Governors Review of Remote Learning
Even though many aspects of school life are not working ‘as normal’ during this pandemic, governors still have a duty to monitor the effectiveness of the school provision. The recent publications by the government and Ofsted gave us an opportunity to reflect on how well we are satisfying the requirements around remote learning. Through frequent ‘zoom’ meetings with the governing board, and via information shared by school, we remain in awe of what the school staff manage to provide for all students, whether students attend school in person or access remote learning. We have also been made aware that the school is frequently quoted as an example of good practice across Lancashire by the advisory team; this gives us great confidence that the adopted approaches are the right ones.
In mid- January, Ofsted and the government both published information and guidance on remote learning, against which governors have been able to reflect on school strategy. It outlines four examples of what is meant by remote learning:
- Any learning that takes place outside the classroom.
- Online learning – anything accessed via a digital platform.
- Blended learning – where there is a mixture of online learning and face to face learning.
- Live lessons happening in real time or accessed by students later.
The guidance goes on to outline some facts and to bust some myths about what remote education is and what it is not. The governing board noted in particular the following points made:
- Remote education is not different in its aim to provide high quality learning for students; it simply does so via a different means because we cannot all meet face to face currently. School will follow the same schemes of work as normal and will deliver them in a way best suited to the intended learning.
- Sometimes remote education will consist of a live lesson, but equally sometimes the best method of learning is via a worksheet, textbook or presentation. Five hours per day learning by students requires a variety of approach, as you might imagine.
- Feedback is as important as ever to avoid misconceptions and clarify learning points. The method of doing this might be via chatroom discussions, interactive tools such as quizzes or via question and answer during live lessons or in written feedback.
- ‘Some think that a live lesson is the ‘gold standard’ of remote education. This isn’t necessarily the case.’ ‘Different approaches to remote education suit different types of content and pupils.’ (Ofsted 2021)
Governors will continue to monitor the school’s strategies in this area and to assess their success as the restrictions (hopefully) begin to loosen. We have been encouraged by the positivity of parental, student and staff feedback and also by all of the examples of excellent work that we see weekly though this newsletter. We continue to be guided by the ever-changing COVID risk assessment completed by the school and throughout, remain conscientious of our role in monitoring the safeguarding and wellbeing aspects through close scrutiny.
Lorimer Russell-Hayes, Chair of the Governing Board
