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 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 information

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

A pupil’s first day or two of being educated remotely might look slightly different from our standard approach, while we take all necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of remote teaching. However, we will always strive to have a broad, immediate remote education available as soon as possible. 

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

Lessons will be made available on Google Classroom straight away. Maths and English will be prioritised. Reading books should continue to be read with your child at home.

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

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in the Academy wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, the art curriculum is adjusted according to the materials the pupils will have available at home. Additionally, PE will be adapted as team sports cannot be taught; there will be a focus on pupil’s fitness during these times. The music curriculum will also be met in different ways, as pupils will not have access to tuned and untuned instruments available in the Academy.

Remote teaching and study time each day

How long can I expect work set by the Academy 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	4 hours per day. This will reflect their Academy day as close as possible.
Key Stage 2	4 hours per day. This will reflect their Academy day as close as possible.

 

Accessing remote education

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

All online learning will be delivered and accessed through Google Classroom. Live lessons will be accessed through this on Google Meet. Other platforms will be embedded within this, for example White Rose Maths, PurpleMash and Busy Things.

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 carry out a survey to see if anyone has limited access to technology, including devices and Internet connection. From this we will make contact with parents to see how we can assist. 

Parents can also make contact with the Academy via phone and inform us of any difficulties. 

We are trying to avoid sending out printed paper packs as this does not reflect our quality teaching at the Academy. However, if you have a technical failure, we will try to provide this for you. Please contact the Academy office for assistance.

Where pupils have little or no online access, giving feedback for hard copies of work sent home is very difficult to manage, so we do ask wherever possible to upload the work onto Google Classroom. If this is not possible, then taking photographs of work and texting/emailing them to the Academy is another option. If limited contact is being made through Google Classroom, then phone calls home to provide some feedback can be made. 

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

After the first few days, all classes will receive one live teaching session per day. Each class will have a set time each day which does not overlap with another class. This is timetabled in such a way for any pupils sharing devices.

EYFS: 9:30am

Year 1: 10:00am

Year 2: 2:15pm

Year 3: 11:00am

Year 4: 1:45pm

Year 5: 9:00am

Year 6: 1:00pm

Maths lessons will mainly be delivered as video/audio lessons through White Rose Maths.

Beyond the live lessons and White Rose Maths lessons, teachers will deliver lessons in the best way suited to the topic. This could include videos made by the teachers, presentations with or without audio, videos from YouTube and commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences. Any work to be completed for the lessons will be uploaded within Google Classroom.

Year 6 may carry out work from their SATs revision booklets.

Occasionally, long-term project work and/or Internet research activities may be set for the older children, but again, this does not reflect the quality teaching the pupils receive at the Academy and therefore will not be used frequently.

Safeguarding during live lessons

To ensure all pupils and staff are safeguarded during the delivery of live lessons, two members of staff will always be present. Live lessons are recorded in their entirety, monitored and stored by the headteacher in line with the data-store conditions of the Academy. 

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?

We expect all pupils to be present every day for their live lesson. If you know in advance that this will not be possible, please contact the Academy.

We provide timings each day for all our lessons and ask that parents and pupils try to stick to these as much as possible.

Setting routines is paramount. Make sure your child is up, dressed and ready for their learning. Try to have a workspace available (where possible) with little distractions. 

Give your child encouragement and introduce a reward system if necessary.

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

We will keep a register of attendance for the live lessons.

During the live lessons, questions will be asked of the pupils to check their understanding. Immediate feedback will be given in these sessions.

Any recorded work is expected to be ‘turned in’. This can be in the form of an online worksheet, a presentation, a video or a photograph of written or drawn work. This work will be looked at daily by the teacher. They will mark the work and give feedback to individual pupils.

If pupils are not attending live lessons regularly or turning in work regularly, then contact will be made to the parent/carer to inform them and offer support in any way.

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 work is as follows:

All daily work that is ‘turned in’ will be looked at and commented upon through either the comments option or private message. This may be a comment about how the child has performed against the learning objective, a next step or a correction.

A score may be allocated to a piece of work instead of a comment.

Pupils may also be set a quiz to assess their understanding, which will be marked automatically.

Oral feedback will be given to pupils’ engagement in live lessons. 

 

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:

As each child’s SEND needs are individual to them, we will tailor their access according to their individual needs.

The SENDCo will make contact with parents and carers of children with SEND to check in with their online learning and offer support to both teachers and parent/carers where necessary. 

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

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

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

Remote education for those self-isolating will be almost the same as remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home. Lessons will be uploaded onto Google Classroom and will mirror the learning at the Academy where possible. Live learning sessions may not take place.