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Dr Ingate's Weekly Blog - for the half-term holiday

Well done everyone for getting through the third or fourth remote learning saga (I’ve lost count).   I hope your son or daughter will turn the laptop off, disengage from unread messages and enjoy the week off.  You too can have a break from home tutoring (which we greatly appreciate by the way). The weather forecast looks ok – a dryer week – days lengthening and a bit warmer.  Hopefully you can get some fresh air and at least not be envious of anyone going abroad to warmer climes – as they can’t!

There are a number of unknowns and uncertainties to pick up when we return:

• There should be an announcement on Monday 22nd February with speculation that there will be a return of children to full-time education on 8th March.   The smart money is on a staggered return with Year 11 and 13 returning first of all.
• Therefore,  WB22nd and 1st February are a continuation of where we left off – remote learning as per timetable.  We will still be looking after key worker / vulnerable and SEND students
• We have been testing key worker students and rota staff each week and we have enough supplies for mass-testing if required to do so by the DfE
• Within the next fortnight, Ofqual are due to publish requirements for schools regarding the processing of CAGs for Year 11 and 13.  I think our Year  11s and 13s have shown tremendous patience and resilience waiting for the unknown.  Today, we have sent out 140 Sixth Form Offer letters and  Sixth Form Tutors are busy supporting record numbers of university offers (90 applicants) including offers from Cambridge and Oxford.

As we plan for students to return to school, measures we used in the Autumn Term will be re-applied including one-way systems, lunch & break  arrangements and PPE / Hands-Face-Space rules.  These worked well and I see no reason for any radical changes.  There will be, no doubt, further guidance from the DfE and we will implement these as required.

Keep safe and enjoy the break!

Dr  Chris Ingate

Principal

by Admin

Dr Ingate's Blog - week beginning Monday 8 February 2021

Dear Parents/Carers

A snowy landscape greeted me this morning.  We continue to open for around 40 key worker and vulnerable students but otherwise the school is eerily quiet.  I know that our students are doing a great job studying on-line from all the positive feedback I have received from their teachers.  But this is no substitute for coming to school and learning alongside peers.

With a week to go before we all have a well-deserved half-term break, there is a growing case for schools to return on 8th March, as Covid infection rates abate and the Vaccination Programme rolls out.  I can certainly see a situation where Primary Schools and Year 11 & 13 return before Easter – it is likely that there will be an announcement over half-term so at least we will know where we stand when we return.

by Admin

Dr Ingate's Blog - week beginning 1 February 2021

Dear Parents/Carers

Well done to all our students once again for coping so well in these strange times. We continue to see fantastic attendance and work completion rates by our students. I know that teachers are also really engaged with Teams lessons and are getting really good responses during lessons. Thank you as Parents or Carers for all the support you are providing – I am aware that many of you have also had to brush up on your Science, Maths, Geography, History, French and so forth. If you are having any IT access issues or need online support please contact our IT Helpdesk (itstudentsupport@birchwoodhigh.org.uk)

Looking ahead, it is sometimes difficult to navigate school provision with the uncertainty around the Covid pandemic as we battle lower infection rates and vaccinations against new strains of the virus. What we do know is that we will continue to provide on-line remote learning up until Friday 5 March and that there will be an announcement over half-term by the DfE regarding what happens after this point. Half Term (15-19 February) will be a break for everyone so our hard working students can get some time away from their screens and staff spend time with their families. Options from 8 March could include a return for some year groups (eg Year 11 and 13) but it is unlikely that we will see a full return to school until after Easter.

So how are we fairing at the moment? Thank you to the many students and parents who completed our recent Survey Monkey questionnaire. A summary is detailed below:

Parent Survey:

• 489 parents responded.
• 85% say their children are coping ok or happy in lockdown. 15% say they are ‘struggling’.
• 88% say their children said they had completed all, or most, of the work set. One response said none of it.
• 98% say their children have access to technology.
• 57% of parents say that their child spends 4 hours or more on schoolwork. Only 3% spend less than an hour. 73% think the time is about right.
• 85% are at least somewhat confident with TEAMS.
• 82% are quite or very happy with remote learning procedures. 5% are unhappy with remote learning.
• The words ‘live lessons’ occurred 77 times (plus 26 in the final question).

Student Survey:

• 408 responses from students.
• 86% are okay or happy. 14% are struggling.
• 93% are doing ‘most’ or ‘all’ of the work set.
• 99% have access to technology that is ‘easy’ or have ‘some’ connection problems.
• 80% are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ confident in using Teams but 0.5% are ‘not at all confident’.
• 37% prefer live lessons. 41% prefer a mixture of live and set work. 17% prefer work left in TEAMS and 4% have no preference.
• 23% say they are spending more than 5 hours on work; 36% between 3-4 hours. 5% say less than an hour.
• Most students say they are getting fresh air etc but 3% say they are not leaving the house at all.
• Overall, most students felt confident to ask their teacher for help via Teams or SMHW.
• 51% say they don’t ask often, but would if they needed to.
• Form time came out as very positive and most felt that they could easily contact their form tutor or Head of Year for support.

Overall, this is a very positive survey. The main issue that emerges for me is that there are some students or parents still struggling - so if you are reading this and feel you need personal help or IT help, please let us know. We are likely to continue to operate using live lessons for the next 4 weeks at least.

Other News:

• We will be sending home a half termly Birchwood News next week celebrating, once again, some really excellent work being submitted to teachers during lockdown.
• Year 11 Sixth Form Interviews are underway and those interviewing have been very impressed with the calibre of the students – with over 150 applications and 120 external applications, we should have a thriving Year 12 next year. For these students, I am hopeful that life after their GCSEs should be far more ‘normal’.
• Equally, Year 13 are working closely with their Form Tutors and Mrs Crimes, our Careers Advisor, to ensure everyone goes on to their chosen next step – we have a record number of University Applications currently with UCAS and have also had successful offers from Oxford and Cambridge University.
• Year 8 Options launch has been deferred to 29 April to ensure parents receive Interim Reports and a Parents Evening with subject teachers first. Hopefully we will have Year 8 back in the building by then and the process of explaining and discussing Options would be a lot easier.
• Year 10 Parents’ Evening is scheduled for Tuesday 9 February – you will receive shortly a link to book online appointments with your child’s teachers. Feedback so far from Year 11 and 7 online parents’ evenings has been very positive with high attendance rates – the bonus being that you do not have to go out in the cold and dark to speak to teachers.
• Period 5 on 9 February will be a well-being afternoon to allow staff to prepare for the Parent’s Evening.
• Key Worker / SEND students: Please note that we have moved the Lateral Flow Testing to Monday 22 February immediately after half term – for other weeks it will remain on Tuesday Mornings.

Thank you for your continued support.

Keep safe.

Dr Chris Ingate

Principal

by Admin

Dr Ingate's Blog - week beginning 25 January 2021

Dear Parents/ Carers

I hope you are well – I know that life is a but ‘hum drum’ at the moment but it is good to see the levels of Covid-19 transmission fall in our area to a position where we are now below the national average.

This combined with the roll out of the national vaccine programme focussing at the moment on the oldest and most vulnerable members of our community is good news. However, the more contagious new variants mean that we are all having to be extra cautious as we are at school with our 40 Key Worker, Vulnerable and SEND students with weekly testing and maintaining a rigid approach to hands-face-space.

by Admin

Dr Ingate's Blog - week beginning 18 January 2021

Dear Parents/Carers

I thought it would be helpful if I resume my Monday Parent Update - this will also be published on the school website as a weekly blog.

Firstly, I wanted to say once again how well our students are doing….every day I get emails from teachers saying how engaged and enthusiastic their classes are. I know this is no substitute for coming to school and having real lessons as opposed to ‘live’ lessons but I think the infrastructure is now in place to get us through to February Half Term. If lockdown continues through to March, or we have a staggered return, I will write to you as soon as I am made aware by the DfE.

From today, we are tracking attendance in each lesson and tracking participation. If you do have any IT issues please let your child’s form tutor know. Equally, if you have any connectivity issues, please contact our IT helpline itsupport@birchwoodhigh.org.uk. We are also keeping to our interim report and parents evening schedule (done on-line). We will shortly be writing to you with a short Survey Monkey questionnaire to find out what we are doing well and where we need to improve.

Year 11 and 13 update:

If you have a child in Year 11 or 13, following the Government’s decision that GCSE, AS and A Level exams would not go ahead as planned later this year, the Secretary of State for Education has asked Ofqual, the exams regulator, to consult on alternative arrangements for the award of these qualifications.

The overarching expectation is that, this year, GCSEs, AS and A Levels will be based on teachers’ assessment of the performance of their students (and that there will be no algorithm used to determine grades at national level).

Ofqual has now published the consultation on the proposed ‘alternative arrangements’, detailing suggested processes and systems required to award grades fairly and consistently in summer 2021. The full set of proposals can be found here and responses can be made online here until January 29th 23:45pm. There is a connected and complementary consultation on the arrangements for vocational, technical and other qualifications, which will be covered in a separate letter.

The key proposals for GCSEs, AS and A Levels are outlined below and cover the assessment expectations and arrangements, the timescales involved, quality assurance processes, results days and appeals.

Key proposals in the consultation:

• A student’s grade in each subject should be based on their teachers’ assessment of the standard at which they are performing.
• The grade recommended should be evidence-based and that evidence will need to be retained for exam board sampling.
• The final assessment should be informed by a breadth/combination of evidence, but there may be limits on what schools can use to inform their judgements.
• To account for time missed as a result of the pandemic, assessment should focus on the content students have covered (but there will be a minimum proportion of the overall subject content that will need to be considered).
• Exam boards should provide a set of papers (either compulsory or optional) to support teachers in assessing their students’ work; these will be marked by teachers.
• Non-exam assessment should be taken into account in the final assessment.
• Final assessment should be made towards the end of the academic year, at about the time students would have taken their exams and will involve internal standardisation and moderation.
• Grades would be submitted to the exam boards by mid-June and results would be issued to students in early July, after the exam board had undertaken quality insurance (including sampling of work).
• Students would not be told the grade their school has submitted before results day.
• Students would be able to appeal but a grade would only be changed if it is found not to represent a reasonable assessment.
• A Level students would be informed of their results before universities (to allow for an appeal process) to support fairer admissions decisions.

Once Ofqual publishes its final decisions on the process for assessment, we will, of course, keep you informed of the outcome and next steps. This will include further specific guidance from the exam boards on particular subject expectations.

For now, it is essential that students, who were expecting to take exams later this year, continue to work hard so that they are well prepared for whatever assessment process is expected of them and their teachers – the evidence to date shows that are doing this extremely well.

Sixth Form applications update:

Having received a record 150 applications from our Year 11 students and 120 external applications, we will be contacting you shortly to arrange a 1:1 interview on line to discuss your application, expected GCSE levels and any career aspirations.

How to support your child at home:

Finally, I thought I would share five top tips for supporting your child with home learning from a recent BBC review:

1. Keep to a routine: We are keeping to a routine at Birchwood of delivering normal lessons as per timetable without setting homework (unless you are in the Sixth Form). This should allow your child to register with their form tutor, have five online lessons including two 30minute breaks and finish at 3.00pm so they can get some fresh air or do what they want to do.
2. Be organised: Not having to pack your bags the night before should mean that students have time to check their timetable for the following day and make sure they have enough stationery, essential equipment, charged headphones and charged mobile device if required.
3. Listen to your children: If your child is sticking to their timetable from 8:45am to 3:00pm, then allowing them space or time out is a fair return. If they are struggling or not keeping to their timetable, research shows that it is best to try to listen to them rather than tell them off in the first instance. Some students struggle with online learning whilst others thrive. They may have other issues or concerns and please contact your child’s Form Tutor or Head of Year if you feel they need additional support.
4. Don’t let a lack of space or resources hinder you: This may sound like an odd ‘top tip’ as it’s easy to think that having a big desk, a quick computer and space are prerequisites for success but actually eating well, trying to get a good night’s sleep and fresh air and exercise are more important.
5. Cut yourself some slack as a parent: You’re doing an amazing job. It’s also, hopefully, a once in a lifetime opportunity to have your child(ren) at home doing so much school work. Give them some slack to give yourself some slack – secondary school children are, on the whole, very good at working independently with the help of ‘google’.

Yours sincerely

Dr Chris Ingate

by Admin