Attendance Update

We find ourselves in our sixth lockdown, which no doubt provides challenges for us all in engaging our learners in the online space. 

Engagement across all secondary schools while in the remote learning space has been a challenge. Currently, as of the end of the first full week of lockdown, our students' engagement data was as follows:

• Year 7: 77.54%
• Year 8: 76.73%
• Year 9: 69.91%
• Year 10: 64.86%

Learning in the online space provides a paradigm shift. In the classroom, when a student is disengaged, teachers can use an array of strategies to re-engage students: adjusting task requirements at hand, explaining things in different ways, moving students away from distractions, and so on. When learning online, students are at the centre of it all, and 'control' their level of engagement. For the most part, this transition is quite seamless; but if a student is already prone to disengagement in the classroom, this can be exacerbated in the remote learning space. 

We don't yet know how long Lockdown 6.0 will last, so please do reach out if you are having trouble with supporting your child to engage online. Our Middle and Senior School teams have been working hard to provide as much support as possible to families in that situation.

Measuring Engagement and Attendance Online

Our Middle and Senior School teams have been working away at contacting students and their families if their engagement has dropped. This is measured in two ways:

• Answering the attendance question on Google Classroom; and
• Engagement with the set tasks.

In order to demonstrate proper attendance and engagement, a student needs to respond to the attendance question and try to engage with the task - otherwise, it would be like a student entering a classroom, getting their name checked off, and walking out!

Tips for Families to Support Engagement

Some simple ways that you can support engagement are:

Routines - set out clear times for getting ready, sitting down for remote learning, scheduled food breaks etc.

Google Meets/Video Conferences: students can engage with their teachers via Google Meet when scheduled or request one if they have questions about their work.