I wish to confirm the plans for supporting the learning of Year 11 students whilst they are self-isolating. As a school we are conscious that for many students learning at home is a challenge and they really value the face to face communication which distance learning can often fail to provide. However one of the challenges that we are facing in this current situation is that we are having to support learning at home whilst at the same time continuing to teach classes in school.

Therefore we have created a model which we hope will allow all students to continue their learning and will minimise any disadvantage that students self-isolating may face. The details of which are below. In addition to this we will ensure that once students return from the self-isolation period they are provided with the opportunity for them to seek additional support for any of the work covered where they do not feel confident. 

As always we will continue to review how we can further support students with their learning and will hopefully be trialling further use of technology over the next few days.

Core subjects 

• Maths – students will be divided into 3 tiers based on their Maths sets and receive a live lesson on Teams. They will then complete tasks set via Show My Homework and the member of staff will remain in the Teams meeting to answer any questions the students may have.
• English – students will be taught in CR / TW groups and will receive a live lesson on Teams. They will have the opportunity to interact and ask questions.
• Science – work will be set via Show My Homework for each class. When students are not completing their baseline assessments (in line with lessons in school)  a member of the faculty will then be available in a live video Teams meeting to support students who need additional help in completing the work. 
• Religious Studies – students will be taught in CR / TW groups and will receive a live lesson on Teams. They will have the opportunity to interact and ask questions.

Option subjects

Due to the nature of option blocks it is unfortunately not possible for the majority of these subjects to deliver live lessons as they will be needed to teach the remaining students at the same time. Therefore for these subject the work will be continue to be set via Show My Homework. However this is an area that we will continue to review and where possible will try and deliver pre-recorded elements.

Please can you encourage your child to check both their school email and Show My Homework account. We will be sending out a communication later via these platforms with details of exactly when and where these live lessons will be taking place and with instructions on how to access them. They will need to know their school email and password in order to access Microsoft Teams. If for any reason they do not know these please email ITSupport@minster.notts.sch.uk.

Thank you for your support and please be re-assured that we understand the difficulties of the current situation and are doing all we can to try and mitigate them in order to fully support the learning all our students.

Mr A Wall - Deputy Head Teacher