Villiers High School - Remote education

Remote education

How to support your child’s learning in the event of a school closure?

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

The school has adopted a “Blended Learning” approach. This means that teachers will be adapting their lessons so that if aspects of the course need to be taught online because the school is closed to students, their learning is not adversely affected.

What work can I expect my child to be doing if school closes?

If your child is in years 7, 8 or 9 (Key Stage 3):

In English, Maths and Science:

EITHER 2 x 1 hour pieces of work (automatically marked or self-assessed) per week and 1 longer piece per fortnight marked by the teacher
OR 2 x 1 hour lessons on google meet at the time indicated for that subject on your child’s timetable.

All other subjects:

EITHER 1 hour piece of work (automatically marked or self-assessed) per week and 1 longer piece per fortnight marked by the teacher
OR 2 x 1 hour lessons on google meet at the time indicated for that subject on your child’s timetable.

If your child is in years 10 or 11 (Key Stage 4):

In English, Maths and Science:

EITHER 3 x 1 hour pieces of work (automatically marked or self-assessed) per week and 1 longer piece per fortnight marked by the teacher
OR 3 x 1 hour lessons on google meet at the time indicated for that subject on your child’s timetable.

All other subjects:

EITHER 2 x 1 hour pieces of work (automatically marked or self-assessed) per week and 1 longer piece per fortnight marked by the teacher
OR 3 x 1 hour lessons on google meet at the time indicated for that subject on your child’s timetable.

If your child is in years 12 or 13 (Key Stage 5):

In the case of student absence due to Covid being diagnosed while school is still open
1) The Attendance manager (Mr Virdy) notifies teachers and Heads of Department if a student has confirmed they are off due to Covid symptoms.
2) The teacher checks the year team folder to see if the student has IT equipment at home.
2a) If so, work is set on google classroom.
2b) If not, the work is printed and sent to the administrative team who will collate it and send it home.

My child is vulnerable or requires extra support

Staff nominated from the Year/Safeguarding/EAL and SEND teams will make contact on the agreed frequency basis with students identified as requiring extra support. For further information, please contact Mr Murphy (SENDCo) or Ms Bennett (EAL Coordinator)

How will they receive the work?

Work will be set and announcements will be made on google classroom: classroom.google.com for every subject. When there is a google meet (meet.google.com) lesson, the link to the lesson will be shared in google classroom and the child will be notified in advance in their google classroom. We would recommend downloading the google classroom app (from your app store) if you have a mobile/tablet device as you can receive work and meetings notifications straight away from this.

If in KS3, your child will have received training during their Computer Science lessons about how to log in to their school email and google classroom as well as how to reply to messages, hand in homework and join a google meet. If in KS4 or 5, your child will have received this training during two assemblies in form time. However, if you or they require any instructions about how to carry something out, please visit: support.google.com/edu which will help with every potential task. If you still need to ask a question or to find a username/password, please contact our IT Service desk

If your child does not have access to an internet connected computer or device, please contact their Head of Year as soon as possible for support and printed work (including textbooks) can be sent home to you.

What about routines?

It is important that your child gets up at their usual time ready for school, has a healthy breakfast and has a comfortable, quiet place to be able to get on with their work.
Make sure they have a break mid-morning, a lunch break and finish by around 3.30pm.
Make sure they get up and walk around during their breaks and take a longer walk after their work has finished.
They should not have the television on in the background and, where possible, mobile phones (unless this is the device they are working from) should be switched off and not in the same room.

For advice on how to keep your child safe online, please click here.
If you are having difficulty establishing any of these routines, please contact your child’s Head of Year for advice and support (above).

How will school monitor the work and engagement?

Teachers will be keeping note of students who do not attend and following up regular absence with the child’s Head of Year who will contact home by email or phone call. If the quality of the work submitted does not meet expected standards regularly, the teacher will contact home by email or phone call. If you need to update your contact information, please contact reception.

Other schools are doing something different.

Yes, every school will have chosen different solutions to potential closures even within this local authority. This is because all individual schools have different students with different circumstances and run slightly differently. We have chosen the solution which we think will best suit our students and their circumstances. For example, some schools will say “Access Oak National Academy” or “Use BBC Bitesize”. While our teachers may selectively use appropriate clips and resources from these organisations to supplement the learning programme, we feel that relying solely on these will not target our students’ learning as carefully as it could.

Children with health needs who cannot attend school

Click here to view Children with health needs who cannot attend school policy