Information for Parents and Carers
1. Rationale
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.
For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section.
2. The Remote Curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home
A pupil’s first day or two of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach, while we take all necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of remote teaching.
On the first couple of days your child will be set work via the Home Learning section of the school’s website. Each day there will be a Maths and Literacy task as well as an additional learning activity. Parents and carers will be notified by text or email via Parent Pay when live learning will be available.
We aim to teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. Where this is not possible, we will make some adaptations in some subjects or tasks.
3. Remote teaching and study time each day
We expect that remote education (including live learning and other set tasks) will take pupils broadly 3 hours each day in Key Stage 1 and up to 4 hours each day in Key Stage 2.
One lesson each day Mon-Thurs will be live learning delivered via Microsoft Teams. The other lessons can be accessed via the Home Learning section of the school’s website. If you have any difficulty logging on to Microsoft Teams, please contact the school office. There will be at least 2 other learning tasks each day for your child to complete at home.
4. Online access difficulties
We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. If you have difficulty, please contact the school office. Some families will qualify to be issued with a laptop to use at home for the period of closure via the DfE Devices Scheme. School has access to a limited number of devices so there is a criteria for this. If you do not qualify for the scheme, you can request printed copies of your child’s lessons and tasks from the school office. If you have difficulties with devices that enable an internet connection (for example, routers or dongles), please contact the school office for guidance and help.
If pupils cannot submit work online, they can keep paper copies and return them to school when it is safe to do so.
5. Remote teaching
We will use a range of approach to teach pupils remotely. These will include:
- live teaching (at least one session each day Mon-Thurs)
- recorded teaching (eg Oak Academy lessons)
- worksheet tasks accessed via our school website, Home Learning section
- commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas eg Purple Mash, IDL etc
6. Engagement and feedback
We expect all children to engage in tasks daily. All children are expected to log on to the daily live learning. The expectations for these sessions are detailed in our Remote Learning Policy.
A daily register is taken for each live learning session. If a pupil is regularly not logging on, parents or carers will be contacted and support offered to enable their child to engage. During the live learning any issues with non-live learning will be addressed.
Learning will be assessed and feedback given in a number of ways:
- verbally to the class group as a whole
- verbally individually during the lesson
- written feedback during the live learning via the chat facility
- written feedback after a task has been submitted
Pupils can send any completed work to teachers via email using teacher school email addresses or via Microsoft Teams.
Alternatively, work that children complete on paper should be kept and returned to school when safe to do so.
7. Pupils with particular needs
We recognise that some pupils, for example some pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may not be able to access remote education without support from adults at home. We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers to support those pupils. In the Home Learning section of our school website, there is a section entitled ‘Resources for Children with Additional Needs’. This has tasks, advice and suggestions for engagement in Home learning for children with additional needs. It includes some practical information which will hopefully support home learning for children with additional needs. These are sensory/practical/screen-free activities to do at home.
Parents and carers who require further support should initially contact our school office. We can then arrange contact with Mrs Atkinson, our Associate SENDCo.
8. Remote education for self-isolating pupils
Where individual pupils need to self-isolate, but the majority of their peer group remains in school, remote education provision will likely differ from the approach for whole year groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school.
Work will be available in the Home Learning section of the school’s website each morning. The class teacher will aim to match the home learning to in-class learning as closely as possible. If children have difficulties accessing the website a learning pack will be available from the school office.