Writing
Whole school Remote Learning - Lockdown March 2020
During the first national lockdown, when schools had to close to most pupils, we decided that we would encourage the pupils to keep up their learning, as well as offering daily challenges to keep them reassured and still engaging with school. These were done via our Facebook and Dojo apps. In addition to this, each class put together a paper booklet, which covered most of the subjects normally taught in school. We were very keen to keep up the standard of writing, but acknowledged that this would be difficult. We decided that the basics of grammar, punctuation and spelling would form the basis of the writing set. Pupils were given the option to have their work marked by the teacher, by dropping off their booklets at school. They were also encouraged to send pictures of any writing they had done, so these could be celebrated.
Bubbles - Autumn 1 2020
We often had the situation, due to individual pupils having positive COVID-19 tests and class bubble closures, of pupils learning at home via Zoom and Showbie and vulnerable and key worker pupils being in school. Writing challenges were set e.g. If the Three Billy Goats Gruff had a superpower, what would it be?
Whole school Remote Learning - Lockdown January 2021
By the time the second Lockdown was announced in January 2021, we, as a school were very well prepared, having had several bubble closures during the Autumn term. We had prepared early to implement our plan of using Showbie as the platform we would use, and all staff were gaining in confidence and expertise. The lessons were live each day via Zoom and every aspect of the curriculum was covered virtually, with the teachers and support staff available for each lesson. Breakout groups worked well to support any pupil who wanted it. We knew that we needed to move on from grammar, punctuation and spelling, in order to prevent writing from falling back - pupils needed to be actively writing creatively. We decided to trial Oak Academy writing materials, as they would lend themselves well to online teaching and learning. The videos were used alongside teacher input to deliver different genres of writing. This went well and we saw some good outcomes in pupils' writing. Pupils were all given a special book to work in, to ensure that standards of handwriting and presentation stayed high. Pupils took pictures of their work and sent it to us for marking.
