Head of History Mr Bajkowski has made sure his pupils are still hearing his voice in this time of remote learning.
The history teacher has used innovative methods before, being one of the first to trial Virtual Reality technology in classes as well as encouraging visitors from places like the Holocaust Trust to bring history to life at Pleckgate.
With the coronavirus meaning many of his pupils are home learning, Mr Bajkowski has been using a website called loom.com for his Year 10 classes.
It means they can actually hear his voice, he can talk to them about the lesson and use slides to illustrate it – as he would in class.
“The premise behind it is that many resources and written instructions are limited in terms of what impact it can have – pupils can misunderstand your intention and some key historical explanations are hard to understand as a 14/15 year old compared to listening to someone.
“Loom records your screen and your voice so you can talk through what you want them to do. It also helps you give feedback to pupils about their work individually. You can show their work as a slide and then talk them through what they can do to improve it.
“One thing I am aware of in these times is that we don’t know the working environment that some pupils have or their home situations in terms of illness of family members and so on.
“Pupils may also start to feel isolated if they are constantly in one room speaking to no one and just doing their work.
“So actually having a familiar voice talking them through the tasks not only means that their learning is better but might also help their well-being as well which is the most important thing.”
