Dear Parents/Guardians,
Thank you for completing the survey on remote learning. The survey has provided us with a snapshot of how parents/guardians are feeling about remote learning, this informed our Year Head and Clann Leader meetings and also helps to inform teachers. We are also able to compare the feedback from parents/guardians, students and teachers. You will find the results of the survey below and some responses to the answers.
We plan to improve parents surveys more in future by opening them for a little longer and we noticed you had to complete the form twice if you have siblings in the school, we will try to change it to one form.
The remote learning timetables for each year group can be found on the news section of the website News | Bremore Educate Together Secondary School (bremoreetss.ie) or by scrolling down on the news section of the iClass App.
The majority of parents/guardians felt that the work load is just right. This is a similar result to the student survey where 67% said it was just right and 33% said too much, no student said too little.
The Clann Leaders will be in contact with the parents/guardians and students who feel the work load is too much. This can be for a variety of reasons, the student is extremely conscientious and is putting themselves under a lot of pressure or it may be down to a learning difficulty. We will discuss this individually with the parents/guardians and students.
The Year Heads will be in contact with the parents/guardians and students who feel the work load is too little. This can be for a variety of reasons. If it is felt from the discussion that the students need extension work it will be provided by the teachers. If the student has not submitted the required assignments or if the student has not worked to the best of their ability the Year heads will discuss this with the parents and student concerned.
As part of our wellbeing program all students, their families and teachers have been invited to participate in the Walk Around Ireland Challenge. There is a prize for the Winning Clann and results are uploaded to the App every week.
Our Virtual Walk around Ireland | Bremore Educate Together Secondary School (bremoreetss.ie)
Clann O' Mhurchu are in the lead so far!
Keep walking and don't forget to upload your km to your Clann Team.
It is very important to us that we try to provide for every type of learner in our school. We do this by providing a range of platforms where students an access lessons and work. From our survey having a number of ways to deliver learning suits the majority of parents/guardians and students. It is also very obvious from the survey that there is not a one size fits all approach, this is why we have a number of approaches.
We don’t normally talk to students for hours at a time and students do not sit in front of a screen for hours at a time – that’s not how we teach in 2021 in Bremore ETSS
However, some parents/guardians may have been taught like this and do not realise pedagogy in many schools has changed in the intervening years, to be more inclusive and participatory.
We believe that active learning is much better than passive, and we always aim to implement an interactive style. Trying to teach via a video link all day supports a more didactic approach to education that is not in line with our vision for teaching and learning. We believe that providing a range of ways for students to learn is the best way to proceed.
Pre-record lessons
These can be very effective we know from our efforts since we started supporting remote learning that the vast majority of our students appreciate the recorded lessons. The students can rewind videos to watch several times or use them to recap on areas they are not sure about, they can also ask the teacher questions about the recorded part of the lesson on the teams platform.
Our teachers are constantly developing their skills to make and upload better videos for the Teams platform: a few had only limited experience before Covid19 and have worked hard to improve their skills. This has produced real results and will benefit our teaching forever. Our teachers regularly attend professional development training in ICT outside of school time in order to improve their skills and keep updated.
Assignments
All students will receive assignments on teams as either pre recorded class or as a live lesson.
Engagement of all
Some students are naturally not as willing to engage in live lessons due to shyness or embarrassment. We need to try to be fair to all and a live video lesson environment does not provide a level playing field. Some students may miss live lessons as they have other responsibilities during the lock down such as minding siblings or members of the family who are ill. A mix of elements such as recorded lessons, assignments and live lessons will allow for this scenario.
Safety
As you may have seen in the media. hacking into student and teacher sessions is also possible during live video conferencing using some platforms. And staff or students may witness unsuitable activity or dress, causing upset or distress and complaints. These are concerns that have to be taken seriously. We have kept up to date with safety procedures however, this is not always fool proof.
Students must follow school rules at all times. The sharing of links to live classes or allowing other people into the lesson is not allowed and will be treated very seriously by the school. We are aware that this has happened on one occasion. All students must log into the teams account to be allowed into the meeting, users with the name guest will not be allowed into the meeting/lesson.
It is not healthy to sit in front of a screen for 6+ hours a day without breaks especially during a pandemic.
Being prepared and focused is key. All students should have a plan. Students should aim for 4 to 5 hours max on assignments and classes per day. Students should devote this time to school work and be free from other distractions if possible. Students should ensure that following the days work they have uploaded all work to the correct place and submitted all work for feedback (by pressing the submit button on assignments)
They should also spend at least another hour focusing on wellbeing, for example the walk around Ireland challenge, the Art Challenges, mindfulness etc. We also have SPHE lessons uploaded every week to support wellbeing.
Students may also choose to study following classes, reading and re-caping, going over the feedback from the teachers and correcting mistakes. Students could also work on the presentation and quality of work.
Some students seem to be only engaging in work for 1-2 hours. This may be a decision on the families part and the school will support this once we have been informed of such a decision. However, there is enough work provided for minimum 4 hours, if your child is not working for 4 hours it may be that they are rushing their work and not producing work of a high quality. It may be that students are not challenging themselves. It may be that they are not completing all the work set. We are using a traffic light system for differentiation, those who are able should choose the more challenging exercises. Individual subject teachers have informed the children what they are capable of.
The social interaction part of school, such a vital ingredient, cannot be replaced by video or online. The weekly tutorial provides this opportunity for students to see the class and to speak to their tutor. Many have found tutorial very beneficial.
Some parents have asked can we do a social call for students where students would be free to talk to each other like at lunch time. It is difficult to manage large numbers of students when they are all live on video but not in the same room as each other. The lack of available ways for the teacher to control and manage inappropriate behaviour, other than shutting down, is a big concern and is fraught with difficulty, and one with potentially far-reaching impact when normality returns. However, students could organise to meet up themselves on social media platforms if they wanted.
All students have the contact details for all staff in the school. To make it easier for parents a list of contact emails is available on the class app so that everyone has access to their child's tutors email.
As usual it is not always necessary for staff to contact parents, staff will try to contact you if they feel there is a need. If you wish to contact us please feel free to do so. We log the calls we make in the school and I can see from the log that a large number of families have been contacted for various reasons by different members of staff.
This is where we put all the school news so it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with the app. If you cannot access the app you will find most posts up on the website under News.
This is a very positive result as 15% of students indicated that parents had a role in motivating them to do school work. Even more positive were the large numbers of students who said they motivated themselves.
Every child is different and we all need support from time to time. It is very positive to see the number of students who seek support from parents. Remember if they need support from us they can ask in Teams or by sending their teacher an email.
The iClass App and School Website is the place where we put up notes and notices for the school. You can download the iPad app from the App Store on your phone or you can check out the news section of our website.
We will be providing training for parents and we hope to come up with a solution that will suit everyone. More details will follow on the app when we are ready to roll it out.
