Delivery of Online Distance Learning Policy

Ashbourne has a duty of care to provide the highest standard of education it can and, when circumstances require, believes that an online audio-visual communication tool for learning is necessary to deliver high-quality lessons. The College takes very seriously the need to maintain the highest standards of safeguarding and risk management. Therefore, in order to conduct online audio-visual lessons all staff and students must comply with the following:

1. All lessons must be carried out according to the normal timetable; no lessons outside of normal class hours.
   Teachers will update Ashbourne FileMaker to register student attendance.
2. Lessons will be conducted using GoogleMeet – teachers may choose to use a number of additional tools to support students (e.g. GoogleDocs).
3. Teachers must only use College accounts and software tools to conduct lessons or communicate with students; this means logging out of personal accounts.
4. Lessons will be by invitation: only teachers will initiate and close lessons.
5. The same high standards of personal and professional conduct that are expected in the classroom, from both students and teachers, apply during online lessons, including the use of the integrated chat function. This means maintaining professional teaching standards, using appropriate language, attendance, behaviour and attire.
6. Ashbourne lanyards must be worn and visible, and a suitable dress code maintained in line with College expectations for both students and staff at all times during the lessons.
7. The recording of lessons is not permitted.
8. Teachers must ensure they conduct their audio-visual lessons from a suitable environment, if not in the classroom, and take into consideration what background may appear in the video. No one else should be in the room, if the lesson is not taking place at the College, whilst the lesson is taking place. Teachers must also be vigilant to ensure their audio and visual functions are switched off at the end of the lesson and be aware that some applications can auto-generate captions.
9. Students must also make suitable arrangements to take their audio-visual lessons in an appropriate room; no one else should be in the room whilst the lesson is taking place, including parents. Teachers should be aware, however, that this may not be possible for some students and that parents may also share the same room while online lessons are taking place.
10. If a parent has concerns about any aspect of a lesson they should contact the College directly to discuss it and not raise issues during the lesson itself. All concerns and complaints are taken very seriously and will be dealt with in line with Ashbourne’s Complaints Policy where appropriate.
11. Students will be able to use the audio and visual functions for their lessons, as advised by the local authority; students may be asked to switch off these functions if it will improve connectivity and clearer delivery for the student. Teachers must monitor when students’ cameras and audio are switched on or off.
12. One-to-one lessons and group-classified lessons with only one student will be carried out using audio and visual functions.
13. To avoid disruption from unsolicited pop-ups as well as the exposure of personal data, students and staff must turn off all notifications on their device used for lessons.
14. Ashbourne will conduct spot monitoring of lessons to check compliance.
15. Teachers should be mindful that students working from home may feel lonely, bored or anxious; it is vital to ensure they have regular breaks and where possible be offered strategies for working productively at home. Any concerns about students’ wellbeing should be communicated through the Academic Share on FileMaker and directly with the Personal Tutor. More serious concerns should be communicated directly to the Safeguarding Team and through the Safeguarding Share on FileMaker.

All members of the Ashbourne community will be briefed about these arrangements.