During any closure to particular year group(s) we are committed to ensuring that all students are aware of the need to continue with their learning at home, in the majority of cases by accessing 'Live Lessons' on devices. Teachers will continue to teach those students via interactive lessons online, and with tasks to complete via subject Google classrooms that have been operation since the Covid-19 pandemic began. We have also been using such classrooms since September 2021 for online homeworks, so all students will be familiar with the approach. We also hold 'Live Assemblies' during tutor time, between 8.25am - 8.45am so students can be informed about how online learning will run that day.

Summary

Work will be set in the Google classroom for each of the five normally timetabled lessons that day, for each student, lasting approximately one hour for each. A link will be posted in the Stream just before each lesson is due to start, to allow students to join and engage interactively. For Registration, there will be ‘Live’ Registration at 8.25am where students are expected to join via a GoogleMeet, to register and access help with any technology issues or ask questions they may have.

Trouble-shooting Connection Issues

Thank you to parents for previous feedback on Live Lessons and Registrations over the last two years during lockdowns, which has been overall very positive.

We have collated a list of additional 'Live Lesson' tips that we have found, in discussion with parents:

Keep the microphone turned off unless answering the teacher. Leaving the microphone on creates background noise making hard for all to hear the teacher. Students should turn off unless speaking directly to the teacher. A reminder the teacher delivering may not be your child’s usual teacher.

Turn off other devices using home broadband where possible. Live Lessons are streamed to homes but not buffered by Google, unlike other Apps like Netflix of Sky. This means if devices in the house are using bandwidth, such as downloading a film, it reduces the speed for Google Classroom.

Turn off other Bluetooth devices where possible. Bluetooth devices such as headphones, Playstation consoles and other wireless devices nearby seem to cause issues.

Work as near to the router as possible. Because some students are working from bedrooms, the distance from router to their device can make a difference. Students relocate near to the house broadband router helps.

Use an intranet cable to laptop/PC. If your child is using a PC or laptop, an intranet cable directly plugged into router to device helps as this prioritises bandwidth for their device.

Join the lesson shortly after the scheduled time of the lesson. A reminder that teachers are moving from their previous lesson and need to get set up. This is why we have scheduled the lessons slightly differently to allow the teacher to arrive at the lesson, log in and then upload the Google GMeet link to the classroom. Please give a chance for this to happen before getting in touch with us.

Accepting Google Classroom Invites

As explained in Computer Science lessons and assemblies, it is vital that students check their school GMail email accounts and follow the links to their classes, or use the Google Classroom App to accept invites to their classes that have been sent to them, which will then contain the Google Meet code to join the live lessons. The invites and GMail links can be checked in advance, but the Google Meet code will only be posted in the classrooms as the lesson starts.

It is particularly important that all students accept invites to their appropriate Year Assembly Classroom, so they can join assemblies 'Live' in a morning at 8.25am.

Further details

We ask that parents encourage their children to be involved from the start, and we will be supporting to ensure we quickly move to 100% of students participating each day during any period of school closure.

Each student has been invited to join a Google Classroom for each of their curriculum subjects. Within each classroom is the work to complete, or in the case of the Registration Classroom, the unique link to join the Google Meet Registration. For safety reasons, the link goes live just as the Registration starts at 8.25am.

Thank you in advance to students and parents for your patience as we resolved log-in issues, both to the GoogleClassrooms, using students previous ‘S’ numbers from before and during lockdown, and also into each GoogleMeet. All students have

If there are issues we try our best to monitor the email address enquiries@normanby.outwood.com which is the best way to report logging in issues. We have written additional guidance to support with this following feedback.

Guidance on using GSuite/Google classroom

Mrs Beaumont explains everything about the Google classroom here

Signing into GSuite/Google - watch video here
Viewing work in the Google classroom - watch video here
How to hand in completed work in the Google classroom - watch video here
How to ask for help when working from home - watch video here

Guidance on joining live lessons:

As a reminder about how to join a live lesson using a laptop, PC, tablet or mobile device, please open the PDF document below:

File

How to join a Live Lesson on a PC Laptop Mobile Tablet (PDF).pdf 1.59 MB

Parent guidance on online lesson expectations:

Please can all parents read through our important guidance with their child by reading this document below:

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Parent-Carer Guide to online lessons at Outwood Academy Normanby.pdf 66.6 KB

Access to technology

If you are having challenges or require extra help, please email us via the email address enquiries@normanby.outwood.com with your child’s name. We will then email you new log-in details for your child, and be able to advise on any technology issues you might have. It would of course help our capacity to support if students made a big effort to recall their details, and only get in touch if they have genuinely forgotten.