Remote learning

Remote Education Provision: Information for Parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students 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 students are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

The Remote Curriculum: What Is Taught to Students at Home

A student’s first day of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach if the child/bubble is sent home part way through the day, 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 after being sent home?

All resources for the lesson due to be taught in school will be available on Microsoft Teams in the ‘Classroom Materials’ section of the class team. Students should therefore continue to follow their usual timetable and independently complete all work set.

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. Students will access live lessons through Microsoft Teams. The student should continue to follow their usual timetable, at the usual times, and they will be able to join a ‘live’ lesson in each of their class teams.

The lessons will be structured to follow our usual routines, with a PCD slide at the start of each lesson. Students will then have at least 20 minutes of ‘live’ input from their usual classroom teacher, followed by an independent task.

At appropriate points students will be encouraged to take screen breaks and spend some time reading or revising from their knowledge organiser folders.

Remote Teaching and Study Time Each Day

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 Key Stage 3 and 4 students around 5 hours per day, in line with their usual timetable in school.

Accessing Remote Education

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

Students will access all work through Microsoft Teams. This includes their live lessons and any assignments set. Should students wish to revisit any of the content delivered in lesson, all resources will be saved in the ‘Classroom Materials’ section of Teams and available for students to access at all times.

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 students may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those students to access remote education:

  • If students do not have access to an appropriate device we will lend laptops to students wherever possible. These can be requested by contacting school through the usual channels. When school reopens for face-to-face education this device must be returned to school in line with the Home-Academy Loan Agreement.
  • If students do not have access to the internet we will issue or lend devices that enable an internet connection (e.g. routers or dongles). These can be requested in the same way as laptop devices. When school reopens for face-to-face education this device must be returned to school in line with the Home-Academy Loan Agreement.
  • Once students have completed their work it can be submitted through the ‘Assignment’ submission on Teams. Alternatively work, or pictures of work, can be uploaded to the student ‘student work’ folder on the relevant Team. If no other option is available a picture of the work can be emailed directly to the classroom teacher.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

  • All timetabled lessons are available with live teaching (online lessons). This will include at least 20 minutes of live input followed by an independent task for students to complete. During the independent work staff will be available on the chat function of Microsoft Teams to support students as required.
  • Where appropriate inks to external pre-recorded instructional videos (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, BBC Bitesize) may be provided for students to consolidate their own learning.
  • All students take a reading book home with them, and these will be used for ‘Role Model Reading’ or ‘Guided Reading’ in line with our usual practice. Where appropriate this may take the form of staff reading aloud to students followed by a question about the material being read.

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?

It is expected that all students attend all live lessons if they are self-isolating (but not symptomatic), or during wider school closures. Attendance is logged during every remote learning ‘live’ lesson and Year Leaders will make absence calls for those who do not attend – just as they would during face-to-face education.

You can support your child by checking they know how to access Microsoft Teams and by making contact with school should further technical support be required.

Please continue to encourage students to follow their usual routines in terms of sleep, breaks and lunch to ensure that their time is well structured and they are able to engage in all live lessons.

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

Engagement in live lessons will be monitored on a lesson-by-lesson basis. Where students appropriately engage in ‘chat’ function by answering questions and feeding back ideas to staff, complete Microsoft Forms Quizzes and submit their independent tasks to teachers they will achieve Achievement Points in line with our normal academy policy. Where students attend lessons but do not engage in learning activities or submit work this will be recorded as negative engagement.

Should there be concerns with your child’s engagement these will be raised through contact from their classroom teachers and/or their Year Leaders in the usual way we would feedback during face-to-face education.

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 students work is as follows:

  • Microsoft Forms, Assignments and engagement in the chat function will all feed into assessment of student work. Students will receive a feedback lesson every 6 to 9 lessons in line with our usual Academy policy.
  • The feedback lesson will first seek to address misconceptions that teaching staff have identified, followed by students completing a Microsoft Form assignment which allows them to practice their newly-gained knowledge.
  • In addition to this formal feedback, informal feedback based on interactions in the ‘chat’ function will be evident throughout all ‘live’ segments of lessons to ensure teachers are responding to the needs of their students.

Additional Support for Students 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 students, for example some students 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 students in the following ways:

  • All teaching assistants will be available in the virtual classroom to help support individual students, providing technical advice and support where appropriate. For students with specific needs, such as HI and those with dyslexia, virtual methods will be used to meet need, e.g. a video call with a TA to facilitate BSL or virtual coloured overlays.
  • During wider school closures (lockdowns), all students who have an EHCP, and those who are otherwise vulnerable due to limited ability to work independently, will be invited in for face-to-face education. For those in the “otherwise vulnerable” category, this will be at the discretion of the academy due to the need to restrict numbers in the building. All other means of engaging students in remote education will be exhausted first.

Remote Education for Self-Isolating Students

Where individual students need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, the provision of remote education will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching students 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?

The offer to students who are self-isolating will not differ. Students will be able to join ‘live’ lessons with their usual classroom teacher and will have a task to complete independently. The behaviour for learning system used for remote lessons mirrors that used in face-to-face education.

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