Online Learning - PYP

Online Learning - PYP

Despite the challenges and obstacles, the educational sector worldwide is facing during these difficult times of the pandemic, Al-Rayan International Primary School strives to provide a high -quality education and personalized learning approach through innovative and inspiring lessons in its Virtual learning.

Al-Rayan International Primary Virtual learning allows students to:

• Interact in real-time lessons through secure, and safe learning platforms
• Enjoy a balance of synchronous and asynchronous mode of learning taught by expert Homeroom and subject teachers
• Attain high-quality academic and holistic achievements, interactive assignments and regular personalised and constructive feedback
• Complete tasks and activities through independent work, as well as though collaboration with their peers developing self -management and social skills
• Develop essential skills, conceptual understandings and nurture curiosity through independent learning
• Receive regular reinforcements and updates on their holistic progress and achievements
• Participate in activities with students from all over the world through our Units of inquiry learning engagements
• Enjoy exclusive learning experiences through our personalized learning approach that each child has greatness in them
• Develop a digital learning portfolio that portrays their learning journey in the Primary Years

Each virtual school day is an interactive and engaging one that brings to life every aspect of your child’s curriculum with plenty of opportunities to interact with their teachers and peers.

Our virtual school strikes a balance between on and offline learning time (synchronous/ asynchronous) so that students can make the most of personalised primary learning from home, which is less overwhelming for parents and students.

Fridays have been set as a non-live Zoom Learning day in which students are assigned tasks and assignments to consolidate on concepts and skills, as well as engage in offline learning activities at home.

• All daily schedules are posted on Seesaw (Early Years to Year 3) and Google Classroom (Years 4 to 6) the day before the onset of Virtual learning.
• All classes from Nursery to Year 6 have a weekly timetable that covers all subjects from the unit of inquiry to languages, as well as Well-Being classes (Year 4 to 6)
• All Subjects and Homeroom teachers have shared their office hours with their students and parents.

Technology Platforms

Al-Rayan International Primary School makes use of a variety of applications and platforms. Our two main platforms are Seesaw and Google Classroom.

The Early Years to Year 3 post assignments on Seesaw, and Years 4 to 6 daily schedules are set on Google Classroom, with activities posted on both Seesaw and Google classroom.

Applications being used include, but not limited to, the following: Jamboard, Whiteboard.fi, Padlet, RAZ, EPIC, Mathletics, Mathseeds, BrainPOp, Kahoot, Spellingtraining...

Seesaw and Google Classroom remain the main platforms for communication between students, parents and teachers.

Early Years to Year 1

Each day starts with a live Zoom session to take students through the day’s activities, as well as to engage students in developing understandings of concepts across the curriculum. Students then complete the Homeroom activities set by their class teachers. Subjects, such as the Dance, Music and Languages have at least one live Zoom session a week with each class to ensure interactivity and class engagements with their peers and teachers.

At the beginning of each Unit of Inquiry, a Learning Home Kit is provided for each student in the Early Years that contains all resources needed to ensure a fun and engaging learning experience at home.

Year 2 to Year 6

Primary Years 2 to 6 lessons also begin with live Zoom sessions from Mondays to Thursdays, with lessons set according to a weekly timetable that covers all subject areas, with at least one live Zoom session for each of the Arts-Visual Arts, Dance, Music, PE and Languages. The Homeroom teachers remain online for the most part of the day, even after live sessions have ended so that students can always reach out to their teachers and teacher assistants for queries and support.

All subject teachers have also set office hours within each day of the week from Mondays to Thursdays, details of which have been shared with parents of each year group.

Guided Reading and Support Online Sessions

All Early and Primary Years Classes have allocated live sessions for guided reading, as well as support lessons carried out through break-out Zoom sessions with the support of the Homeroom and Teacher Assistants. Not more than 5 students are in a group to ensure effective online teaching, learning and support. Hence, the Guided Reading and support sessions are scheduled throughout the week ensuring at least a session each for a group.

English as Additional Language-EAL and Personalised Learning Department-PLD Support

Being an inclusive school with a personalized learning approach to learning and teaching, our Personalised Learning department teamwork in collaboration with our teachers to support students with learning difficulties throughout the Primary Years Programme.

Support and specialist teachers from the department are allocated to specific students whom they support both online and face to face, as students with learning challenges, as well as needing English language support have been granted permission by the government to attend school physically for support on certain days within the week.

Wellbeing

At ARIS, our students' wellbeing is always at the heart of everything we do, paying close attention to their social, emotional, physical, creative and cultural needs.

Our Art therapist, who is also our Primary school counsellors offers a session of Well-being class each week to Years 4 to 6. Students engage and participate in discussions of emotional and personal struggles and find ways to cope with guidance and support from the counsellor and other peers, as they learn to understand and care for one another.

Furthermore, Wellbeing strives to give learners a starting point to discuss feelings, build emotional literacy, facilitate friendships and explore identity. Students typically complete a small assignment each week relating to the curriculum and then use class time to share their findings with other students. Students are encouraged to ask questions, and dig deeper, during online class, with the guidance and oversight of the counsellor.

Ed-Tech Support Team

Our Ed-tech team troubleshoots issues within the learning environment, including troubleshooting all technical devices, apps and systems within and out of school, supporting students and parents as well. They also train, support and engage faculty with effective use of educational technology and online teaching, through a wide range of resources such as tutorials, instructional aids, videos and more.

Our Ed-tech team members are in direct contact with students and parents as they are also a part of the day to day Virtual learning environment throughout the Primary Years. In times of challenges encountered by staff or students, the Ed-tech coaches respond immediately and give the necessary guidance either physically, on phone or via Zoom to ensure minimal disruption to the virtual learning.

Collaborative Planning

Subject, Homeroom and Assistant Teachers plan collaboratively throughout the week from 3.00 to 4.00pm, with Fridays set for recordings of videos, screen castify, tutorials, preparation for weekly assignments, task and posts, reviewing and assessing students work, as well as giving individual constructive feedbacks through a variety of media on our learning platforms and apps.

Timetable

To ensure we adhere to as much normalcy as possible, with minimal disruption to our curriculum subject matters, our Primary Timetables for each Year group have been set with all subjects running throughout the week.

Extra-Curricular Online Activities

Extra-Curricular online activities include Chess, Rubik’s Cube and Science Club run by outsourced specialist instructors. Other online activities such as Twi and Book Clubs are run by ARIS Primary Staff members. In order to ensure effective and engaging activities, resource packages are provided for the Science club and Rubik’s Cube sessions. Chess club uses a Chess app. These modules are set on the same start and end dates of the semester.

ARIS Primary Teacher Librarian

Our Primary Teacher Librarian, supports our teachers with digital and online resources, to ensure smooth and effective running of the units, as well as providing teaching staff with a wide range of media resources for concepts and skills development during the online learning.

Teacher Assistants

Each Primary Year group has at least one Teacher Assistants to ensure individual students’ support, with a one to one support teacher for the PLD students. The Teachers Assistants are qualified, well -trained and tech-savvy on all our digital platforms, and hence support students with one to one or group sessions as and when required to ensure effective online learning. They also provide students with constructive online feedback through a variety of digital means such as audio or video recordings and written form.

During the course of the virtual learning, students reach out to their Teacher Assistants for help with the understanding of concepts or assignments, as they remain on stand-by and can be reached via the Homeroom Zoom links.

Profile Assemblies

Virtual profile assemblies hosted by a year group are held once a month to portray an IB Learner profile. This involves the entire Primary community as spectators, as well as commentators at the end of the presentations.

Coffee Mornings

Our Primary Coffee Mornings are held at least twice in the semester to update our parent community on all matters of significance in the implementation of the Primary Years Programme, curriculum matters, events and so on. Parents are also given the virtual platform to express concerns and make queries for which we are ever happy to consider, and find solutions.

ARISVERSITY

ARIS Primary is running six online modules for the Parents ARISVERSITY from September 2020 till April 2021. The modules provide an in-depth understanding of the Primary Years Programme from its Pillars and Global competencies to Assessments and Exhibition. Once a parent completes all six modules, they benefit from the following:

• Certificate of completion on the Year 6 PYP Graduation Day
• Qualified to be a mentor for the PYP ARIS Exhibition
• Qualified to take a class/ learning engagement in any Year group in the PYP
• Granted permission to join children on any field trips
• Participate in any PYP unit collaboration meetings
• Become a facilitator for the next year’s ARISVERSITY