Distance Learning Information and Expectations during School Closure

Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

Chorlton High School has established Distance Learning principles which are aligned to our Learning Model and are evidence-based. This enables the most effective teaching and learning. The principles have been reviewed by all stakeholders and focus sharply on clarity of instruction, daily/weekly review, presenting new material in small steps, modelling and scaffolding and effective assessment for learning. There is full curriculum alignment for students who are learning in school or at home.

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?

Pupils will have a blend of live lessons and independent study. Students will be able to follow their full timetable by accessing their lesson materials which have been saved on MS Teams in each of their Class Teams – inside Files – Class Materials.
Their daily lesson from each subject will be saved on MS Teams for them to follow from home, using their exercise book or class notebook to complete the work.
Where a class bubble has been collapsed, students will move to a live lesson schedule almost immediately. This schedule enables students’ full access to live lessons in Year 7 and 8 and access to live lessons in Core subjects in Year 9, 10 and 11.
In the event of full school closure, this enables access to a full live lesson timetable for all year groups. In addition to this, parents and pupils will be provided with additional materials, such as, recorded teaching from Oak National Academy which has been aligned to the curriculum in school for pupils to consolidate and extend their learning
Pupils will be encouraged to do a minimum of 15 minutes reading each day at home.
A range of well-being and support materials will also be available through the Distanced Learning section of the school website.

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?

Our curriculum is fully aligned so that students are able to follow the full planned programme of study whether they are learning on site or at home.
In the event of a longer period of full school closure, we will make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, in Dance, Drama and PE, where students are doing a practical lesson, the teacher will model and share examples of practical activities and direct students to complete some of this work independently This enables students to balance their practical and creative tasks. It also provides some flexibility in their curriculum and supports their well-being.

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:

Secondary school-aged pupils not working towards formal qualifications this year	Students will be expected to do 5 hours. Their full timetable of 5 hours will be provided for them with comfort breaks built into live lessons to support student well-being.
Secondary school-aged pupils working towards formal qualifications this year	Students will be expected to do 5 hours. Their full timetable of 5 hours will be provided for them with comfort breaks built into live lessons to support student well-being.

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:

Laptops have been provided to all identified students in need across each year group, with training and usage information provided to students and parents. If you are entitled to free school meals or there are other circumstances which we do not know about, please contact the Head of School to request digital access:
Year 7 and 8 – c.wilson@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk
Year 9 and 10 – a.gosling@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk
Year 11 – j.sarwar@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk
Internet dongles have been available to students in need. Again, if you require support with internet access, please use the contacts above.
Digital access has been audited for all students in school and it is checked again before a child has to self-isolate due to a collapsed bubble.
Printed materials can be provided upon request. Please use the contacts above. Students/families may return physical student work via Reception at key times arranged in advance. This work will be given to their class teachers.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

Full Live Lesson Schedule – available for all students during full school closure or when there is a collapsed class bubble – delivering the full school timetable where possible. Live Lessons are developed in line with our Distanced Learning principles and include live teacher input, explanation, feedback, modelling, instruction, assessment and review.
Class Materials for every lesson available in the Class Team for all year groups. All lesson materials are made available to students every day.
Pre-recorded Video lessons for some practical subjects in the event of longer periods of school closure.
CHAT function available for students to contact their teachers with any questions they might have or to submit work
ASSIGNMENTS function available for students to submit their work for feedback
Recorded teaching e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, have been mapped across English, Maths, Science, Humanities and MFL and aligned to the CHS curriculum for students who wish to extend their learning.
Educational websites like SENECA, Hegarty Maths and GCSE Pod are used across a range of subjects

Engagement and feedback

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

During full school closure, the expectations of the school day are as follows

8.45 – Live Assembly

9.00 – Lesson 1

10.00 – Lesson 2

11.00 – Lesson 3

12.30 – Lesson 4

13.30 – Lesson 5

During school opening, when there is a collapsed bubble or your child is self-isolating, they follow the normal school day timings.
In addition to this, we encourage students to read for a minimum of 15 minutes per day. We also encourage regular screen breaks and have a wealth of information, advice and activities promoting mental and physical well-being. These are all available on the Distance Learning section of the school website.
We encourage parents to support students in setting up a routine each day which reflects the school day timings provided. Our distance learning curriculum has clear explanation, instruction, modelling and feedback as some of its key principles, so we are confident that the vast majority of students should be able to work independently with the support and guidance from their teacher. Students have direct communication with every one of their class teachers, including their form tutor and Head of Year.
If parents require any advice or guidance on how to support the individual needs of their child, they should contact us for further information.

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

During live lessons, a register is taken. This information is shared with each Pastoral team in school. Parents will receive communication from the school if there are concerns about engagement or attendance to live lessons.
If there are concerns about student attendance to live lessons or engagement with remote learning, parents will receive a text message from the school in the first instance. Where there are ongoing concerns, this will be followed up by a phone call/virtual meeting with the Head of Year.

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:

Assessment and Feedback are crucial parts of our remote learning provision. Every live lesson, staff will use a range of tools to check understanding and to provide live feedback to all students. These include questioning, quizzes, polls and use of the chat function.
Feedback will also be provided to students on significant pieces of learning. This will include using the ‘assignments’ function to set work for marking. This may be marked using our individual ‘2 stars and a wish’ or through whole class feedback.
Students also have the option to send their work to their teacher through the CHAT function for individual feedback and monitoring.

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:

The Access and Achievement Team focus on connection, learning and progress during school closure or student self-isolation. This includes very specific student and family support. A number of support strategies are in place:

Where possible, Teaching Assistants will make appropriate adjustments to lesson material or offer support during a live lesson setting.
Specific additional communication and support to student and family through direct contact (phone call)
Deliver work packs to students with specific adjustments
Support for EAL families – e.g. translation services
Additional technology offered where appropriate
Training provided to all students on use of MS Teams in September with TA support.
Access to key services, e,g. Educational Psychologist, Thinc and counselling remain in place
Continue to hold online multiagency EHCP/SEN review meetings with par-ents and professionals to look at personalising student/family support

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school.

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

Where a student is not in school because they are self-isolating, they will have access to their full timetable on MS Teams.
Each of their lessons, each day, will be saved in ‘Class Materials’ in each of their Class Teams. They should follow the lesson independently.
They have access to CHAT which they can use to ask their class teachers any questions that they may have. If they wish to send their work in for feedback, they can send it via CHAT to their Class Teacher.
They will be set Assignments as normal through the ‘Assignments’ feature on Teams.

CHS Remote Learning Policy

Updated: 19/01/2021 509 KB

As you are aware the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced the closure of school to all students apart from those who are children of key workers or those who are considered vulnerable.

For our students this means:

Spring 1 half term:
1.   School is closed to all students except children of Critical key workers
2.   All other students form all other year groups students should remain at home and access their learning through our MS Teams Remote learning platform where students will access a mixture of live lessons and independent study. Full details of this will be summarised below

Critical Key Worker group
If you believe your child falls into the vulnerable or keyworker categories and would like to take up the ‘in school’ provision then please can you email the school admin email address admin@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk to notify us. We will then make appropriate arrangements to support your child.

Year 11 Exams

You will be aware that during the Prime Minister’s address on Monday evening, it was explained that it is not possible, or fair, for all exams to go ahead as normal this summer. Today the Secretary of State for Education announced that all exam grades will be decided through teacher assessment. As a school, we will ensure that there is a robust and fair assessment process in place. We acknowledge the hard work, motivation and resilience that has been demonstrated by our Year 11 students. It will be important for them to continue on this trajectory to deliver the evidence which will support them in securing the very best grades.

The message to our students is to continue to work hard. It has been an incredibly unfair road for our Year 11 students and what we need to ensure is that they do not worry, continue to focus, dig deep, trust their teachers and engage fully in their remote learning programme. They have nothing to lose, everything to gain and we will support them through this.

What will distance learning look like for our students?

Parent information and expectations for student’s distance learning:
• If access to IT is a problem - please contact the school and let us know whether this is due to a lack of device or access to mobile data and we will try to and support you. You can call the school on 0161 882 1150 or email: admin@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk

• Each day there will an assembly at 8.45am for all students, which will be accessed through the Year Team on MS Teams. The assembly will help set students up for the day and go through key information of when their live lessons are scheduled that day and when they will be working independently with the adapted materials on Teams. These will be led by the Assistant Headteacher attached to each Year group and the Head of Year.

• On the whole, we would encourage students to follow their own timetable because this allows us to schedule live lessons effectively and is also a good way to set up the same routines that would be followed in school. We appreciate, however, that this may not be possible for all families as some students may be sharing devices. Therefore, if your child is not able to access a live lesson, the materials will also available in their Class Teams area so they can still complete the lesson themselves at a different time. In fact, this also means that any student can go back to the lessons and recap on their learning – which is good practice for all students. If students have mobile phones, live lessons can also be accessed through these. In most cases, a recording of the live lesson will be placed on the POST section of their Class Team.

• If you want to view your child’s timetable, go onto the School Gateway app, into reporting and then timetable. Please note the times on the app are slightly out - as these timings reflect the timetable before the control measures. Timings for lessons are as follows:

8:45 – Year assembly
9:00 – Lesson 1
10:00 – Lesson 2
11:00 – Lesson 3
12:30 – Lesson 4
13:30 – Lesson 5

• We are aware that sometimes with the use of IT, things can go wrong. This is the first time that the school will be broadcasting several live lessons simultaneously – so we know this may stretch our system. In additional to this students may have issues. If this is the case – then, again, students can just log onto the material files in their Class Teams from home.

• Each live lesson will last for a maximum of 50 minutes. This will allow your child to have comfort breaks and we encourage student to move around between each online session. Movement is important when working on a screen for any length of time.

• We also know this is a really difficult time for students and pacing themselves over the course of their distance learning is also important.

• My child has forgotten their password, has problems logging in or any other issues with MS Teams - please email MicrosoftHelp@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk

• For support with accessing MS Teams, you can also see the student help sheet found using the website link: https://chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk/chs-distance-learning/distance-learning-introduction-and-routine/microsoft-teams