CV-19 Contingency

Information For Parents

Remote Education Programme Update (April 2020)

The feedback from parents and staff on our first week of remote education was extremely useful. What it has highlighted is that everyone’s experience currently is different and unique to their situation. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to remote education for our students. This is completely to be expected and is in line with our ethos and approach when at school; every student requires a bespoke approach and support in line with their needs. We have worked hard to take this into consideration in adapting our approach for the summer term.

Specific details are below. To summarise some of the adaptations:

Increased use of video explanations of work
Increased use of video calls, particularly for form time, 1:1 extra help and 1:1 therapies
Google Hangouts to be used for video calls: students will receive an email invitation in their school emails, and can join directly by clicking the link beside the ‘Joining Info’
Suggested daily timetable for students to follow
Extension activities available

We will continue to make our website a ‘one stop shop’ for parents during this time.

We cannot reiterate enough that our focus, at this difficult time, is striking a healthy balance between providing academic challenge and supporting the wellbeing of all Abingdon House families. We ask that parents, wherever possible, turn to us for support as soon as possible with any academic or pastoral needs.

Post Easter Remote Education Programme

1. Overview

Additional extension tasks will be made available by classroom teachers. These are optional.
All English and Maths tasks will be given a 48 hour window for completion. All other tasks will be given a 7 day window, including therapy tasks. All tasks, with the exception of Maths and English, will be set on a Monday. Maths and English tasks will be set daily at 9am.
For those struggling with the workload, we strongly recommend the focus be on English, Maths and Individual/Paired Therapies

2. Proposed Timetable

JUNIOR SCHOOL

(Olympus, Everest, Logan and Kosciuszko)

In the Junior School, your child will receive daily lessons, posted each day at 9am, for Maths and English. These subjects will be assigned by your child's Maths/English teacher and will remain live for 48 hours.

In addition to this, your child will receive a single session a week of: Science, IT, Geography, Social Skills and life skill. These subjects will be posted on a Monday morning at 9am and will remain 'live' until the end of the week. Below is a suggested timetable so your child can spread their workload across the whole week.

Finally, the 'JS Parent Resource' folder will be renamed as 'JS Enrichment activities'. The activities set here will be optional and will include: the Arts, Sports and Wellbeing activities. It will also be a space for additional projects which your child can access in addition to our curriculum. Whilst the Enrichment activities are optional, we recommend taking part in these to help support your mental health and wellbeing whilst at home.

SENIOR SCHOOL

(Cloud Ripper, Etna, Kilimanjaro, Snowden, Fuji)

In the Senior School, we recommend focusing on the following subjects on each day. This will help to balance the workload whilst working remotely, but also ensure that students maintain a routine as closely akin to school as possible.

New English and Maths tasks will be set on a daily basis. All other tasks will be set on Monday. Whilst for IT, Science and ASDAN, there may be one task set, it is expected that this task may take longer to complete, therefore requiring it to be worked on over multiple days. For Geography, Arts Award, Life and Social Skills, there will be one task set on a Monday. We recommend completing them on the designated days below, although this is optional based on individual circumstances.

Finally, the 'SS Parent Resource' folder will be renamed as 'SS Enrichment activities'. The activities set here will be optional and will include: the Arts, Sports and Wellbeing activities. It will also be a space for additional projects which your child can access in addition to our curriculum. Whilst the Enrichment activities are optional, we recommend taking part in these to help support your mental health and wellbeing whilst at home.

3. Virtual Form Time Daily

Each day, form tutors will hold a ‘virtual form time session’. This will be held on Google Hangouts, and students will join via the link that will be sent to their school email. Parents will be asked to accept the Hangout for their child, but then do not need to continue to supervise for the duration. Parents will be informed by the Form Tutor as to what time the form time session will be taking place. If the form time then changes, parents will be notified by the Form Tutor. Otherwise, parents should assume the time is consistent across the week. The form time check in will be considered to be compulsory for all students partaking in remote learning.

4. Therapy Sessions

Therapists will contact parents next week for those students who will receive direct therapy for the Summer Term after the case conferences that we are holding on Monday during Inset. Teletherapy Google Hangout sessions will have to be accepted by parents at the start of each session. These sessions should be a minimum of 15 minutes and length is dependent on the type of intervention. These therapy sessions will be scheduled according to the therapist availability/ working days.

Whole class core therapy provision (Life Skills/Social Skills) will be uploaded to Google Classroom for all students on Monday 27th April 2020. This will include a video explanation of tasks. Pupils will have a week to complete therapy tasks unless it is a long-term project or program.

If parents require any further support, they should contact the therapist who is allocated to their child via email.

More information on how our teletherapy will operate can be found here

5. Requesting Academic Support (video chat)

On a daily basis, class teachers will be available to provide 10 minute 1-1 hangout sessions to explain work or check in with individual students. Parents and students requiring these 1-1 hangout sessions should contact the class teacher (via email) individually. The class teacher will then designate a time slot based on their availability.

6. Key Staff Contacts

Key contacts for parents remain on the website. In general, questions regarding specific lessons and work should be directed to the member of staff for that lesson. Form tutors should be contacted regarding general questions and concerns. Safeguarding concerns should be directed immediately to our Designated Safeguarding Leads (Matt Archer and Jenny Fromer). Mental Health and Wellbeing concerns should be directed to Nadia Carella.

7. Weekly Parent Check In

Form tutors will be completing a weekly welfare check in with each family in the class. Form Tutors will be checking in with parents to clarify their preferred method of contact. Form Tutors will include the Head of School and therapists in emails (where relevant) to ensure a collaborative approach.

If our tracking system indicates that students are showing minimal or no engagement with work over the course of the week, parents will be contacted by either Mr Archer or Mr Banfield on the following Monday, in line with the school’s safeguarding procedures. The school will continue to monitor engagement with work and enter into constructive dialogues with families to ensure they feel as supported throughout this time.

8. Annual Reviews

Despite the current situation we are still required to hold annual reviews as scheduled. For the foreseeable future, this means that they will either be paper reviews or meetings will take place remotely over telephone/conference call using Google Hangouts.

As previously, Form Tutors will be in attendance at meetings and will give feedback on progress from individual subject teachers. Therapists will also add their contributions to the paperwork in the usual way, which will be distributed to the invitees two weeks ahead of the meeting. At this point Local Authorities will also be invited to attend.

The paperwork will form the basis of the agenda and will be amended to reflect the discussion in the meeting before its final submission to the local authority two weeks later.

Your SENCO will be in touch beforehand to discuss the above, to arrange the call/Google Hangout set up and to ensure access. If you have any questions around this process, please direct these to them, or to Susannah Harris.

Remote Learning and IT helpline

For the first 7 days, between the hours of 9.00 am and 3.30 pm. we will be running a helpline for any remote learning questions. This is a personal line so please DO NOT use it outside of the given hours.

For any assistance please call 07584660914

Student Resources

Students can access resources in the following ways

All academic work will be set through the relevant Google Classroom (please see resources and links below)
Pastoral and wellbeing contact can be made by email and Google Hangouts
Therapy precision will be through Google Classroom and Google Hangouts (Due to the flexible and ongoing nature of therapy it is hard to specify generic approaches)
Physical Education can be accessed by the Senior and Junior School Google Classroom

Useful Resources

Here are some links you may find useful for extending your child's learning.

Clicking underlined sections will take you directly to the website.

Google Classroom should be your first stop for all academic lessons

English
- Lexia - Sets literacy work automatically based on your child's previous work
- Epic - Online digital library with thousands of books
- Phonics Play - Phonics website that is offering free access during school closures
- Typing Club - Touch typing website with hundreds of interactive lessons
Maths
- Mathspace - Online maths resources with amazing student support options KS2-KS4
- Prodigy Maths - Great for re-enforcing maths fundamentals. It has a fun RPG element.
- Maths-aids - Printable maths resources
Computing
- Code.org - Login in with Google. Loads of free computing tasks
- Scratch - Classic block-based learning platform used in nearly every school
Wellbeing
- Young Minds - Talking to your child about Corona Virus
- Mind.org - Corona Virus and your wellbeing
- asfp - Taking care of your help in times of uncertainty
- London Safeguarding Children Partnership - If you have any concerns about the safety or wellbeing of your child at any time, but particularly over the school holidays, this link provides a phone number and secure email of the safeguarding contact for every Greater London borough.

Getting Started With Remote Learning

Below are some videos Mr Reeves has made to help parents and students engage with Google Classroom. For videos on how to use all of the programs we are asking your child to use please follow this link to his YouTube channel. Please like and subscribe for updates and more how-to videos and feel free to share the link with other parents and teachers.

Google Classroom for Parents 1

Google Classroom for Parents 2

Message to Outside Professionals

We are following government advice in order to keep our community safe and as such we are unable to offer visits or tours of the School at the present time. Please email the Admissions Dept in order to keep up to date with regards to future tours and visits.

Key Staff Contacts For Parents

For questions and clarity around your child’s Remote Education Programme, your first port of contact will generally be the subject teacher/therapist or the form tutor.

For other questions or concerns, we have named the following staff as the point person to try to make things as streamlined as possible for everyone. These staff will deal with your query directly, or pass it on internally to the best person to help.

SENCo / EHCP / Annual Review:

Your child’s SENCo or Susannah Harris susannah.harris@abingdonhouseschool.co.uk

Safeguarding Concerns:

Matthew Archer matthew.archer@abingdonhouseschool.co.uk

Jenny Fromer jenny.fromer@abingdonhouseschool.co.uk

(out of school contacts for your local safeguarding partnerships can be found above in the wellbeing section)

Behavioural Support or Wellbeing and Mental Health:

Nadia Carella nadia.carella@abingdonhouseschool.co.uk

Newsletter:

Claire Essien claire.essien@abingdonhouseschool.co.uk

IT Problems:

Peter Reeves peter.reeves@abingdonhouseschool.co.uk