Check- ins – Keeping in Contact with your teachers

In your feedback to us, many of you said how beneficial it was to have opportunities to get quick answers to your questions and problems during times of remote learning.  Many parents too asked for a little more structure to your working days.  To support this we are introducing regular check-ins for the vast majority of your classes.

These check-ins will take place online as either

• Real time chat in the google class stream
• Google meets (audio only) using the Google meet link in each classroom
• Google meets (full video) using the Google meet link in each classroom.

These will be times to bring questions to your teachers and be able to engage in a real time conversation in one form or another.  It will also give your teachers a chance to ask you how you are getting on in general so that we can adjust what we are doing if needed as well as check that you are understanding the work set.  These times will not involve the teaching of new materials.

They will take place at selected times when you would otherwise have had that class, starting and ending at the same times.  Note you can still email your teachers out with these times, but you should understand that this may mean that it takes a little longer to get back to you with a response.

Please note that online meetings will not be recorded by staff, and the audio or video of any online meetings must not be recorded (in any form) by pupils, parents or carers.  

For S4-6 pupils, there are generally two slots per week, with pupils expected to attend at least one of  these.

 

For S1-3 pupils the numbers and frequency of check-ins will vary depending on how many periods of that class you have on your timetable, but will generally be once per fortnight, and pupils are strongly encouraged to attend as often as they are able.

Class codes that end with a Z will be every week, those ending with an X will be one week and Y the other.  These codes are show in the schedule linked to below.

 

From the week beginning Monday 11 January (Week 0) PSE check-ins and those for ASL classes will begin.

From the week beginning of Monday 18 January (Week 1) Z and X check-ins will begin

From the week beginning Monday 25 January (Week 2) Y check-ins will begin in addition to the ongoing PSE, ASL and Z check-ins.

This week 1 and week 2 pattern will repeat until no longer required.

Work will only be issued once per week or once per fortnight for each class.

Work will generally be set on a Monday (unless agreed differently with the class) with the expectation that this work is to be completed during the subsequent week or two weeks as directed by teachers.

Pupils should plan and manage their time to ensure the work is completed by the due date avoiding the mistake of leaving all the work till the last minute.

Pupils are reminded that they can check their Google calendar for reminders about deadlines.

Pupils are strongly discouraged from leaving their work till the ‘last moment’.  Where possible teachers will try and ‘chunk’ your work into smaller tasks with suggested timings to help you structure your learning.  Some weeks (particularly for the senior phase) your work will inevitably, at times, take the form of a single task for the whole week, i.e. working on a dissertation.

Submitting work as you progress through the week will support staff in planning appropriately for the next weeks work, as well as helping then manage their marking workload across the whole week.

You can see the schedule of check-ins using the views below.

 

To view the check-ins sorted by teacher click here

To view the check-ins sorted by day and period click here

 

To see only the check-ins for the week beginning Monday 11 January 2021 click here.