Dear Parent/Carer,

As you are aware from our previous email, remote learning will begin on Monday 11^th January 2021, this isn’t a situation that any of us wanted to be in, but you can be assured that we have been continuing to upskill our pupils with digital technology since our return in August and have been planning for all eventualities as the global pandemic progressed.

Virtual Classroom

You are now able to view the learning set for your child on this link each Friday: https://tinyurl.com/mpsvirtualclassroom.

We will also share this on our school app so that you can easily find it each week, but please note that teachers may add to this throughout the week as learning progresses and therefore it is a ‘working’ link.

Remote learning isn’t easy, we know! Many of our staff are parents too who will also be taking on the challenge of working and home schooling their own children, so we fully recognise the strain that this situation can put onto families. However, at this time the safest place to be is at home and we all hope that it will not be too long before we can return to full time education in school.

Set Learning

One important note to highlight is that unlike the last lockdown, the learning this time will be progressive and differentiated for your child by their teacher, it is a continuation of their learning from school and therefore we will look at the engagement taking place and discuss with you how we can support you and your child.

There is an expectation that all children will continue their education and we would ask that work be returned regularly for marking.

The planned timetable shared on a weekly basis will not mean that children are expected to learn from 9am -3pm every day sat at a laptop.

With this in mind, we know that every family is different and therefore we have a couple of options on how remote learning could work for you:

Option 1 – The learning we are setting is flexible and accessible – You can access it on a smart phone without logging in (from the link above), read the learning set for your child and then you have the option to complete this with your child independently at a time that suits you and your family around your own work commitments. This option is also ideal if you do not have access to a digital device, as no login is required to view the set work and then you can complete it with paper and pen, sharing with us via email or Twitter.

Option 2 – The learning is supportive – We will have a range of supportive teaching inputs happening each school day on Microsoft Team. This may include live lessons, narrated presentation, digital escape rooms, video instructions and check-in video opportunities with each teacher providing input in a format that they are comfortable with, but all classes will have a teaching input each day and teachers will be online each day, being able to take questions from pupils and provide help. Learning supplementations will also be signposted, such as Sumdog, Joe Wicks PE and BBC Education.

We are here to help

Please remember that our staff are working incredibly hard to adapt lesson content for remote learning and that this is a learning curve for everyone. We don’t want anyone stressing about remote learning and therefore to provide further support we would like to invite our parents/carers to attend a WebEx session on Tuesday 12^th January at 11am to discuss further how remote learning will work, we will send out the join link for this early next week.

Please remember, that Microsoft Teams is for pupil use and not an appropriate platform for adults to communicate (either by chat or on video), you can always emails us at enquiries@mossend.n-lanark.sch.uk or telephone, but please do allow 3 working days for a response
(it is often quicker) as we may have staff working from home.

Wellbeing

Pupil wellbeing is incredibly important at this time and therefore throughout the week all children will have the opportunity to join ‘pupil voice’ forums, celebrate all their achievements at our Fabulous Friday Assembly and other opportunities. We will make regular phone calls to families throughout the week who are using option 1 and not having the opportunity to speak to a teacher online. Our Virtual Classroom (link above) also has a link to a Wellbeing Hub for parents/carers with information on accessing a range of services.

Your teacher looks forward to welcoming your child on Monday remotely, thank you for supporting the school in the way you have and we look forward to a more positive 2021.

Kind Regards,
Team Mossend