"It Snow Problem!" for Rush Common Pupils
Learning continues despite school closure
Newsflash: Schools close in Jan '10 but far from freezing, learning lives on (virtually) for the well prepared. Listen to Maxine, head teacher at Rush Common School explaining how she used Learning Platform to set work for the pupils, inform parents of school opening and closing news, recruit a JCB to clear the car park and then to hold a staff discussion to find out if enough staff could make it in to reopen the school.
To find out how Rush Common remained virtually open during last year's snow problem, read below.
Feb '09: Rush Common teachers and pupils didn't let a school closure put them off their learning (and they built some snowmen to boot)! Whilst the school was forced to close, pupils logged onto their school's Kaleidos learning platform from home, and engaged in learning activities, shared stories of gigantic snowmen and freezing toes! Truly exciting learning!
Did You Know? 10,000 UK school closures on Weds 7 Jan 10 affected around 3.7 million pupils, equating to about 26 million hours of lost learning... every day! Put another way, for every day these schools remain closed, it's the equivalent to over 2,000 young people missing out on their entire education (from age 4 - 16)! Unless you can keep the doors of your school virtually open with products such as Kaleidos.
Snow Problem
Making the most of the mush and slush
When Rush Common Primary school was closed due to the snow, a quick thinking management team used their Kaleidos learning platform to keep pupils involved and engaged in learning at home (after they'd had their fun making snowmen!).
"Once we knew the school would be closed, I created a news item for the parents' portal, instantly informing them of the closure" said Beth Rolfe, ICT Co-ordinator. "I then created a new discussion in Kaleidos, for our pupils to keep in touch with one another online, share their snowy stories and upload photos of their snowmen!".
Interest Space set up quickly and easily using Kaleidos
Innovative use of ICT to continue with the learning process
Informed parents, inspired pupils
Exciting Learning, Purposeful Play!"I logged onto Rush Common's Kaleidos parent portal and immediately saw that the school was closed. It's just as well, as when I tried the Fox FM and BBC Oxford websites they were clogged up with traffic and not working at all" said Mark Reynolds, parent.
"My kids built a snowman in the morning, then later we uploaded the photo to the learning platform. My eldest also used it to write messages to his friends, who were sharing stories and comparing snowmen! We also downloaded some spelling sheets for next week". (You can see their snowman at the top of this article! - Ed).
What our parents think
... "I think Kaleidos is a really fantastic communication tool between the school, parents and children. It is so easy to look up information such as what's on, school dates and closures, etc and also helps the school save on paper! I also love the fact you can see photos of the children's events straight away. I am really looking forward to the time when we can look up what homework has been given! I wish I was at school again!" says Emma Cousins, parent.
"Kaleidos is making an enormous difference to the link between home and school. We are more aware of the topics the boys are covering in class than we have been in past years. From a parent point of view it is excellent to have dates at the press of a button, instead of having to retrieve a piece of paper, ditto for newsletters and also notes on parent teacher consultations. A valuable asset to our school!" says Sarah Donovan, parent.
If you'd like to see for yourself how ICT can improve parental engagement and deliver anytime, anywhere learning, why not book an "online demonstration" with one of our education specialists? It's free, fun and guaranteed to inspire you. If you haven't yet made a decision on your learning platform solution and are not sure of your next steps, we can help you!
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