Marine Academy makes online lessons available to all
Plymouth’s Marine Academy is leading the way with its trailblazing online learning provision – receiving plaudits in a newly-published book, and opening its sessions to all children across Plymouth.
The academy was the only school in the country to be featured in the book Teach Like a Champion Team – Teaching in the Online Classroom. Surviving and thriving in the new normal by respected educationalist Doug Lemov.
And to help students at other schools, it has made its online sessions openly available. It is already proving popular, with the most recent enquiries for access to the lessons from a north London-based school trust.
Leigh Withers, headteacher of Marine Academy, said: “We were delighted to have our online academy praised as excellent and included in Doug Lemov’s book. He is widely respected and one of the most influential educationalists in the world.
“Parents have the option to access these materials which will be for the same topics and specifications as many schools. It gives them more choice and allows this internationally-recognised material to be accessed by children in Plymouth and further afield.”
The academy, which is part of the Ted Wragg Trust, launched online live and recorded lessons on in June last year. The launch followed extensive research into the online provision for students both in the UK and in the USA and led to them creating a new ‘gold standard’ provision of online learning.
Staff deliver interactive live lessons for all subjects across the whole school, fulfilling all the hours of the curriculum. Utilising Google Forms, there are links to live and recorded sessions, and to the multiple-choice questions that follow each one.
The interactive live sessions give pupils immediate real time access to their teachers as they can ask questions in the chat area and their mic can be unmuted by the teacher so they can discuss questions in further detail. Each lesson is delivered by two teachers, one delivering the class and one handling the chat. The lessons are delivered to the whole year group opening up lines of communication and interaction between many pupils rather than within the confines of just their class.
Head Teacher Leigh Withers added: “Our online sessions allow for a more student-centred, personalised process, which our staff, parents, carers and wider community can have access to. The pupils and staff have embraced this new way of working and the new look live lessons are testament to the hard work that all our staff have put in.
“The culture at Marine Academy is constantly striving for excellence and ensuring every student has the opportunity for a world class education that will prepare them for university and beyond.”
To access the sessions visit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_TDhaga_tTo_B-rjO5NcLg/videos?app=desktop
