Photo by Jamily Anderson

ONLINE AND DISTANCE LEARNING AT JPII HIGH SCHOOL

Jamily Anderson — August 20th, 2021

A quick guide for students, parents, and whānau

Online and Distance Learning at JPII

Our distance learning programme will involve a combination of online learning, working from textbooks, and practical tasks as appropriate.

JPII uses Office 365 and Google apps as the main tools to enable online learning. Other platforms may also be used by our staff, and they will advise their classes about these.

Expectations for Online and Distance Learning at JPII

It is important that you put your health and your family/whānau first and continue to follow all government advice to stay safe.

We understand that online learning from home can be stressful for everyone involved. Please try to follow these guidelines:

· Check your school email account and class Teams/Google Classroom at least once a day if possible and respond to any messages from teachers.

· Remember teachers are also busy with their families, so please understand that they will respond when they can. Don’t be worried if you don’t get an immediate reply.

· Teachers will provide at least one face-to-face video call per class per week either through Teams or Google Meet.

· We do not expect that our students are engaged in distance learning for a full five hours of each day. However, we do recommend that you develop a timetable of study to implement healthy routines for work, sleep and home life.

· Work will be set for each timetabled subject and teachers will provide learning materials and set tasks on a regular basis. This might happen on a day-by-day basis, or less frequently as blocks of work:

o Junior students can expect a maximum of 2 hours of work/study per subject per week

o Senior students can expect approximately 3 hours work/study per subject per week

Learning at Home

How you organise your time to complete schoolwork is up to you, but we recommend that you:

· Establish a daily routine, with blocks of time set aside for schoolwork and plenty of breaks too.

· Use a to-do list or planner to help keep track of tasks – it’s hard to stay organised, so use tools to help. Office 365 has an easy-to-use to-do list app (and a powerful planner app) or use a paper diary.

· Keep in touch with your teachers – let them know when you have completed tasks, or if you need help.

COVID-19

Please refer to the NZ Government COVID-19 website for up-to-date information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please also note the Guidance for Parents, Caregivers and Whānau issued by the Ministry of Education.

Meeting Etiquette

While online meetings are not new territory for most of us, good meeting etiquette is important, so we all get the most out of our time online.

Our teachers will make use of video-conferencing so that you can ‘meet’ face-to-face. Your teacher will let you know when these events will happen so that you can be ready at home (we understand that you may be sharing a device with other students in your household, so these events will be fairly infrequent).

If students are invited to a meeting, it is recommended they attend. However, if a student is unable to attend, they should inform their teacher.

· Behaviour and language expectations are the same as if the students were at school. Students who fall short of these expectations may be removed from the meeting.

· Ensure the location and background are appropriate for school interactions. Choose somewhere quiet and use headphones / headset, if available.

· All students participating in video calls must be appropriately dressed, however, school uniform is not required.

· The camera should always be on, but microphones should be muted when not speaking to minimize background noise.

Deadlines and Assessments

Most online-learning tasks will be brief and straightforward although longer projects may be set depending on the subject and year level. A calendar to keep track of due dates may be useful.

Teachers have been advised against undertaking new assessments via online distance learning while we seek advice and guidance from NZQA.

Updates regarding NCEA Assessments will be shared as they come to hand. You can also check the NZQA COVID-19 Secondary School Page.

Online Learning Websites

There are a huge range of online learning resources that you can make use of to support your learning. Here are a few:

· Education Perfect – all students have access to their subjects here to support their studies across the curriculum.

Learning from Home and Kauwhata Reo – Provided by The Ministry of Education with resources for parents and whānau, teachers and leaders to support learning at home.

· Study IT – NCEA help from real students and teachers in Maths, English, and Science.

BBC Bitesize – Revision site aimed at students with the KS3 section being suitable for Juniors and the GCSE section for Seniors / NCEA.
BBC Teach – Great collection of short videos (usually from BBC TV shows), to support a huge range of subject areas and learning levels.
Alison – Huge number of online courses in a wide range of subjects: IT, Health, Languages, Humanities, Business, Maths, etc.
Khan Academy – Masses of great lessons in many subject areas, most supported by short, explanatory videos with tasks and activities to reinforce learning.
eTV – Login with your school email and you have access to a large catalogue of NZ broadcast TV shows, organised in catalogues for different learning areas.

Online Safety

While teens are learning from home, they are away from the online safety and security services provided by Network for Learning (N4L) at school. So together with N4L and Netsafe, the Ministry have launched Switch on Safety, a free way to block the worst of the web for students and teachers.

Netsafe provides comprehensive support and information to support everyone to stay safe as they work, learn and play online. Netsafe has resources for parents, whānau and students.

Student Well-Being

Establishing a good routine promotes well-being. We recommend that students:

· Go to bed and wake up at the same time each weekday

· Plan to exercise, stretch or move during the day

· Stick to a regular mealtimes

· Complete a chore each day e.g. mow the lawn, clean a cupboard or their bedroom, cook a meal for the family

· Practice prayer or meditation to promote calm and well-being.

If your child needs support during lockdown, our counsellor Mr Ellis, is available for bookings. To make a booking email him at merv.ellis@johnpaul.ac.nz. Our Senior Leadership Team, Deans and Whanau teachers are also available if you would like to chat

Renée Hutchinson – Deputy Principal (Teaching & Learning, Day-to-day school management)

Trish O’Regan – Assistant Principal (Pastoral Care)

Abina Pope – Director of Mission (Catholic Character)

Dan Steggles – Dean of Junior Students

Celia Costelloe – Dean of Senior Students

All teachers are contactable via email: firstname.lastname@johnpaul.ac.nz

The Ministry of Education has these guidelines to support families during periods of lockdown.

Students are also encouraged to contact the following organisations if they want further support:

What’s Up Free counselling for children and teenagers free call 0800 942 8787

Mon-Fri 12pm-11pm

Sat/Sun 3pm-11pm

Youth Line