Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents / carers about what to expect from remote education when national or local restrictions require entire cohorts or groups of children to remain at home.

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?

In the first day or two of pupils being sent home, we will provide remote learning through emails generated through our Arbor platform. This will allow us to reactivate Google Classroom accounts, which will then be used to set and share learning from this point onwards.

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 may need to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, we may use some of the DfE endorsed resources to support the delivery of our foundation subjects. Where these are chosen, they will link closely to our planned curriculum and cover the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding.

Remote teaching and study time each day

The Department for Education states that younger primary-aged children (Year 2 and below) will be provided with three hours of remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) and those in KS2 (Year 3-6) will be provided with four hours of remote education. This will be a combination of live Google Meet sessions, pre-recorded lessons and independent learning. The learning should be paced across a typical school day, allowing for regular rest and well-being breaks.

Accessing remote education

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

Remote education will be accessed through the Google Classroom platform. Tasks will be communicated to each class on the class page. All resources needed will be available as links from the platform. Any additional resources required (such as class texts) will be provided in reading folders that will be available for collection on set class days each week to allow for social distancing.

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:

• We will monitor access to establish whether children are able to access Google Classroom successfully. We will continually monitor engagement when pupils are accessing remote education and contact families where an issue is identified.
• We will ask parents to identify if there are any issues with internet access or device access. Parents are asked to contact the school office should their circumstances change.
• We will support families to apply for unlimited mobile data or dongles if this is needed to access remote education.
• We will loan devices to families where this is identified as an issue. Parents will need to sign a loan agreement where this is needed.
• Parents are asked to contact the school office if they would like additional information about supporting access.
• If pupils need printed materials, parents should contact the school office to make this request.
• Work can be submitted via the Google Classroom platform. However, if this is not possible, work can be handed in through the weekly book return system and staff will look at it once the quarantine period has passed.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

• Live Google Meets – depending on age, these are used to check in with children, give them a sense of belonging, explain learning and provide an opportunity to take part in small group or class wellbeing sessions.
• Recorded teaching – these sessions are designed to allow pupils to access the learning flexibly and support family wellbeing. The recordings are lessons that explain the learning to the children. They will be in the form of video / audio power points by the class teacher or sessions accessed through White Rose Maths, Oak Academy or BBC Bitesize.
• Commercially available websites, including Education City, Times Tables Rock Stars, Spelling Shed will be used to support the teaching of specific subjects.
• Use of class texts and reading books (available for safe collection).
• Instructions and resources for independent work provided through Google Classrooms.
• Suggested daily timetables, including breaks and resources for wellbeing and physical activity.

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?

As a school, we hope that families will work together with us to support children to access and engage with the remote learning offer. The offer on Google Classroom meets the suggested remote learning timings required by the government. We are not expecting parents to be teachers and realise that learning at home can provide challenges. We recognise that families have individual home circumstances, such as multiple children accessing remote learning and balancing the demands of home-working.

We will provide a suggested timetable for the day in Google Classroom to help you to structure your child’s learning but appreciate that families will need to adjust this routine to fit their individual circumstances. Where possible, we would like children to access live class sessions on a regular basis. We will aim for a daily morning class sessions in KS2 and a weekly group session for children in Reception to Year 2, as well as story sessions for these children several days a week.

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

Engagement will be monitored in many ways:

• Attendance at live sessions
• Marking work as done each day in Google Classroom
• Submission of completed work (uploaded to Google Classroom – documents, photographs or videos)
• Completion of online tasks e.g. Spelling Shed or Times Tables Rock Stars

Where there is a concern about engagement, class teachers or members of the senior leadership team will contact parents to discuss and resolve any barriers to engagement.

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 may others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

• Feedback to any questions asked through the Google Classroom platform.
• Opportunities for children to self-assess from given answers.
• Submitted work or evidence (e.g. photographs) will provide staff with class information that will feed into future learning.
• Staff may also provide individual comments in response to submitted work.
• Whole-class feedback provided as part of the next day’s session.
• Feedback will vary depending on the age of the child, ability of the child and nature of the task. Feedback will also take a variety of forms.

Regularly submitting work will provide staff with a clear picture of your child’s progress through the remote learning journey.

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 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 following ways:

• Providing work that meets the individual needs of the child, via an additional Google Classroom post.
• EHCP and vulnerable children have been encouraged to attend school where possible.
• When attendance is not possible, teachers will liaise with our SENCOs to offer bespoke work and tasks linked to individual needs.

Our younger children also have access to Google Classroom but we appreciate that they are not able to access devices independently, cannot work independently and do not have the same attention span as older children. Staff will set up suitable activities, including pre-recorded videos by staff (or appropriate resources) to complete at home via Google Classroom. There will also be opportunities to engage with Google Meets in smaller groups and access regular story times. Parents will be able to upload completed work, photographs or videos to Google Classroom for staff to monitor and comment on.

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?

If a child is well but required to self-isolate, they will access learning through Google Classroom. On the first day of isolation, pupils will access a set first day of education designed to reinforce and recap previous learning.

From Day 2, work will be aligned to that being experienced by children in the classroom, offset by a day, ensuring that children remain on track with classroom learning and the sequence of the curriculum. Work can be uploaded via the Google Classroom platform.

Keeping in touch with pupils and parents

The class teacher and senior leaders will be responsible for checking on the welfare and safety of children during prolonged periods away from school.

Older children may upload their own work and communicate with their class teacher. Parents may do this for younger children. Please be aware that these messages may not be read or responded to immediately.

Teachers are not expected to answer or respond to messages or provide feedback outside directed time.