Ensuring effective safeguarding and pastoral care is always the first priority of the school. During the Remote Learning Programme measures include:

Live and recorded sessions will be randomly monitored to ensure that everyone is following the GEMS Safeguarding guidelines provided to every member of staff and adhering to the guidelines contained within this document.

All live sessions are recorded and stored in the cloud so that they can be reviewed and revisited by students and staff when necessary.

Attendance

Maintaining accurate attendance records is central to effective safeguarding. Classroom Teachers/Form Tutors will email parents of absent students from the previous day with a message to enquire about the student and highlight the importance of attendance.

Pastoral Care

To maintain effective pastoral care, Class Teachers in Primary School and Form Tutors in Secondary School will:

· Share important communication with students and parents

· Monitor student attendance

· Collect students’ feedback/concerns

· Encourage the sharing of work, photos and videos of students’ learning to reinforce the school community

Assemblies: Weekly assemblies address areas of mental and emotional wellbeing and reinforce students’ connection with the wider school community.

Community: The school will provide regular community activities to reinforce the school’s strong sense of community through weekly whole-school and whole-phase challenges and initiatives.

Supporting Student Wellbeing during extended periods of Remote Learning

Social Interaction with Peers: For extended periods of remote learning, the school will provide opportunities for students to have supervised social interaction as part of their timetabled day.

Information and Guidance: For extended periods of remote learning, the school will also send a fortnightly Stay at Home Survival Guide (on alternate weeks for Primary and Secondary Students) full of supportive activities sent to all students.

School Counsellor: The School Counsellor provides a weekly advice and guidance video for all students and runs sessions to support students with their emotional and mental wellbeing.

Raising Concerns

Parents are able to raise concerns about any aspect of their child’s mental or physical wellbeing by completing the attached Parental Referral Form for Counselling and sending it to our School Counsellor at:

· Primary: Waed Shehadeh w.shehadeh_gns@gemsedu.com

· Secondary: Paola Sassine p.sassine_gns@gemsedu.com

Behaviour – Rules for Online Learning

Our GNS rules remain the same throughout the Remote Learning Programme.

In addition, it is particularly important during the Remote Learning Programme for all students to be aware of the following:

· All posts made online should be sensible and appropriate.

· Parents will be contacted if students post something that is not appropriate.

· No students should invite anyone else - including adults, to private chats.

· If students arrive at a live session, an adult should be in the room, if an adult is not there, students should come out of the room and wait in the general room until an adult arrives.

· Students should follow instructions from the adult and mute and unmute your mic only when they ask you to.

· Students should only post in the chat box of live sessions when a teacher asks them to, or if they would like to ask a question about the learning.

· When the session has ended, the teacher will ask students to leave the room.

· Students are not allowed to take images and screen shots of live teaching sessions.

· Students should tell a teacher (by typing in the chat box) if someone posts something that makes them feel worried, uncomfortable or upset.

Rewards: During the Remote Learning Programme Primary Students will be rewarded for their effort and contributions with Class Dojo Points and through weekly and termly class rewards. Secondary Students will be rewarded for their effort and contributions through the Secondary School House Point System.

Consequences: Where the behaviour of students does not meet the expectations of the school, the class teacher will emails parent referring to inappropriate content/behavior and requests support to address the matter. Students could be excluded from online content in cases of persistent poor behaviour.

Supervision: Members of the Senior Leadership Team and Pastoral Support Mentor join live sessions throughout the day to ensure a suitable learning environment and ensure that no students are in live sessions without the supervision of a member of staff.

Senior Leadership Team

• Share the RLP with the teachers, students and parents.

• Regularly communicate with all GNS stakeholders.

• Monitor, quality control and adjust the plans for remote learning to ensure effective implementation.

• Provide all necessary support to faculty, staff and parents during a forced closure.

• Support with any technical issues that may arise with the online platforms used to deliver remote learning content.

• Attend all necessary meetings either offsite or virtually.

• Respond to communication received and follow-up as appropriate

Teachers

• Be available to students, colleagues and parents during normal school hours and according to the published timetables , with slight modifications as appropriate.

• Take daily attendance of students and follow up on any absences.

• Connect with their students on a daily basis via Seesaw, TEAMS or GEMS Phoenix Classroom to ensure daily participation in the RLP.

• Plan learning content that matches the expected curriculum content so there is a seamless transition on return to school.

• Attend planning meetings virtually for their phase/year group.

• Monitor and assess student learning and provide feedback and personalised support and guidance similar to classroom setting.

Learning Support Assistants

• Maintain 1:1 communication with the assigned students through Teams.

• Communicate regularly with the subject or classroom teachers who teach the students on Microsoft Team.

• Ensure they are added as a collaborator on each Team.

• Offer to scaffold or modify assignments, as per IEP recommendations, for students to support subject or classroom teachers.

• Help subject or classroom teacher differentiate lessons and activities for the students.

• Communicate regularly with students and/or their parents to ensure they have success with distance learning.

• Provide supplementary learning activities for students who may benefit from additional practice to close academic and curricular gaps

School Counsellors

· Continue to provide support to students through online platforms and video conferencing through Teams.

· Communicate and follow-up with parents via email as appropriate.

· Continue to provide support to students through online platforms.

· Communicate and follow-up with parents via email as appropriate.

· Provide Social Skills activities for Primary on SeeSaw and follow up on replies and provide feedback.

· Set the School Council tasks to do, follow up on replies and provide feedback.

· Assist with the compilation of the Stay at Home Survival Guide and provide advice and activities for wellbeing and mental health

· Provide a referral process for both parents and teachers to refer students and to add to case load for weekly advice and support.

· Set up on SeeSaw a virtual Worry Box where students can post their concerns and School Counsellor answers them.

· Run a wellness programme for staff to help support own wellbeing and mental health and offer support and advice.

Parents

• Establish routines and expectations for their children to engage in the remote learning that has been set for them.

• Provide children with a safe environment that is conducive to learning, including access to the required technology.

• Communicate with the school through the agreed channels should they experience any technical difficulties and are unable to access the learning content.

• Monitor the time children spend engaging in both online and offline learning that forms part of the RLP.

• Provide emotional support to children by ensuring they have time for reflection, physical activity, conversation and opportunities for play.

Students

• Dedicate appropriate time to learning.

• Communicate proactively and responsibly with teachers and peers during remote learning.

• Meet timelines, deadlines, commitments and due dates.

• Check in with their teacher to understand what they are learning and what they need to produce.

• Make sure they have everything they need to complete their work, including a quiet space that is free from distractions.

• Do their own work. Parents and helpers are encouraged to assist but should not do the work for the students.

• Keep healthy habits. Take suitable breaks away from devices, eat sensibly at regular meal times and go to bed at regular school day times.

Foundation Stage and Primary

In the Foundation Stage and Year 1, students will receive two core live lessons in addition to paced activities each day and will benefit from a pastoral focus with their main class teacher at the end of the school day.

In Years 2-6, students will access an even balance of live lessons and student paced lessons. For FS-Year 6 students, Live lessons are identified on the class timetable and will be delivered through Microsoft Teams. Student paced lessons will be accessed through Padlet in FS and on Seesaw in Year 1-6.

Secondary

In Years 7-13, students will follow their current timetable and will access the majority of their subjects through live lessons on Microsoft Teams. This will comprise of 20-minutes direct teacher input and the remainder of the lesson will be used for students to complete work/activities. The teacher will remain in the live lesson to answer any questions student may have about the work/activities. Student will access student-paced lesson in the following subjects: PE and Music. DT will be student paced for year 7-9 and will be offered live for years 10-11.

Whole School Routines

Students should listen to the Start of the Day Message at 7.30am. The Vlog is uploaded to Class Dojo for FS and Primary students and on the General Tab Channel on the Student Class Team for secondary students.

Students should play and stand for the National Anthem at 7.35am. The recommended version of the National Anthem will be saved on Class Dojo for FS and Primary Students and on the General Tab Channel on student class Team for secondary students.

Core RLP Platforms

· Live Lessons: Microsoft Teams

· Recording/Assessing Learning: Tapestry (FS) Seesaw (Primary), Microsoft Teams (Secondary)

· Communication with parents: Class Dojo

Whole School Activities

· In addition to students’ timetabled lessons, the school will provide a range of optional activities to engage the whole-school community. These will include:

- Online assemblies

- Shared journals and blogs of remote learning experiences

- Sharing of online guidance and support documents

- Daily challenges and problems to solve.

- Staff readings

- Just-for-fun competitions

Flexible Working

The school will provide a Remote Learning Programme Timetable to provide structure for parents and students.

The school also recognizes that every family will have many different circumstances that will affect the way they follow the programme. Primary activities will be logged on Seesaw and all live lessons will be recorded on Microsoft Teams so that parents and students can complete work at their own speed. If students or parents feel unable to follow the timings of the school timetable they are able to complete activities according to the times that suit their family circumstances best.

Screen Time

The allocation of learning activities and timetable remain under constant review. To safeguard and promote their healthy development, students should only work on their IT devices according to the guidelines for their age group. Teachers will be providing a balance of activities to be completed both on and away from their IT devices.

Support: If parents experience any issues with remote learning they should please contact our dedicated IT Support on rlpsupport_gns@gemsedu.com providing their child’s full name and class.

Key Contacts

The main point of contact for parents is their child’s class teacher (FS/Primary) or Form Tutor (Secondary). If parents have more general queries or would like to raise concerns they should please contact the relevant Head of School/Member of the Senior Leadership Team.

· FS/Years 1-2: Sarah Leonard s.leonard_gns@gemsedu.com

· Years 3-6: Matthew Barron m.barron_gns@gemsedu.com

· Secondary Boys: Vincent Maiella v.maiella_gns@gemsedu.com

· Secondary Girls: Terri Hadfield t.hadfield_gns@gemsedu.com

· Assistant Principal MoE Subjects: Shahenda Ahmad s.ahmad_gns@gemsedu.com

General Parent Support: As per our standard procedures, the school’s PRE is available to support parents with all general questions and concerns via email: Germeen Aly g.aly_gns@gemsedu.com

Teacher communication with parents: Teachers support parents by responding to their feedback and answering questions via email and through the chat functions on Seesaw and Microsoft Teams

Social Media: Parents can follow all our latest school activities and events during our Remote Learning Programme on social media.