COVID-19

Contingency Guide

for Parents Ver 1.1

Ballymoney

High School

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RATIONALE

PRINCIPAL NOTE Thank you in advance for all your efforts to work with us to keep progressing your child’s learning. At the

start of each week I will forward an overview sheet of Success Criteria and planned work for that week. Can

I ask that both Parents and Pupils communicate with school between the hours of 9am to 7pm. Please remind

pupils that school rules still apply when interacting online.

I wish you all the best over the next few weeks and months.

J Bingham

This document has been produced to inform parents and carers of steps taken by Ballymoney High School staff

during the Covid-19 pandemic. It aims to outline how as a school we aim to support your children while they are

not in school.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Principal note ............................................................................................................. 1

Introduction................................................................................................................ 2

School Website ............................................................................................................ 3

My School .................................................................................................................. 3

Email Account ............................................................................................................ 4

What to expect from your child’s email account ................................................................................................. 4

SIMS STUDENT APP .................................................................................................... 5

Accessing SIMS Student .............................................................................................. 5

What to expect from SIMS Student ...................................................................................................................... 6

SIMS PARENT APP ...................................................................................................... 7

What to expect from SIMS Parent App ................................................................................................................ 7

Google Classroom ...................................................................................................... 8

What to expect from Google Classroom. ............................................................................................................ 8

OneNote ..................................................................................................................... 9

What to expect from OneNote............................................................................................................................. 9

Other Platforms ........................................................................................................ 10

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INTRODUCTION

There are a number of facilities at the school’s disposal which staff will be employing to deliver the curriculum to

your children. We plan to deliver as much as possible via an electronic format, so it is important that both pupils

and parents are able to engage with us via these methods. This is something which staff are developing skills on,

but have never had to deliver to this level, so patience and understanding is appreciated.

A central part of this strategy will be your child’s ability to access their MY SCHOOL from an electronic device. The

school has tried to ensure that all pupils are aware of how to access this from home. In order for your child to access

their MY SCHOOL and the variety of apps available, they need to know their school username and password. Most

pupils will be aware of these, but should you encounter issues with this do not hesitate to contact the school to have

it reset or updated.

There is no clear answer as to how long this period of school closures will last and for that reason it is hard to give

clarity on many questions. However, as a school we plan to make this period as smooth as we can for your children,

as well as for you as parents. We hope that through different facilities at our disposal we will be able to keep you

informed of developments as well as help you to engage with your child’s learning over the next weeks and months.

In an attempt to keep your child focused, we aim to provide short term goals for your child. At KS3 we will aim to

provide a list of what each subject expects your child to have completed each week; You might call this ‘Success

Criteria’ or a ‘To Do’ list for the week. At KS4 this will be slightly less straightforward as pupils don’t all do the same

subject, but hopefully our technology will be able to facilitate making you aware of these short-term goals for

subjects specific to your children.

BHS Covid-19

Contigency

Google Classroom

SIMS Student

SIMS Parent

School Website

Social Media

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SCHOOL WEBSITE The school will endeavour to keep the school website up to date with all relevant education related information

around the pandemic and the school’s efforts around this. There are also some useful links from the website already

such as links about how to access MYSCHOOL, revision booklets and other useful links.

MY SCHOOL A child’s My School is the central hub for all school-based apps and information. It is relatively straight forward to

access. For further information please click here. Or to go straight to your child My SCHOOL page click here

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EMAIL ACCOUNT Your child’s school email account is accessible from your child’s MY SCHOOL page. Accessing emails will play a

crucial part in communication between pupils and staff; it is therefore vital that pupils are aware of how to access

it. Some instructions on accessing emails are outlined below.

1. Open your browser

2. Type into your search engine- “MY SCHOOL LOGIN”

3. Choose the first option in the search results

4. Your child will then be asked to enter their username and password. They should know this; if they have

forgotten please contact the school support staff to have this retrieved.

5. Your child will be presented with a Home screen which looks like the one below

6. In the launch menu there will be a variety of useful tools for your child which will be outlined later but to

access email, click on the Icon below

7. Once in office 365, navigate to Outlook where you will be able to see emails which have been sent to your

child.

It is also possible to set up your child’s email on a smart phone. Click here for guidance for Apple Devices. Click

here for guidance for Android devices.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM YOUR CHILD’S EMAIL ACCOUNT

Emails are something which will be used as a basic source of communication as it tends to be something that works

consistently well. Staff may send work directly via email or send links to other online learning resources via email.

It is also where your child will get a registration email for the SIMS STUDENT APP

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SIMS STUDENT APP The SIMS Student application is a facility which will allow for

direct contact between school and your child. It will facilitate

teachers contacting specific members of their classes, as well

as allow for staff to share resources directly to a pupil’s

device. We see the biggest benefit of this being that pupils

will receive notifications directly to their phone when a

teacher updates something relevant to your child. This will

minimise the need for you or your child to be repeatedly checking email accounts to ensure you haven’t missed

some key information. For that reason, it is crucial that pupils do their best to ensure they can get the app up and

running. The school have endeavoured to ensure each pupil is able to access the app prior to school being closed

but this may not have been possible. If this is the case, follow the instructions below.

ACCESSING SIMS STUDENT

1. You will receive a registration email from

noreply@sims.co.uk containing a unique invitation

code. If you have not yet received a registration

email, please check your SPAM folder before letting

school know.

2. Follow the link in the email to be directed to the

registration page. IMPORTANT NOTE: When signing up to the app, Please use your

office 365 login. (Option at the bottom of the list). This will be your

school username plus @c2ken.net e.g. jbloggs345@c2ken.net

3. Having selected your account provider, follow the on-

screen registration process. This will ask you what

you date of birth is and then complete the registration.

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4. Once you have completed the registration process you should open the app on your device and login

using your office 365 account. This should then enable you to access app and the variety of features which

it enables.

If you have a general query whilst using the app click here for some support.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM SIMS STUDENT

We hope that pupils should receive notifications direct to their smart device or computer with information specific

to their classes. This may come in the following formats:

1. A message sent containing work

2. A message sent containing a link to an online learning platform

3. A message sent asking pupils to check their emails for work which they may need

4. A notification informing pupils they have a “homework”

The app allows staff to send work to pupils which is to be completed and submitted via the app within

a particular timeframe. The app can also be used by the teacher to mark and give feedback on

This app is very powerful, we hope to have staff up to speed on it within a shorter time frame than we would

have liked. Please bear with us as we do so.

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SIMS PARENT APP As many of you will be familiar with; SIMS Parent app is something

we have been rolling out gradually since early January. We have had

a good response from this thus far and see it as a further tool to

helping deal with the fall out of the COVID-19 situation. If you have

been unable to get set up with the parent app, please follow the steps

below

1. Contact the school to enable make them aware of an email

address

2. Once the school has an email address the process is similar

to that to the student app; You should receive a registration

email asking for you to partner the app to an account you

already have. This maybe Facebook, twitter or another

account from the list of options. It is important that you know

the password for the account you are going to link with.

3. Once you have chosen which method it will ask for the email and password used to sign into that specific

account.

4. You will then be asked for the date of birth of the child you are trying to set up the app to link with. Once

you have done this you should be able to download the app and use the same process to login to the

account.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM SIMS PARENT APP

The parent app is complimentary to the Pupil App, I would therefore expect that information sent to pupils will be

mirrored within the parent app. Teachers will be encouraged to share the same information with parents that will

be shared with pupils via this app. It should therefore be feasible for you to monitor what work is being set via this

app as well as whether it is being completed and submitted appropriately.

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GOOGLE CLASSROOM Google classroom is an online learning environment allowing staff to connect with pupils via the internet. The space

offers different facilities ranging from the simple sharing of resources, setting and submitting tasks as well as online

quizzes and tests. A large number of departments have been working hard to make these learning spaces

accessible and ready for your child’s use. Accessing these spaces can be done in a variety of methods. A simple

way to get signed up is outlined below.

1. Access Google Chrome (if not on your computer it is free to download) OR download Chrome Classroom

App to your phone.

2. Click on the Sign In button on the top right.

3. Username is your school username (e.g. jbloggs123 @c2ken.net)

4. Password is the same as your school login password.

(If using App – you will be required to type in your full username and password twice before gaining access)

Click on the waffle on the top right and click on the classroom icon.

Click on the plus beside the waffle to join class.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM GOOGLE CLASSROOM.

Google classroom can be accessed from a computer or a device. If you child pairs it with their phone they should

be able to receive notifications about classes they are part of which will make them aware that things like new

resources have been made available or that their work has been marked. There is also functionality for parents to

be added to classrooms alongside their child; this will keep parents in the loop as to what is going on in the online

learning environment.

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ONENOTE OneNote is Microsoft’s version of google classroom and again allows for staff

to share resources, work sheets and activities online. There is an app for your

phone which can allow pupils to access their work from there. Something not

all parents are aware of is that the Microsoft suite is available to all pupils via

office 365, if they use their Office 365 login. This login is simply their school

username e.g. jbloggs345@c2ken.net and their normal password. This will

facilitate pupils being able to download Word, PowerPoint and other vital

apps to an electronic device; For more information on this please follow the

links on the school website or click here.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM ONENOTE.

Again, this is similar to Google classroom and can be accessed from a computer or a device. If your child pairs it

with their phone they should be able to receive notifications about classes they are part of which will make them

aware that things like new resources have been made available or that their work has been marked.

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OTHER PLATFORMS During these times of uncertainty and the ever-changing educational and societal situation, it is important

that we are adaptable. We will strive to keep you informed of how we can best facilitate your child’s learning.

Some staff will be trialling different apps and platforms in order to achieve the best learning experience for

your child and pupils and parents can expect to receive information about such new initiatives and trials as

they develop. As a staff we will endeavour to keep you aware of this via the parent and pupil apps as well as

email.

Useful Links

Below is a list of links to useful websites and information pages.

School website http://www.ballymoneyhigh.net/httpdocs/index.htm

My School https://www.c2kschools.net/standard/Index.aspx

SIMS Parent App

Login

www.sims-parent.co.uk

Google classroom https://classroom.google.com/h

Office 365 www.office.com

Outlook (School

Email)

https://outlook.office.com/mail/inbox

OneNote www.onenote.com

Home Access-

MYSCHOOL

https://www.c2kexchange.net/documentcentre/Documents/EN024%20-

%20Accessing%20MySchool%20Outside%20School.pdf