Remote Education Provision

Our Learning Journey - Remote Learning Lock Down 3

January 2021 at Marlborough Primary Academy

 

All of us have been on, and are still on, a massive journey over this last year, learning and developing new ways in order to achieve the best quality learning opportunities we can from the Virtual Learning.  As with all schools, this has been a massive undertaking, not just through ensuring that all children have access to devices and connectivity to access the Virtual Learning but also being there to support our families, with their wide variety of needs and concerns, through what is for all of us, an anxious and stressful time. We have been supporting parents, not only with the Virtual Learning, but in many other ways: food bank deliveries, advice on housing and finance, making applications to charities and sign posting parents to a range of agencies to support, including mental health concerns, while also just being an ear to listen and support when many of our parents are feeling at a loss. Our Safeguarding team also meets weekly to discuss our more vulnerable families and follow up with actions as required.

We currently use Class Dojo as our school Learning Platform. I am delighted to say that all parents are signed up to this and the overwhelming majority all now using this to access the virtual learning daily. In addition to this, all children are provided with a paper pack and a Home Learning Book for the children to record in. We have now managed to ensure that all children have access to devices and have connectivity, through the loaning of school equipment. Each week we complete a spreadsheet to track to see the children who are engaging with Class Dojo uploading photos and videos of their learning to their individual portfolio,  and follow up any concerns raised. Engagement has improved greatly with the development of ‘Live’ lessons to support the children. Every day the children across the school have the opportunity to have ‘live’ English and Maths and feedback sessions with the class teacher to talk through any misconceptions they have.  As children upload their work throughout the day, class teachers and support staff are able to give feedback and comment on the child’s learning. In Early Years, the ‘live’ sessions are proving to be more of a challenge but we are trying a variety of things to increase engagement. This week I joined a live ‘play dough’ making session with the Reception/Year 1 class. This was designed as a finger gym activity to help improve fine motor skills. Great fun and lots of sticky mess. It was lovely to see the parents joining in and supporting their children.