From Monday 23 March 2020 Alford Academy switched to delivery of learning through an e-school model.

This change means some new ways of doing things and this page will sign post you to these.

Registration

Pupils are expected to register each day to indicate they are ready to learn, or that they are ill and unable to engage with learning. Pupils are also expected to sign out of e-school when they are done for the day.  Pupils should update their register status by 9am each weekday.

Daily registration form

Method of setting work

We will use Google Classroom (part of G-Suite for Education, and included within Glow – The Scottish Schools Intranet) to provide details of the work pupils should be undertaking each day.  (A generic guide to Google classroom can be found here)

Work will be posted in the newsfeed of each ‘class’ and take the form of

• Learning Intentions: An unambiguous statement which outlines to a learner what the aim of the learning is.
• Sucess Criteria: A statement of what successful or excellent learning will look like and which the teacher and learner can use to assess the progress in overtaking the learning intention.
• Activities/tasks to be undertaken
• Resources required

Activities and tasks to be undertaken

There will be a wide range of tasks and activities set to suit the needs of pupils and to reflect  the different subjects and professional approaches of teachers.  These could include, but are not limited to the following:

• Book work: This could be based on physical copies of textbooks already issued, or electronic notes available online
• Virtual meetings:  At certain times your child will be expected to login to a virtual meeting where content may be presented live, and where there will be the chance to see and discuss things with teachers and other pupils in real time.  There is an Alford Academy Google Meet Test Room which you can use to check this technology, but be aware that this link is public.  Private links will be used for each class.  These links will be shared by class teachers within google classroom.
• Collaborative tasks: Pupils may be asked to work together either using google meet or shared documents to collaborate on tasks associated with their learning
• Reflective tasks: Pupils may be asked from time to time to reflect on their progress, and set SMART targets to support their learning.
• Newsfeed Discussions: Pupils contributing to and answering questions on the newsfeed within their google classroom.
• Online Assessments:  The can take a variety of forms, but google forms would be a common method for assessing progress.
• Phone calls or one to one meetings: There may be times when your child needs one to one support, either from their guidance teacher, a designated mentor or from a subject teacher.

School Values

Honesty – Hardwork – Ambition – Respect – Kindness

We expect all members of our school community, campus based or e-school to model all the schools values in all they do.  This also applies to our online and virtual communications.  We ask for your support in this.

• Honesty: Pupils need to be honest about their registration status.  They must also let us know when they are struggling with something.  We gain a lot of information about how a young person is feeling about their work from their body language.  In the absence of being able to ‘read’ this pupils need to be direct, open and courageous in their communications.  If appropriate we need you to share with us on their behalf.  There will be additional methods of getting in touch for e-school which we will share in due course.
• Hardwork: It could be very easy for pupils to revert into holiday mode,  e-school does not equal holiday, and for some pupils it will take extra effort to self motivate.  The staff will be working very hard to keep learning going and pupils must step up to this challenge too.  If you child is not working hard, we need you to support us with this.  Your child cannot afford to return to normal schooling and have fallen behind their peers.
• Ambition:  This model of schooling actually provides the opportunity for your child to acquire new skills, and to progress in their learning at a rate that matches their ability.  Some pupils may even be able to begin working on material that would  normally have been encountered next session and ‘front load’ next years qualifications.  The current challenges can be turned into an advantage with the right mindset.
• Respect: Sometimes we can fall into the trap of not being as kind to others in virtual communications as we would in face to face communications.  In everything we do online we should seek to display the highest possible levels of respect.
• Kindness: This time may be very difficult for some of our community, and we would ask that the kindness shown between members of our community continues as we are based in and around our homes.  Lets celebrate the kindness shown to us, and to others.  Let’s find news ways to express that kindness as we pull together as a community of learners, but also a wider community, looking after our neighbours, helping local shops deliver to those in isolation, cutting the grass for a neighbour or taking their dog for a walk.  Thanking each other (and your teachers) for the mutual support we are providing.

Getting in touch

• Email remains the most effective means of contacting the school with general enquiries.