21 January 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

Remote Learning Update – Years 7, 8 & 9

I wish to provide a brief update on our remote learning plans for Key Stage 3 students for the rest
of this half term.

From Monday 25 January 2021

There has been a good deal of reporting in the press about how well students are engaging with
learning in the latest lockdown, and what is the best way for teachers to support their students’
learning whilst they work at home.

Our experience, having trialled a variety of approaches, is that the most effective and efficient
way is to adopt a blended learning approach. The teaching staff will therefore continue to provide
lessons in a number of different formats. From Monday 25 January, this will include some lessons
with “live” elements, where the teaching staff will be online for part of a lesson.

It must be stressed, however, that this is not an expectation for every timetabled lesson. The
evidence is quite clear that a variety of approaches is best for learning and critically it is important
that your son/ward has time for independent learning, as he would do if he were in the classroom.
We ask you to continue to support home learning as well as you can by providing a place for your
son/ward to do their work as well as ensuring that they are ready for learning and online at the
normal lesson time. Please remember that it is compulsory for all students to engage in remote
learning and all students will be monitored by teaching staff.

Student guidance for remote learning can be found here. Students may also watch a short video
showing how they can attend and be active learners within live lessons on Microsoft Teams on
the link here.

In summary, students will need to:

• Register in the morning between 08:30 and 08:40 on their form group channel on
Microsoft Teams.
• Register with their subject teacher at the beginning of each lesson on the relevant subject
Teams channel.
• Engage with the content in each lesson and complete the work set by the teachers, which
will include Progress and Preparation Activities (PPA - homework) for certain lessons in
the week.
• Upload all completed evidence of work to Class NoteBook. Every three pieces of evidence
equates to one House Point. This evidence of work is vitally important as it allows subject
teacher to assess progress.

Continued on next page…

Reading for Pleasure

As a reminder, KS3 students can borrow eBooks from our exciting eBook library catalogue which
can be found here: E-Platform. The evidence shows that a high level of literacy and regular
reading, particularly of fiction, are fundamental to academic success across all subjects. The
normal student school password is used to access this site.

I wish you well and thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Euan Ferguson
Headteacher