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 to remain at home.

For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

A pupil’s first few days 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?

We may:

  • Send children home with workbooks and worksheets to complete independently.
  • Direct children to virtual classrooms and online tools to choose activities to do independently.

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, adaptations may need to be made in the way we teach more practical subjects like science and physical education.

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 pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:

Key Stage 1: 3 hours

Key Stage 2: 4 hours

Accessing remote education

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

Online Tools and digital platforms used by school:

  • Purple Mash
  • Office 365/ Microsoft Teams
  • Times Table Rock Stars
  • Spag.com
  • Education City
  • Vocabulary Ninja
  • Accelerated Reader
  • Virtual Classrooms

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 can issue or lend laptops to children, contact school for more information.
  • Children can be sent home learning packs if they do not have online access.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Some examples of our remote teaching approaches:

  • Live teaching (online lessons)
  • Recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
  • Printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
  • Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences.
  • Long-term project work and/or 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?

  • We expect that children engage with remote learning for the minimum number of hours outlined above each day. This may include live lessons, prerecorded lessons and activities on the internet or in workbooks and on worksheets.
  • The learning for each day will be posted on the class blog. This will give instructions for tasks to be completed.
  • We expect that parents set up routines for their children at home to allow them the time and space to learn. Your child may sometimes need support in some areas of the curriculum and you should also provide this e.g. reading and understanding the set tasks.

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

  • Teachers will check daily if children have engaged with work activities on purple mash.
  • If there is a concern with your child’s engagement with remote learning you will be contacted by school via a phone call and/or email.

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:

  • Verbal feedback given to children by the teacher in live lessons.
  • Written feedback will be given through Purple Mash on activities completed in this way.
  • Other tasks may mean feedback is given through emails to parents to pass on to children.
  • Some feedback will be given 1:1 to the child in phone calls/ online meetings.

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:

  • Children with SEND will be assigned a keyworker to work closely with.
  • Children with SEND may have 1:1 sessions with a keyworker.
  • Work activities for Reception and Nursery children will also be posted on a class blog in Purple Mash. These activities are more likely to be active and will need to be supported by parents. Some worksheets may be provided through the post to complete.
  • The teacher of reception and nursery will be available through phone calls to talk about activities and give advice if needed.

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?

We may:

  • Send children home with workbooks and worksheets to complete independently.
  • Direct children to virtual classrooms and online tools to choose activities to do independently.
  • If an isolating SEND child requires 1:1 intervention this could be provided via teams with a keyworker.