Remote Learning

During the current lockdown, St. Piran’s will be continuing to provide a ‘virtual’ education until the school reopens. We are committed to ensuring the very best outcomes for children and we are concerned that a period of isolation may be detrimental to their wellbeing and educational progress. We wish to work with you to support your child in accessing their lessons and schoolwork from home.

We have put in place a scheme for the loan of digital devices and a package of online tools for the delivery of this remote education using Microsoft Teams and Office365, as well as several additional online learning platforms, such as Purple Mash, Education City and Linguascope, to name but a few.

On this page you can view all the information your child needs to get online and access their lessons. There are also videos, help guides and links for you to access all the resources.

We adapted well to home learning during the first lockdown!

How will remote teaching work?

Teaching will take place through a mixture of live (mainly core subjects – English, maths and science) and recorded lessons, as well as set tasks, assignments and projects. Teachers will be delivering lessons from their classrooms or from home through Microsoft Teams video. These will be accessible from home, via the Microsoft Teams app. This is installed on their school computer if you have a loan device, or on a home device you will need to download the Teams App at teams.microsoft.com. Your child will then be able to go to their calendar or Team and join their lessons.

These lessons are more than just a one-way stream but a collaborative video call and so they will be able to participate fully as though they were at school.

We will also continue the mentoring of all children through form time video calls each morning and afternoon to chat through your child’s learning and support them.

Some of your children will have a timetable for the week’s taught sessions that will allow you to plan with your children what lessons they need to join and launch the Teams video call. Other children will be able to access their calendar within their Form Teams Files and navigate their day with more independence.

What if I have children in different year groups?

All ‘live’ lessons will be recorded and are then accessible to be re-watched, shortly after they have been delivered. This will support those families who have children in multiple year groups, who may need to rotate access to a home device. We suggest that, if devices are shared, children alternate between live attendance of sessions and watching catch-up video during gaps in the day.

What can my child work on independently?

In addition to the direct teaching through Microsoft Teams, teachers will be assigning a range of activities that children can complete in addition to the timetabled sessions. Where alternative apps have been suggested, teachers will have added these as a tab to the children’s relevant Team so that the children can have quick and easy access. In order to simplify this further, we would ask that you save the children’s passwords on your devices, so they do not have to repeatedly log in.

To see the work that is assigned to your child and when it is due, please choose the ‘Assignments’ icon in Microsoft Teams where your child can find the assignment information and submit their work when it is done.

What if I am struggling to access the online resources or I am stuck with my work?

We would advise children to contact the relevant teacher directly through the private chat area or ask that parents email them directly if further support or clarity is needed.

Some useful links to help you can be found below:

For parents: Guidance for parents and guardians

For pupils: Remote learning with-office 365 for students

Many parents have been interested in how the children can hand in their work via Teams. Please watch the video here for support on this:

You can also access some YouTube video support here from a teacher/influencer using Teams with five children: View here

Please also keep an eye on the child’s IT Team, where Mrs Mackenzie will continue to upload support videos.

We have also put together a page of FAQs for using Microsoft Teams which you might find useful.

What devices can I use to access the home learning from?

To find out more about using a device provided by school, please get in touch with homelearning@stpirans.co.uk. We have a limited number of devices we are able to lend to pupils who do not have a suitable one at home.

If you have devices at home then you can use Office 365 Microsoft Teams on a Windows PC, an Apple device and Android devices. Children will be able to join calls from laptops, tablets or smartphones, through the app. However, we would suggest that the device that your child uses has a screen that is large enough for them to watch easily the teacher's presentation or electronic whiteboard notes.

Staying healthy!

The wellbeing of the children, both mentally and physically, is particularly important at this time. Here are some key suggestions to keep us all functioning at our best and looking out for ourselves.

EH4MH 10-a-day poster

What are the guidelines for my child’s use of the school’s online resources?

There are several key guidelines that we will be following, in order to ensure positive online behaviours on the school digital platforms.

Children will be expected to behave in a polite and courteous manner with their peers and teachers, while online.

Staff will be available at set times within the school day for online support, outside of scheduled lessons. There will, however, be periods of the day when teachers will go offline and will not be accessible by Teams message, such as lunchtimes, outside of normal educational hours and in the evenings.

We recommend that children have adequate time away from devices and that they have enough opportunity for physical activity.

Please set up a safe and quiet working environment where children can focus during a school day. Set clear expectations for the sensible use of the device and to ensure that it does not get damaged.

At school, the children have regular e-safety lessons. For the younger children, we discuss SIDs Top Tips and, for the older children, we discuss the SMART Rules. Please refer to these with your children regularly.

Follow our Remote Learning Acceptable Use Policy Rules and Guidelines (accessible through your child’s IT Team).

Visit https://www.childnet.com/
or https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8...

Keeping in touch

It is important that we keep in touch with you and your children during this period of school closure.

If your child is not online and we do not hear from you then we will be in touch to make sure that you are all OK.

We would like to assure you that we recognise that there is no perfect solution to remote teaching and learning. We are keen to work with you to provide the best support that we can and will aim to support you to the greatest extent that we can in continuing your child’s education at home.

We hope that this package of support will enable your child to continue their education during this unprecedented time.