Blended Learning Strategy

It is our intention to continue to develop our online and blended learning approaches to support the broader curriculum and pupil progress beyond the physical school and the school day. This will allow us to make different uses of extended curriculum time, facilitating interventions, additionality, missed learning support and catch-up. It is our intention that the resources presented on Google Classroom will reflect the curriculum sequencing taking place in the physical classroom.

Learning lessons from school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, we acknowledge the power of technology to provide the school community with additional opportunities to work in collaborative ways. It also promotes independence and responsibility for learning among pupils, allowing teachers to manage access to learning beyond lessons.

• Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom will be administered by the school network manager and IT technician.
• Strategic responsibility for the use of Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom will lie with SLT.
• At the start of each academic year, previous groups will be archived (yet still accessible to teachers where needed) and new classrooms created using the RM Unify / SIMS sync tool. This will place teachers and students in the correct classrooms.
• New students will receive an introductory lesson to Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom in their ICT lessons.
• New teachers will be provided with training and support documentation in the use of Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom.
• Provide CPD for staff on the use of Google Classroom as a resource repository for curriculum materials.
• Google Apps for Education will be used at any point where planned or  unplanned school closure occurs.
• Google Classrooms become, each year, an extension of the physical curriculum where elements of every lesson will be recorded in Google Classroom for students and parents to access.
• Teachers may wish to set homework in Google Classroom for students to complete. Homework should still be recorded in Student Planners and set on ClassCharts.
• Class teachers should ensure that other relevant staff are linked to their Google Classrooms including, but not limited to, Head of Department, Link SLT, Teaching Assistants and split class teachers.
• Within 24 hours of a lesson, resources used in that lesson should be uploaded to Google Classroom, presented in order of the planned sequence of lessons. These resources should allow for students to re-cover concepts and ideas that they did not understand, support revision and, where appropriate, support missed learning as a result of absence.
• Parents will be invited to add their email addresses to Google Classroom to receive daily or weekly summary reports of the work set by teachers and completed by students.
• Google Classroom will support and provide an extension to broader school development within teaching & learning and the curriculum. Google Classroom will provide an invaluable resource for ongoing revision and review, following the school’s commitment to  research-led innovation in teaching and learning.
• Disadvantaged learners and those who do not have access to technology at home will be supported through the school Homework Club and access to IT facilities at lunchtime, before and after school. In the event of unplanned, prolonged school closure, students who have no access to technology at home will be able to borrow a laptop from school. Where no internet connection is available, students will be provided with paper-based learning materials. It may also be the case that families with no internet access can apply for support to obtain mobile internet connectivity. Where this exists, school will inform families.
• Continue to develop the use of virtual engagement technologies such as Google Meet to support learning through video conferencing where appropriate.
• Teachers and students will be encouraged to consider Flipped Learning as an approach to accelerate progress. This is  where homework tasks engage students in the pre-teaching of upcoming lessons through the availability of resources or other relevant stimulus in advance through Google Classroom. 
• Blended learning will be used to support all learners. Beyond the mainstream school curriculum, it is our intention to use Google Classroom to compliment Personalised Curriculum Support for vulnerable learners and those who follow a strategically resourced curriculum. Furthermore, it will be used alongside the school’s attendance policy to promote excellent attendance.

Staff and students can access Google Classroom, along with all other G Suite applications, through RM Unify, logging in with their normal school email address and password. RM Unify can be accessed through the “Student” menu on the school website or by visiting www.rmunify.com

• Inspire collaboration
• Develop digital literacy of students and staff through adopting office-based tools which are less common (ie non-Microsoft)
• Students can work together in real time in Google Docs (and Sheets, Slides and Sites) to complete that group project – in class and at home
• Manage with ease
• Administrators at Ullswater Community College can set user permissions, security settings and allow/deny settings for any account on our domain
• Keep data secure
• Ullswater Community College Google Apps for Education Administrators can configure many critical security settings & features which will benefit our students.
• Stay connected anywhere
• Students, staff and can work together any time, from any device.  With offline apps, they can keep working even without the internet
• It is free, representing great return on investment for the school
• Every member of Ullswater Community College is able to have a Google account that belongs to our domain. This allows them to use everything that Google has to offer, all under one umbrella. Students who do not have the Microsoft Office package can use the word processing and document editing tools that are provided free of charge with Google Apps for Education. Microsoft Office 365 and OneDrive are also available to students.

Google Apps for Education is an essential part of the curriculum, for all subjects, and Students/Pupils without parental permission to access our school network and IT facilities will be unable to participate in any lessons across the curriculum using Google Apps.

Ullswater Community College encourages parents to log in and explore Google Apps with their children. All email communication can be accessed by the school where necessary and the school’s Acceptable Use Policy enforced. School staff monitor the use of Google Apps when Students/Pupils are at school. Parents/Carers are responsible for monitoring their child’s use of applications when accessing Google Apps from home. Students/Pupils are responsible for their own behaviour at all times. Please do not hesitate in asking for more information about the decision to use Google Apps for Education, how it will impact teaching, learning and communication and your child’s education.

Ullswater Community College will make provision for remote contact with pupils on a daily basis in two forms:

• Pupils will have access to work that allows them to continue progress while at home
• Pupils will have the opportunity for face-to-face interaction with their class teacher where appropriate

In as far as is possible Ullswater Community College should attempt to replicate the timetable that pupils follow through the course of a normal school day. Teachers will need to make themselves available for teaching during their normal working hours and should communicate with their direct line manager if this is not possible.

We are mindful of the challenges of operating in an unfamiliar environment in that:

• online learning operates on a very different dynamic
• some subjects and activities do not lend themselves well to remote learning