Improving Remote Education - A Thread.

Over the last couple of weeks, the discussion has been about what primary schools are offering to their communities and how we can improve on it.

I'm relistening to the sessions, so points may not be in order as I add them... 1/

1. Non-teaching SLT are not experts on remote learning, what can they base any judgement on?

2. Facilitating staff discussion and sharing is likely to be far more effective to develop practice within your school. /2

3. Increasing access to devices/internet is a step towards making offers more equitable, but it is only part of the process.

4. Entertainment and engagement are different things.

5. Pre-recording should not be perfection, perfection wastes time and energy.

6. It is scary being beamed into someone's home, but having your home on show is also stressful. (perhaps something for Ofsted to consider, we are guests in other people's homes)

7. Giving over staff meetings to staff discussion and sharing is probably a better use of the time than other stuff you have planned.

8. Feedback doesn't have to be written. Mote is a chrome extension that allows voice recordings to be added. Children hear their teacher's voice, which is massive for wellbeing.

9. Loom is a useful tool for more visual feedback where appropriate.

10. Give staff the option to invite SLT to sessions, not to observe but to participate.

11. Learning clinics for parents help them to understand what is going on. Education can be mystifying if you haven't been in it for a while.

12. How to video guides to support parents are useful too.

13. Make sure that parents have access to resources such as pens, paper etc. Consider giving out the exercise books you haven't used this year.

14. Encourage parents to feedback to you through appropriate channels. (You will have to manage expectations, but you need their view).

15. Carefully designed google forms are good for this.

16. Try and find out how many actually have access to proper devices and not just phones.

17. Sharing staff discoveries - what tech, tips and ideas have they used that work?

18. Don't reinvent the wheel - if Oak do your lesson with full resources - don't record a new one just introduce it.

19. Use expertise. If there is someone who can bang out 10 music videos in the time it takes you to do 1 - get them to do yours, offer them something you are good at in return.

20. Share your lessons with others. (this is don't reinvent the wheel again, but this is so important).

21. Have an overview of what you are teaching, and record who is accessing it and completing work. This will help in the future. It doesn't have to be complicated.

22. Keep it simple. Effective teaching is better than entertaining teaching.

23. My cat is a pain in the arse, everyone's cat is, if they crash the session, go with it. I'm typing this because he wants feeding and is interrupting the flow... I'll be back

Ended up cooking dinner as well...Lamb tagine will be ready in 2 hours.

24. Think about the other stuff that kids do. It doesn't all have to be on screen.

25. Some children haven't seen their friends for over a month. Consider building in a social session of some description - a virtual playtime if you like.

26. A priority should be calm parents. Calm parents = calm kids = greater access and engagement

27. Enthusiasm for screen learning will wane over time - mix it up. Consider a week of non-screen learning activities with short introductions.

28. Use external agencies that you may normally use - eg sports coaches and local artists - they can adapt to online learning too

29. Set deadlines for submission. If it isn't in by 4pm for example, it isn't getting feedback.

30. Don't forget to make sure staff get PPA (Friday afternoons away from the screen and live access with no feedback requirements could work well). Communicate this to parents.