There has been a glut of free content available online recently, and although this can support home learning for our students, as a teacher I was overwhelmed by it coming at me in many different forms (GDPR seemingly out of the window) and could only imagine how parents and pupils must be feeling. Just because content is free, billed as 'educational' and promoted for home learning use, did not mean it was safe.

Increasingly concerned for pupils and their families, I took on a mammoth task to create a 'Home Learning Links' site. This is an ever-evolving compilation of links that I have visited and vetted (to some degree). As well as links, the site includes Online Safety advice provided by approved organisations such as CEOP, Childline and UK Safer Internet Centre.

With this resource created, I was keen to share it with our Penrith Hub (network of schools), so we could collaborate and share resources to keep the site maintained. 

I am happy to open this up as a resource for other schools to use, so many more pupils can benefit from it. I only ask that North Lakes School and Frog could be credited wherever it is shared.

Thanks!

Martyn Soulsby

Leadership Team & DPO

With coursework assessment still ongoing and the usual methods of feedback and collection in person no longer possible, some schools have been looking for an alternative way to collate this...

Whilst waiting for official advice from the exam boards, Mulberry School for Girls found their solution using the Assignment and File Drop facility to collect work from students.

Students

Receive the coursework and submission dates in their assignment menu so they can organise their work effectively.

Teachers

All work is collected through the Assignments feature and teachers can use the 'Download Files' option to download all coursework as a single Zip File. Individual student folders keep everything in one place, ready to send to the examining body.

Many of our schools have been asking for a guide to Frog Messaging that can be shared with parents. For those new to Messaging, this is a feature we launched earlier this year that enables schools to communicate a message which parents can access in two different ways, via a push notification on their mobile device (using the MyFrog App) or by logging into Frog on a web browser. 

MyFrog App (requires a parent to download to their device)

Messages will appear on parent mobile device as a push notification.

Frog Browser

Parent logs into Frog using a web browser and messages will be indicated by an icon at the top right of their screen. 

As clear and regular communication is critical at the moment, we have provided a guide which you can share with parents to help them pick up school messages.

Frog Messaging - A simple guide for parents

School routine is important for both students and their parents, so how do you make a virtual school day work in reality?

One of our Frog Schools has gone beyond delivering transactional lessons remotely, they've transformed the whole school day! Assuming responsibility for their students from waking up to going to bed, in a bid to help them find structure in this new situation.

Using simple Frog tools, both students and parents have a routine to follow via simple timetabling of the school day, including breaks, just as they do within the school environment.

Here is an example of what they have created:

Using Markbook to create and set homework for every class in a year group.

The Head of Computing at Mulberry School for Girls wanted to be able to set homework for the whole year group, but was concerned that in doing so, his teaching team would not have a feasible way to mark the assignments.

This problem is easily solved by using the Frog Markbook.

The Markbook saves time when setting and marking work because one teacher can assign work across the whole cohort and each individual teacher can asses their own classes. It also gives a picture of everything a student has been set, which is useful when trying to control their workload at home.

Here's a useful guide to Frog Markbook:

Record all Homework Activity

• Assignment hand-ins and non-submissions for online and offline homework.
• Late but completed submissions.
• Non-completion due to absenteeism.

Share Resources

• Search homework content within mark books to reuse/duplicate and share assignments.
• Set assignments across whole departments enabling the same piece of homework to be set for all classes.

Gain Insight

• Full online overview of how each child is progressing in your class with export to .csv option.
• View reports by class, student or subject - ideal for parents evenings!

Simplified Marking

• Mark work online and keep a record of student grades in the Markbook (supports multiple marking schemes).
• Highlights status of current grades against target grades.

How to set time limits on student work in FrogLearn.

For schools, not being able to get the usual visual cues as to how pupils are faring means it can be difficult to find the right work-balance for everyone. Teachers at Ellesmere College were busy setting quizzes for their students through Frog but had a concern about maintaining healthy levels of interaction and asked us if they could limit screen time as a way to manage it.

In FrogLearn Assignments there is a handy setting for this, which can be enabled with every new assignment that contains a self-marking quiz. You can set an overall limit on the exercise and/or a time limit on individual questions in a quiz.

How to set a time limit on assignment work in FrogLearn

 
At secondary level, where a consistent structure can help students to plan their day, especially with children home learning, many schools are setting timetable expectations at a higher level.

As per this example shared by Whalley Range High School...

Whalley Range High – Setting expectations

Routine can be reassuring in times of change, something that the team at Greenshaw High has recognised.

This week all of their students have had work set for them on Frog, providing them with a completely structured day. They have used the VISITOR LOG widget to check that all students are logging in and accessing resources in the right way,

This forward planning has enabled the teachers to get a week of prep time, ready for post-Easter break teaching.

Additionally, the school has created a wellbeing portal, providing friendly advice and guidance for staying fit and healthy. Greenshaw High has kindly shared this content with us, so it may be adopted by other Frog schools:

Benefits of approach

• Providing a consistent structure for daily home learning
• Relieving teachers for a period to be able to catchup
• Helps create some normality for everyone
• Checks on logins help the school identify disengaged students
• Wellbeing portal provides advice and guidance for all to use and adopt.

The school shutdown has brought upon schools an instant need to change the way they work.

We have many guides and videos of how to use Frog in our community pages, but schools are also asking us for help with other things.  So far this has included using Frog to support many areas of school life, including setting work for students, structuring the school day, involving parents in supporting their child at home, keeping the school community going and even supporting wellbeing and safeguarding.

The purpose of this Frog Blog is to send out regular posts, to share some of the best practise from our schools.

If you hit the Subscribe button we’ll email you each post to keep you updated.  We won’t sell your email address. Of course, we continue to collaborate with schools on a daily basis and we’re here for you, doing just that.

How you can get involved…

Frog schools are doing amazing things already, which is why we will be asking you to help us help the schools that need it. If you’ve got something useful to pass on then please send it to us so that we can include it on here for others.

It’s time for the Frog family to pull together!