Grange Academy

Dear Parents and Carers,

Following the First Minister’s statement, it is clear there will be an extended period of remote learning during which teachers will provide online support and resources for children to continue their learning while staying safe at home.

Across our school community, parents, carers and young people will have experienced a range of responses to this news: from relief to resignation and, perhaps, disappointment.  Nonetheless, Grange spirits remain high. Our School Bulletin is bursting with examples of effective partnership between our young people, yourselves – their parents and carers – and our hardworking teaching and support staff.

We know these circumstances are challenging for everyone, and we’d like to share with you some advice about learning from home drawn from our recent experience, from listening to you and from educational research

Please remember that you’re not expected to be your child’s teacher. You’re already doing a far more important job! We are grateful that you are supporting your child to do what their teacher asks.

We hope that the advice and links below are helpful.

Kind regards,

Audrey Brotherston
Depute Head Teacher

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL LEARNING AT HOME

Plan and use a schedule
We recommend young people follow their school timetable as far as possible (with flexibility for family circumstances such as when devices are being shared). Teachers set work at the start of the day, and are generally available to support your child online during class time. By establishing a daily routine, we emphasise that learning remains a priority. Parents and carers can help by setting clear expectations for when daily schoolwork is to be completed and leisure activities are allowed. The Education Endowment Foundation’s video Supporting Daily Routines suggests including regular times for the daily activities which support good learning such as bedtime, getting up, screen breaks and exercise, as well as time to talk. The EEF has also published a Supporting Home Routines checklist which may be helpful for younger children.

Ensure you and your child can access Satchel One (Show My Homework) to keep track of daily classwork, deadlines and any important assignments. Check that your child can log into Glow. If there is a problem, contact the school via our School App Information Tab (download School App for Parents).

Set up and organise a work space
Give your child a specific place to work that is as comfortable and free of distraction as possible. Check they have the materials they need for remote learning such as a laptop or tablet, pens, paper, and any additional supports such as spectacles or overlays. If sourcing any of these is an issue for you, let the school know. You can contact your child’s Guidance Teacher via the School App. If you have a busy house, headphones can be useful to minimise external noise.

Encourage and support learning
To engage successfully with learning at home, all children will need some input from a parent or carer. How much will depend on their age, ability and temperament. You know your child best. They may need prompting to begin work; they may benefit from a short “brain break” to refresh before resuming work, or they may need encouragement to “stick with it” and complete a task. If you can, offer your child support and guidance, answer questions, help explain instructions and – if they want you to – review their final work. If you’re working from home, or have other caring duties or demands, do what is manageable for you. Resist the urge to provide correct answers. Modelling problem-solving skills will help your child more, so ask, “What could you do to work that out?” Encourage your child to work in the way they learn best and to keep in touch with their teacher by submitting work and asking questions. If you can, highlight when your child is working on independent learning skills such as planning ahead, organising their work, meeting deadlines, asking a question or responding to feedback from their teacher. Praise them for developing skills which will help them in their learning, life and work. If this is an uphill battle, let us know, and we’ll be glad to help.

Be forgiving
Even young people who enjoy school and are normally on top of their coursework may be struggling to manage without the face-to-face support of teachers and the daily routine of school attendance. Don’t be too alarmed if your child sometimes appears less motivated than usual. Whilst being clear with your child that not engaging with school for the next month isn’t an option, be forgiving of your child and yourself.

You might try

• allowing reasonable choices about how they will carry out their learning
• pointing out strengths (e.g. managing the technological aspects of remote learning) and recognising efforts
• involving your child in discussion about how they may overcome the problem
• rewarding them when you see that they are taking action

Online Resources

There is further advice at https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/helping-your-teens-learning-home

The National Parents Forum of Scotland has produced a variety of resources including Learning at home in lockdown.

Our own Mr Smith on Parentclub.scot advises being prepared, encouraging young people to be present and active, chunking the tasks, rewards, reviewing progress and keeping in touch with the school.

For parents and carers helping teens with their wellbeing https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/supporting-older-children-and-teens-during-coronavirus has good resources.

Young Scot has good wellbeing self-help resources for young people https://young.scot/campaigns/national/coronavirus

We use mindfulness within our PSE curriculum to promote wellbeing for young people. Here is a good practice to manage unhelpful thinking and promote good sleep Beditation. Headspace’s meditations on YouTube and their free app are also helpful Mindspace Mini Meditation.

Wednesday 20^th January 2021

Dear Parent / Carer,

We are now half way through our second week of home learning and I hope by this stage many of the earlier technical problems have been addressed allowing your son/daughter to engage with each of their classes.

Following the First Minister’s statement yesterday afternoon extending the period of school closure for most pupils until at least the middle of February, it is important that we continue to try to improve and develop our learning and teaching experience at home.

We have received valuable feedback from both young people and parents regarding their experience at home trying to manage the sometimes competing demands of learning and day-to-day life at home.  The general consensus is that the principle of trying to follow the timetable of classes each day seems to be a good idea in the main however there is a need for greater flexibility here recognising that some pupils will not be able to get to/submit work on the day it is issued as they may only get access to a device/support when their parent or carer finishes their work for the day.  Some families may also choose to prioritise certain tasks to work through given their own home environment.

To address these issues, instead of issuing a task at the exact time of the class ‘arriving’, work will now be issued at the start of the day, however the teacher will endeavour to be available online at the actual time of the class for some form of ‘live’ input, feedback to pupils or further teaching input etc.

Staff have also been asked to only issue work for the class on the day of the actual class, although this will not be issued out with the school day.  There is nothing more annoying or stressful than school/work notifications ‘pinging’ from your phone in the evening!

Hopefully these small changes will give greater flexibility in planning the school day in the context of family life and alleviate some of the pressures some young people are experiencing.

This is indeed a very challenging time for everyone and I hope you are bearing up.  Home learning will never be equal to the face-to-face experience in school but our staff here at Grange Academy are working hard in many creative and varied ways to make it as effective and enjoyable as possible.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

Robert Johnston
Head Teacher