Remote education provision

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 students 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?

Our school remote learning plan has clear information regarding 3 types of closure. This includes: a child self-isolating, year group or bubble closure and whole school closure. All children will receive direct live sessions accessed by Microsoft TEAMS starting from the third day of closure when there is a class bubble or whole school closure.

All remote learning resources to accompany the online lessons will be found uploaded onto each ClassDojo page. Resource packs to accompany remote learning will be provided by the academy.  Children can submit their remote learning to teachers directly through their ClassDojo portfolio.

In KS1 & KS2 (Years 1-6) in the first two days teachers will set work that the children can access on Mathletics, Times Tables Rockstars & from previous homework and Spelling Shed.

In Early Years, this will include watching Numberblocks and Alphablocks, RWI, counting and sorting activities, singing nursery rhymes and listening to stories.

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 appropriate to the age and stage of the child’s development or needs. This includes our topics continuing in the usual style of teaching and whole-school theme days and celebrations will continue remotely. There may be circumstances when a class teacher may need to adapt the delivery of some tasks. For example, in RWI we may change the Get Writing activity for other reading and writing activities.  In art, we may change the task to ensure that children will have access to resources at home e.g. clay modelling altered to junk modelling – this may apply to other subjects where the resources required are not easily accessible for the majority at home.

Assemblies will continue in the same style as in school but these will be delivered remotely.

The following are approximate timings for subject coverage for each key stage:

EYFS (7.5 hours per week)

KS1 (15 hours per week)

*Wider curriculum – Humanities (geography, history), art and design, design ad technology, science, PSHE, music, religious education.

KS2 (20 hours)

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

A minimum of one live session will take place daily for all pupils from EYFS to Year 6.  The time allocated to the live session will be dependent on the session’s focus and the age of the children.

Children from Year 1-6 will also attend two assemblies per week.

In line with DfE guidelines, our remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take KS1 pupils broadly 3 hours each day and KS2 pupils broadly 4 hours each day. Teachers will provide learning in the form of live and recorded sessions and set independent work which is outlined in a suggested timetable.

If your child is involved in a remote intervention session, these will take between 5 and 30 minutes dependent upon their duration and frequency.

Accessing remote education

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

Children will receive their education through a mixture of videos, live sessions and independent activities set by their teacher and supported where possible by a family member.  The work will be set via ClassDojo and will be posted on a Sway document, ClassDojo posts or weekly timetable.  Teachers will invite children to class meetings/ live sessions which will take place using Microsoft Teams.  Any parents needing technical support with this, are encouraged to contact the class teacher via ClassDojo. Parents will need to give consent for their child to access live sessions on Microsoft Teams and follow set protocol for safeguarding reasons.

Any resources needed for independent learning tasks will be found on ClassDojo or in the resource packs provided by the academy. Teachers will upload a weekly timetable or daily Sway explaining the links to learning and appropriate resources.  All resources will be clearly signposted, and children may be directed towards a particular resource during an online lesson.

Children will be able to submit their work through their individual Portfolio on ClassDojo.  Parents and children will also be able to communicate with the teaching staff using the message or comments features on ClassDojo or through email/ telephone directly to the academy where appropriate.

We understand that younger pupils, particularly children in nursery & reception, may find it difficult due to their age to learn remotely. We will endeavour to make live sessions and independent learning fun, engaging, practical and accessible and offer any advice necessary to support parents.

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:

Device loan

The academy has a small number of devices that can be issued to families who do not have an electronic device.  Laptops and iPads will be loaned out from the school with a receipt system.

Internet access

Any families struggling with internet connection can contact the academy or their child’s class teacher to discuss options.  SIM cards with prepaid data may be available for families to use solely for accessing remote learning lessons and parents may be asked to submit their details to have their mobile data allowance increased under the government scheme.

Paper copies

If printed materials are needed, these can be collected from school by prior arrangement.  If this is required, parents can contact the class teacher.

We have collected information from all families about their access to devices and internet and are supporting where appropriate. If your circumstances change, please be in touch with the school office.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

• Daily live sessions through Microsoft Teams
• Recorded teaching e.g. video/audio recordings made by teachers, links to other suitable websites such as Oak National Academy lessons, RWI, YouTube
• Websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences e.g Developing Experts, Oddizzi, Kapow, Mathletics and TTRS.
• Where required, printed paper packs produced by teachers e.g. workbooks, worksheets
• Some independent activities will be set for children – such as reading, spellings, handwriting and times tables tasks.
• All resources will be uploaded onto ClassDojo with guidance and a suggested timetable.
• Assemblies will be recorded and shared on ClassDojo.

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

• It is important that your child accesses their home learning every day that they would normally be in school and keeps, as far as possible, to what would be their normal routine. However, we appreciate that routines may have to change, so children can complete the work at a convenient time in the day.  We will be able to see their responses to the lessons and quizzes to check for engagement.
• Honesty and engagement. If you cannot support the activities set, please tell the teacher why.  This will enable the teacher to change the approach and suggest alternative activities.
• A commitment to support and encourage the completion of home learning.
• For parents to communicate with the class teacher/ TA on how your child is doing in terms of their home learning.  This could be via phone call, ClassDojo or email.
• An understanding that the academy has a legal obligation to provide learning for your child whist they are at home.

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

Teaching staff will monitor engagement through attendance at the live sessions, the work submitted to Portfolios on ClassDojo, through comments and messages via ClassDojo and fortnightly phone call conversations.  If your child is not engaging with the remote learning, we will call you to see if there is any support needed and discuss any concerns or anything we can do to help.

We understand that all children may find it difficult to learn remotely. We will endeavour to make live sessions and independent learning fun, engaging, practical and accessible and offer any advice necessary to support parents during fortnightly welfare calls.

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. Our approach to feeding back on pupil’s work is as follows:

• Teachers will provide whole class feedback to work identified on the class timetable which is submitted through ClassDojo portfolios.
• Feedback will also be provided through quizzes marked automatically using Microsoft Forms
• Other feedback will be given verbally during live sessions or through recorded teacher videos and class based staff will check in with families fortnightly to discuss how children are getting on with their remote learning.

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

Any pupils with SEND (meaning that they would find it difficult to be taught remotely in line with their year group peers), will be provided with work to support with their own individual targets and work across curriculum.  Appropriate resources, scaffolds and teaching strategies will also be provided appropriate to their needs.

All pupils who are subject to an EHCP, will have weekly check-ins with the SENDco to see if we can support you further in any way.

The SENDco will monitor arrangements to ensure they meet the needs of the child.

A number of other children have also been identified and parents and their child will receive a weekly well-being telephone call.

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 access to a weekly timetable with links to all resources through ClassDojo and will be provided with resource packs by the academy. Their learning will be in line with what children will be doing in the academy. Children will be expected to upload their learning to the portfolio on ClassDojo for their teacher to view. The only difference will be that online lessons will not take place over Microsoft TEAMS for self-isolating children. In place of this, staff will check in weekly by phone call instead of fortnightly for any questions you may have.  Questions can also be posted on ClassDojo and correspondence can be expected in a timely manner.

Please see the ‘Remote learning information and flowchart for parents’ on the academy website.

Flow chart and visual guidance

You can also find a visual and flow chart below.

Remote learning information and flowchart for parents