Resources for Students working from home

Please find below resources from each department to support students in working from home during the school’s period of closure. In addition, teachers are in regular contact with their classes via both email and their Google classrooms. If you have any questions that are not covered by the FAQs below, please contact the school via homelearning@burnsidecollege.org.uk

Other FAQs

As a parent I can’t always access the Burnside lesson slides, why is this? Most lessons on Google slides are set so that anyone within Burnside has instant access but email addresses from outside the organisation require permission. Staff will be more than happy to share the slides with parents too but the quickest way to access them is if the student logs on themselves as then they will have instant, automatic access to the work.

Should my child be trying to follow their normal timetable? For some students, they may feel that following their normal routine is comforting in these unprecedented times. For these students, trying to stick to the school day and working on the subjects as they would have had them in school will be a positive thing. However, although the amount of work students are being set will reflect the number of lessons on their timetable (for example, if they are only taught a subject once a week they will only be set an hour’s worth of work for it) there is no expectation that they stick to their normal timetable if this is not possible. We know that many older students are now being called upon to look after younger siblings and therefore cannot stick to a regular routine. Either way, students may find it useful to download and use this weekly planner to organise their time.

Should I be helping my child with the work? Although we would always welcome any parents working with their child, there is absolutely no expectation that you do. All work has been set in such a way that students can do it independently. We are aware that many parents are key workers and are at work during the day, others are being asked to work from home and many others have younger children to care for during the day.

My child isn’t sure if they are in a Google classroom or not; how do they find out? Students automatically received email invitations to their Google classrooms in September and many teachers have re-invited them in the last few weeks. However, the best person for them to contact if they think they need to be invited again is their classroom teacher.

I have a child in Year 10; what exam boards do you use so I can support them with additional work? Please find here all exam boards in use for the current Year 10s.

Will you be setting work over the Easter holidays? No, staff will not be setting additional holiday work. However, students should use this time to catch up on any work missed before then. However, if students want to challenge themselves, many subjects have extension work suggestions in the section above.