Dear Parent/Carer,
We are working tirelessly to provide the best curriculum we can for our students during this difficult time. A good place to start is to read the article that is on our website which you can find here: Why are we not doing live ‘Zoom’ lessons? – The Radclyffe School.
In order to access a ‘live’ provision, a student needs exclusive use of a laptop, tablet, desktop PC, Chromebook or Mac (we refer to these types of devices as a ‘good device’). At the beginning of January 49% of our students didn’t have sole use of a ‘good device’. Frequently, students are sharing a device between several family members. Sometimes there is no good device at all in the household.
The second key point to understand is there is a mistaken belief that ‘live’ lessons are better. As Ofsted points out, it is not the mode of delivery that is important, rather it is the opportunity for independent practice and quality feedback that is important. We are proud of the curriculum that we are delivering through recorded lessons, and are constantly looking for ways of improving it. We strongly believe it is the very best mode of delivery for our context at this time. What's working well in remote education - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
We are working very hard to bridge what is often referred to as ‘the digital divide’. In the past four weeks we have given out over 300 laptops to families, and just today, a further 300 laptops have arrived in school and are being prepared to go out. Less than a third of these have been provided through the government scheme, unfortunately, so far the government scheme has fallen significantly short of meeting the demand for our community. We are pleased to say that nearly all our Year 10 and Year 11 students have been offered a laptop if they don’t have exclusive use of a good device. Next week we are beginning to pilot the used of live elements as part of our provision at KS4. We will roll this out to KS3 if and when IT provision is good enough to do so.
Live Elements Pilot
We are piloting ‘integrated live elements’ with selected classes in KS4 based on high quality research from Ofsted and the Education Endowment foundation and from student feedback.
Classes will receive information from their teachers via email with instructions about how to join a ‘meeting’ on teams. Teams can be accessed via a browser or downloaded as an app. Students involved in the pilot will also be asked to give their feedback and share ideas about the provision.
After half term there will be an opportunity for you to share your views on the remote education provision available.
Students Guide to Microsoft Teams - Installing Teams on your Device at Home - YouTube
Students Guide to Microsoft Teams - Introducing your new Virtual Classroom - YouTube
Students Guide to Microsoft Teams - Attending Live Lessons in Microsoft Teams Meetings - YouTube
Remember, if you have any concerns about helping your child learn or you need any other support from the school, please let us know by contacting school:
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0161 622 3200
https://theradclyffeschool.co.uk/
There is also help available to support parents and students with accessing Frog:
https://theradclyffeschool.co.uk/homelearning/
Yours faithfully,
Mrs E. Black
Assistant Headteacher
