
  • TA support during live lessons in accordance with EHCP needs. This may include additional break-out support and/or additional recap sessions.
  • Literacy catch up live lessons will continue to be delivered and online literacy programmes will remain accessible for students to work through whilst at home.
  • Ensuring that weekly engagement telephone calls are made to all of our EHCP students so that they are supported to access their weekly schedule of learning. In addition, regular communication regarding provision and support will continue to ensure that provision remains appropriate.
  • Ensuring that all students with SEND receive fortnightly engagement calls so that they are supported to access their schedule of learning.
  • Offering telephone/virtual consultations with the SENCO in order to continue partnership planning for annual reviews and reintegration plan
  • Arranging multi-agency telephone conferences to discuss specific areas of need with parents and other specialists.
  • Providing accessible literacy and numeracy resources enabling students to access differentiated SEND learning activities if required.
  • Adapted curriculum online provision to ensure live lessons are accessible for our SEN learners.
  • Providing paper-based resources to aid engagement for students who are not yet proficient in the use of IT, or who may have intermittent access to laptops and computers.
  • On-site TA support in place for EHCP students who continue to attend school.
  • Laptop availability to students who require it to support home learning.
  • Providing continued access to assessment and support via telephone or video calls with an Educational Psychologist.
  • Providing continued access to assessment and support via telephone or video calls with a Speech and Language Therapist.
  • Ensuring continued access to interventions currently in place for identified students e.g. emotional regulation sessions, counselling sessions, social skills sessions etc.

If your child is experiencing difficulties, please discuss this when the tutor or TA calls, or phone through to Reception and ask for the tutor or FCO to call you back.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

If your child is at home self-isolating when the majority of students are at school, there will be no difference in what we expect them to do. Their lessons will still be available live and they should follow their normal timetable. The teacher will divide their time between the students in the classroom and the students on Teams. If students have problems or queries they should raise these through the chat window. Students may have to wait a little longer for a response as the teacher may be working with a number of questions within the classroom as well. If a teacher is absent, we will aim to set tasks via MS Teams for students at home, but live lessons will not normally be available in these circumstances.

Loan of Digital Devices

  • We have been provided with a small number of devices for loan and will assign these on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the individual circumstances of the applicant
  • Stock has been allocated based on the ICT audit completed during the Autumn Term, prioritising those students with no access to ICT.
  • Those that would like to request ICT as their situation has changed can do so by calling Reception on 020 8687 1157. They will then be placed on a reserve list and allocated as stock becomes available. 
  • Printed materials can be requested on a case-by-case basis but it is our ambition to provide as many as possible with ICT access. 
  • Those who are low on mobile data due to our live lessons, can apply via the school reception to the new government scheme and receive a data increase.
    • You need to meet the following requirements for this scheme:
      • do not have fixed broadband at home
      • cannot afford additional data for their devices
      • are experiencing disruption to their face-to-face education

Please see the links below for further help to support your child working from home.

Staff

Click on the below link and login with your @hfed.net account for latest information.

https://harrisfederation.sharepoint.com/sites/ITComms/SitePages/Working-from-home.aspx

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