Remote education provision: Information for Parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education where national or 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 of this page.

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.

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?

This may be different depending on the three reasons a child may need remote learning: An individual child (or small groups of children) self-isolating, a bubble closure and whole school closure.

If children are already at school, before remote learning is needed, they will be sent home with paper copies of what they would have been learning in school. This will be for the day itself and the next day.

In the case of individual children self-isolating at home, learning will be emailed or sent home via Google Classroom.

If it is a bubble, or whole school closure, then the work will be uploaded through Google Classroom and sent to the families.

Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, in lessons where practical resources are needed and these may not be available within the home.

The children will be set an English task, a reading task and a maths task every day. For those in the younger years, the reading task may be based around a text or it may be specific phonics related work following the Twinkl Phonics scheme. Alongside this, there will be another subject from that year’s specific curriculum such as History, Science, Art or Spanish. In addition, we will continue to provide work to assist the children in learning their spellings and times tables every week.

Remote Teaching and Study Time Each Day for Bubble and Whole School Closures

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:

Key Stage 1	2-3 hours
Key Stage 2	3 hours

We will not be providing a set timetable for learning, as this is not practical for families who also have to juggle work with home learning. As we will be using pre-recorded videos, these can be watched and the work undertaken, whenever it is convenient, in that day, for each individual family.

Accessing Remote Education

How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?

Work will mainly be uploaded using Google Classroom, which can be accessed on desktops, smart phones or tablets. Please see our website for how to access them. The teachers will upload work and appropriate pre-recorded videos/ links at approximately 4:30pm for the following day. All resources will be clearly signposted so that the parents and children know which the tasks are for that day and what they can use to help them. These can either be worked upon on the document itself or printed off- whichever is the most convenient for the families at home. Again, through Google Classroom, these can be handed in digitally to the teacher. If work has been printed off, we ask that a photograph be taken, and uploaded so the teachers can read and comment upon this.

We ask for the work to not be completed, and sent back to the school, before the actual day it is due, as it may get lost/ archived with the previous day’s work. English and Maths tasks should be completed in the mornings and handed in by 1pm, where possible, to allow teachers to mark, respond and adapt subsequent lessons in accordance to the marking policy. Other curriculum tasks should be handed in by 3.30pm that day, again to allow teachers to mark and respond.

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you support them to access remote education?

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education.

Paper Copies: In the rare event that pupils cannot access the remote learning at all, the school can send home paper copies with a stamped addressed envelope for the families to send back into the school. Please contact the school office to request this.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

Recorded teaching (videos/ audio provided by the year group teachers)
Recorded teaching (from external providers e.g, White Rose Education, BBC)
Pages from workbooks
Worksheets
PDFs of resources and games needed
Use of the Numbots, TTRS for maths, Twinkl phonics and Emile spellings, LGfl, and Busythings..
Use of learning objectives and success criteria for the children to be able to use to ensure they are know how to be successful in the task.
Handwriting tasks and sheets
Powerpoints with questions and tasks included
Reading books pupils have at home – KS2 children can log reading on BoomReader
Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences.
Interactive games / activities using websites (e.g Doodle Maths, BBC Bitesize).
long-term project / open ended challenges
Internet research activities

Engagement and Feedback

What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

Pupils’ Engagement: We expect that:

They will complete the number of hours of learning, stated previously, each day.
They will participate in the lessons each day.
They will watch the videos provided and access the resources sent over, to aid their learning.
If there are any questions, or some confusion, the children will ask either their parent or message the class teacher for clarification.
The children will be polite when messaging the teacher and use acceptable language.
If commenting on Class Story, the children will also be polite and use kind language when addressing each other.
The children will continue to learn their spellings and times tables.
The children will continue to read to an adult at least 3 times a week.
The children will try their best and focus on their presentation.
In any images of the children sent in, the children will be wearing suitable clothing.

Parental Support: We expect that:

Parents will watch the videos / access the resources provided before messaging the teacher seeking clarification.
Parents will set routines to support their children’s education.
Parents will ensure the electronic device, used for home learning, is in a shared space.
Parents will ensure there are screen breaks for the children and give time each day to a physical activity.
Parents will have familiarised themselves with the remote learning policy, the Safeguarding Addendum and the E-Safety Policy.
Parents give teachers time to approve the posts, read them and then comment as classroom teaching is still happening. Therefore, there will not be able to be an instant response to a message or a piece of work but the teacher will respond when convenient for them.
Parents will not take screen shots or record any of the videos.
Parents will not share any information about the teacher or the learning on any social media platform.
Parents will upload the children’s work, or check the child has done it (for those in the older year groups) every day.
We do not expect parents to be sat the whole time with the children, whilst they are undertaking their home learning, unless the child has specific learning needs, as the children would not be having this 1:1 support within the classroom.

How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?

We will check pupils’ daily engagement with learning. Their engagement will be checked by the work they submit to their portfolios. If your child is not engaging, we will be calling you to see if there is any support needed and discuss any concerns or anything we can do to help.

How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

Teachers will provide feedback daily on Maths and English tasks submitted by the deadline of 1pm. This feedback will be in line with the marking policy. For other curriculum subjects children will be given either whole class feedback or more general feedback/ acknowledgement of the work carried out. Teachers will also respond to misconceptions and address this either through a message or by adapting the next day’s lesson.

Welfare checks will take place, with a member of staff phoning the home to check whether there are any issues or concerns. If the child is not engaging with the work, the class teacher will make this phone call themselves to see how this can be rectified.

Additional Support for Pupils with Particular Needs

How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

We recognise that some pupils, for example, 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 following ways:

As the teachers are following the classroom curriculum, lessons will be differentiated.
All pupils who are subject to an EHCP, will have check-ins with the school SENCO to see if we can support you further in any way. A number of other children have also been identified for pastoral mentoring. Work packs to be sent home will be altered where appropriate to accommodate for particular needs for certain pupils. We understand that younger pupils, particularly pupils in reception and year 1, may find it difficult due to their age to learn remotely. We will endeavour to make online sessions fun, engaging and clear and offer any advice necessary to support parents during fortnightly welfare calls.

Remote Education for Self-Isolating Pupils

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

Pupils will still have resources sent them either through Google Classroom and paper based packs will still be available for collection at the school office. Staff will check in by phone call, if the child is isolating for the full 10 days, so that any remote learning needing explaining, or any questions you may have, can be answered in a timely manner.

Google Classroom is a cutting-edge online learning management system designed by Google to foster effective communication and collaboration between educators and students. Its primary objective is to simplify the sharing and delivery of learning resource.

Please click here for our Remote learning policy.