What's Happening (and What's Not)?
Classroom is Open:
As you surely heard, the UK's schools closed to most pupils last month, and GCSE and A-Level examinations were cancelled. Meanwhile, the Classroom at Simmons House is continuing to operate for our students each morning with the recommended distancing measures between pupils and staff.
We are now up and running with the online platform, Edmodo, so that students will be able to continue accessing learning independently in the event that the classroom needs to close. All students have some work provisioned on Edmodo and can access this from their individual devices as soon as they are ready. Several students have tried out this new way of working, though some students have declined to use this platform thus far.
Exams & Accreditation:
Teachers are continuing to liaise with our pupils' home schools to ensure our GCSE candidates receive the accreditation they have been working towards. We are also encouraging some students to sit English & Maths Functional Skills examinations, not only to ensure their years of hard work in these core subjects are rewarded, but also to give them the exam experience - an important right-of-passage for Year 11's.
Internally assessed qualifications such as Pearson-Edexcel BTECs, Trinity College Arts Awards, AQA Unit Awards, and Princes' Trust Qualifications are going ahead. Teachers are in regular contact with the relevant examining bodies to ensure that student work is rewarded across all three of these qualifications. We already have 3 BTECs, 3 Arts Awards, and 24 Unit Awards in the pipeline to be awarded for this academic year.
College Applications & Moving On:
Students due to begin attending elsewhere from September are being supported by staff to make the relevant preparation and applications. As usual, Lorraine is leading on co-ordinating with the relevant schools, colleges and 6th forms to help with these transitions.
What's Not Happening:
For everyone's safety we are keeping our visitors to a minimum and are no longer arranging for students to carry out any activities off-site. From 16th March Pets as Therapy suspended all visits, so we are missing our lovely therapy dogs, Pebbles and Casper, but look forward to seeing them again as soon as possible.
18.03.2020
The classroom is making preparations in the event of school closures to stop the spread of Covid-19. We are preparing a digital learning platform (Edmodo) and also portable Skype teaching (main image) for if education staff are unable to physically come to work. As the situation is changing quickly, our plans will change, but we hope to be able to continue our education-offer where it is possible.