Dear Parents/Carers
As a school we want to give all Year 11 students the best chance of being successful in their upcoming external examinations. In previous years we have put great emphasis on the use of digital learning resources, as they have been proven in all educational settings, to have a positive impact on a student’s final grades.
These digital learning resources all come at no cost to students or yourselves as they are either free or have been funded by the school. Some also have an APP function which means students can access them from their phones once the app has been downloaded.
Many students and departments are now using these applications to support recall and review by students as routine. As Head of Year I am mindful that some students have not accessed them or have made limited use of them. I want all students to have access to these digital resources and monitor their use. To that end I am putting the following plan into place:
- All departments who use a digital resource will set a homework task that is to be completed by students before Thursday 19 November. The table below will explain which departments are setting these homeworks and which digital learning tool will be used. All homework tasks will be set via ClassCharts.
- The completion of this homework will be judged by whether or not the students have logged into the app and completed the task. All of this can be checked by their classroom teachers.
- If the homework task has not been completed by 19 November, the student will be issued with a level 2 detention on Friday 20 November, during which time they will be given access to a computer room to complete the homework and check for any issues with logging in.
- Before this date students have the following two weeks, from 6 to 19 November, to check their login details and contact their subject teachers if there are any issues. I expect them to be proactive and very few should have any issue as I am aware many are already regularly accessing work in this way.
The details of which digital resources will be used and which department is setting them are below:
| Digital Learning Resource | Which Department is setting the homework? | Is there an app students can use? |
| PiXL | English | Yes |
| MyMaths | Maths | No – use website login |
| Tassomai | Science | Yes |
| GCSE Pod | Enterprise
Computer Studies Geography History |
Yes |
| Quizlet | Modern Foreign Languages | Yes |
| Seneca | Computer Studies | Yes |
| Memrise | Modern Foreign Languages | Yes |
All the learning resources listed in this table have been in use since Year 10 so all students will have been provided with login details unless they have only recently joined the school.
Our hope is that the successful implementation of this plan will lead to all students having access to all the trackable digital resources the school has available. With the possibility of students having to self- isolate for 14 days due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, teachers will expect to be able to assign tasks linked to online learning to check progress.
The next stage of the plan will be rewarding the students for their efforts in their digital learning. On Friday 27 November prizes will be awarded to students who are in the top 5 for usage for each of the following digital resources: PiXL, GCSE Pod and Quizlet. There are 15 prizes available and they will go to 15 different students. The same reward process will take place on Friday 11 December for the use of MyMaths, Seneca and Tassomai. I will also schedule a Christmas revision competition to keep students focussed and motivated during the break.
While we are focusing on the digital learning identified in the table above, I do want you to be aware that there are numerous other resources that can be used and which departments recommend them.
If you have any questions about the information in this letter please contact either myself via email at tom.ayliffe@epschool.org or the relevant subject teacher for your child. Please support me in this plan to ensure every single Year 11 student is making the best use of additional learning opportunities in preparation for their GCSEs.
Yours faithfully
Mr T Ayliffe, Head of Year 11
Y11 Digital Learning ltr 4.11.2020
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