Remote Learning at Samuel Ward Academy

Remote Learning at Samuel Ward Academy

Teachers will continue to set work through Go4schools in exactly the same way as we would for homework.  If you have forgotten you password you can reset it at the log-in screen.  https://www.go4schools.com/parents/Login.aspx?rurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.go4schools.com%2fparents%2fdefault.aspx%3fnla%3d0

If you have other any other problems please e-mail wtaylor@samuelward.co.uk for assistance. 

Setting the right amount of work is a great challenge and we recognise this.  For some parents, particularly those working at home, it is important that children have plenty of school work to do.  For some students, particularly those who lack confidence, remote learning can be a real challenge.  We also recognise that there may be more children than there are devices, with only a minority of children able to work at once. 

We aim to set work in each subject each week.  This work should take around half the time a child would have been at school: two to three hours per day if spread evenly over the week.   A child could, for example, decide to work hard in the mornings, keeping to a school routine, and then earn the afternoon off to engage in other activities.

This is uncharted territory for all of us.  Teachers are also trying to juggle looking after their own young children while setting what they feel is the right amount of work.  If you, as a parent, think your child has done enough work for that day, then you are probably right. 

Children should continue to try their best and no one is going to ask more of them than that.  We should also expect the same of ourselves as parents at this time.

If your child is becoming stressed about the amount of work then please refer to the work as suggested learning - a menu of things they can select from to keep progressing during the school closure rather than a list of tasks which must all be completed by a certain time.

Go4schools allows us to set work but not take it back in to assess.  After Easter we will make use of Microsoft Teams which will allow students to submit key assessment work for teacher feedback.  There will only be one piece of assessed work per subject per half term.  This system is currently in operation for Year 13 classes and will soon be enabled for all year groups.  Full details will follow but a brief student guide is below for those who would like to familiarise themselves in advance: 

Microsoft Teams Guide for Students

Teams is a combination of tools to make collaboration easier. You can message your teacher and classmates, access learning materials, submit work, join audio and video meetings and much more.

Teams can be run in the browser or as an App for Desktop and Mobile devices. To download the app: https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads  

Use teams in the browser: https://teams.microsoft.com/ 

If you are asked to login please use your full school email and password. If you have forgotten your password as a parent to contact the support email at the bottom of this page. Class teams are being setup by the Samuel Ward Academy IT team, you may not see all of your class teams yet.

Please watch the video Introduction to Teams (duration: 2 minutes): https://bit.ly/39YAvbc

Teams Functions

• Clicking the “Teams” icon in the purple left menu will display all teams you are a member of. Clicking a team name will show you the contents of that team.
• You can then communicate with your teacher and classmates in the “General” Channel. Your teacher may have created additional “Channels”, these channels generally relate to a Topic or theme of discussion for example discussing a certain book or photo editing phase of a class.
• From the top menu you have access to other areas of a team, these generally include assignments, quizzes and “Files” where teachers and students may upload files for the whole team to engage with.
• The menu located at the bottom of the team contains all the functions you will need to interact with the current team channel, options include: Text format, Attach File, Emojis, Stickers and Start Meeting.
• If your teacher has started a class “meeting” and it is still active you can participate by clicking the “Join” button in the main chat window.

Help and Support If you have difficulty please use the built-in help pages first Please click the Help button located in the bottom left corner of the screen. From the menu please click “Topics” and use the search box first. If you are unable to find the answer to your question here then please contact support via the email address: ITRequests@samuelward.co.uk