WoW – components                       CPD Focus – Reading and Vocabulary

This Week:

• SEND Top Tip this week
• Homework club starts this week for all year groups
• Thursday and Friday – virtual welcome with Subject Mentors and Trainee Teachers (see invitation for meeting link)
• Reminders: weekly homework set on Classcharts (see tutorial from DMC if needed) and weekly lesson resources saved into appropriate class team each week so that absentees can access (see RLO if any problems).

Next Week: Trainees (Eng, His, PE) – due to start with us on 21^st September.  Virtual welcome with subject mentors (JGA, LEA, JMI) on 17^th or 18^th September – see email invitations.

 

Reflect…

 

Link to this term’s CPD focus – Reading for Understanding

 

Last week, JHA circulated our ‘Blended Learning Approach’ document moving forward.  Please take time this week to reflect upon this and refine this approach so that it works for you, in the event of remote provision being needed.

 

The following information and guidance comes from Lancashire

 

‘Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, it is expected schools will have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. Schools are expected to have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision by the end of September. This planning will be particularly important to support a scenario in which the logistical challenges of remote provision are greatest, for example, where large numbers of pupils are required to remain at home.’

 

‘The government guidance expectations around contingency planning states that when teaching remotely, schools should:

• set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects
• teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject
• provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos
• gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work
• enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding
• plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers.’

 

Our Blended Learning Approach satisfies these expectations.

 

Oak National Academy

From the start of the autumn term, Oak National Academy are making available video lessons covering the entire national curriculum, available to any school for free. These are being developed in partnership with a wide group of teachers and school leaders to develop lessons in the popular topics. The resources will be as flexible as possible, allowing schools to reorder topics and lessons, to match their own plans and curriculum.  Please make use of these and map them into your own planning.

 

SEND

Oak National Academy also hosts specialist content for pupils with SEND. This covers communication and language, numeracy, creative arts, independent living, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech and language therapy. Their provision for next academic year will include an expanded range of content for the specialist sector.

The Remote Learning Policy remains unchanged from July.  Please provide tweaks or amendments to RLO asap if needed.

The Teaching and Learning Policy has been updated and now contains a Section Two Pandemic section.  Please read and use the one page summary to help you to refine your approach.

TOP TIPS

 

Thanks to JMA for SEND top tips below (although these top tips are actually just good teaching and will benefit everyone).

3 Top Takeaways: 1. Cue in using names of students 2. Use ‘first, next and finally’ when giving instructions 3. Demonstrate and model where possible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CPD CASCADE

 

Reminder – please see the updates from last week’s Teaching and Learning Digest

 

Blended Learning at its best: Thanks to MCS and SMI for sharing this

 

MCS had to work from home this week and he saw this as an ‘opportunity’ and fed back in an email:

 

‘It's been a really great opportunity to try out using video calling in Teams to connect with my classes live from home. This was brilliantly suppported by Sophie, who has covered my lessons today and yesterday. She video called me through Teams and ran her laptop through the Whiteboard via a spare HDMI lead. I was able to explain the task, link it to last lesson and answer any questions live! I could see the class and they could see me on the front screen live from home! …This worked really well with a year 8 group today. Coupled with using Assignments to give live written feedback on their work during the lesson. It was really cool to then do another short video call at the end to say how well they'd done and mention the students who had submitted good work!   It has all been very futuristic and for a technology nerd like me, really exciting! I'm sure Sophie will be able to give you an honest account of how it was from the other end but, for me, it was great to connect with my classes live from home and I think the kids enjoyed it. They were quite entertained anyway, by all accounts. I know it's not for everyone, but it was really fun trying it out and I think it went pretty well so just wanted to let you know from a remote leaning perspective. Thanks again to Sophie for supporting this!’

Lancashire CPD Sessions – Virtual

Please let RLO know if you wish to attend any of these sessions.  Some staff already are.

NQT CPD and Top Tips