Live Lessons Explanation

Dear Parents,

We write with regard to live lessons that some parents have requested/suggested.

Danegrove School are recording instructions as to how to complete the tasks set for the day.

Seesaw is our chosen platform that 93% of the children are using each day. This rises to 98% over the week. Children are completing tasks set and uploading their work to the platform.

The reasons that we are not holding ‘Live Lessons’ with the children are many. We summarise these below.

Accessibility: In many homes there aren’t suitable devices for all children to access lessons at the same time.

Bandwidth: The amount of bandwidth streaming that live lessons requires can become an issue when children try to join live lessons at the same time that parents are trying to hold virtual meetings.

Explanations/ pre-recorded lessons also means that pupils can pause, rewind and revisit explanations. By pre-recording the teacher can think more carefully about the quality of explanation and therefore easily buildup video clips to help reinforce the concepts being presented.

The child’s concentration is purely upon the lesson and not on what everyone else is doing.

In the classroom a teacher can direct a child’s attention and pose questions to judge how the work is going and being understood, before moving on. This is not nearly so simple in a live lesson.

Our videos on Seesaw have been very well received (commended by one social worker who works with 150 different children/schools) and allow children of different abilities to make a choice as to when to move onto their next task at their own pace. Children who would like to watch the videos several times, for guidance and reassurance, can choose to do so. Children who feel confident hearing the explanation the first time, can quickly move onto the tasks set.

Teachers are able to feedback on the work uploaded and to plan the children’s next steps.

We hope that this explanation is somewhat reassuring.

Danegrove Staff Team

18/1/2021

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