Remote Learning Guidance
Remote learning refers to learning that is completed away from the physical school building. The overall purpose of remote learning is to minimise the disruption to pupils’ education through providing access to learning that mirrors what would have been provided in school.
At St Mary’s C of E Junior School, we understand the need to continually deliver high quality education, including during periods of remote working whether for an individual pupil, a specific bubble or for the whole school due to a local or national lockdown. We recognise the importance of maintaining high expectations in all areas of school life and ensuring that all pupils have access to the learning resources and support they need to succeed.
At St Mary’s we will endeavour to teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school. However, for some of the practical Foundation subjects this may not be possible e.g. Art and Design Technology.
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.
How will this be provided?
A child, family or group of children could be required to isolate for up to 10 days. Some children maybe ill during this period but the vast majority will be well and isolating as a precaution to break the chain of transmission.
Government guidelines require schools to provide education for children who are in isolation. Guidance for Primary.
At St Mary's we aim to do this by:
- Providing between 3-4 hours of home learning each day (this does not include breaks etc.)
- Using Google Classroom as our main platform for setting & responding to work and communicating with the children;
- Make use of our on-line subscription services to support the learning. These include TT Rockstars, Education City and Mathletics;
- Recommend other apps and web based learning to enhance our provision;
- Aligning remote education, after the first day, with the St Mary’s curriculum to ensure pupils can move easily between physical and remote education;
- Where new material is required to be taught, provide this through third party videos, direct remote teaching, school created videos of lesson inputs or annotated PowerPoints. This will vary according to the age of the child, the curriculum area and the number of children isolating at the time;
Provide daily contact with the pupils, for example through:
- Feedback in Google Classrooms,
- Google meets,
- Phone conversations,
- Using a range of assessment techniques remotely to establish what learning is taking place.
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.
When will my child receive remote learning? How will they get feedback?
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Situation |
What remote learning will be provided? |
What feedback and contact can I expect? |
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Child is ill with a ‘standard’ childhood illness e.g. cold or chicken pox |
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Contact as per attendance policy from the office staff |
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Child is isolating, awaiting a test result or awaiting a test result of a household member |
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No feedback provided |
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A single child, or a small group of children, are isolating because they have had a positive test, or a member of household has had a positive test, – 10-day absence likely.
A child is isolating due to contact with a positive case and contact from the track and trace system – 10-day isolation period.
|
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Feedback through Google Classroom from the class teacher assisted by the LSA. |
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Whole class bubble is isolating due to positive test within the bubble.
Adults are well but isolating. |
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Feedback through Google Classroom from class team.
Likely to be lots of opportunities to self-mark and turn in their score and/or the errors.
|
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Whole class bubble isolated and adults are not well. |
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Via Google Classroom. Opportunities to self-mark and turn in their score and/or the errors.
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Local lockdown. |
Decisions on remote learning in this situation will be made as, and when, it happens. This will be influenced by severity of lockdown – Tier 4 would require provision for key workers and this would impact on what learning is set and how feedback is managed due to the need to have staff in school. |
To be decided depending on severity of the lockdown and the number of staff required in school. |
Home and School Partnership
St Mary’s Junior School is committed to working in close partnership with families and recognises each family is unique and, because of this, remote learning will look different for different families in order to suit their individual needs
The School moved to using Google Classrooms in September for weekly home-learning in order to ensure that teachers, parents and pupils are familiar with it should isolation be necessary. If you experience issues with access, please contact your child’s class teacher or the school office who will endeavour to assist.
Where possible, it is beneficial for young people to maintain a regular and familiar routine. It is therefore recommended that each school day contains a familiar structure. To support families to do this, a suggested timetable is provided on each child’s Google classroom.
We would encourage parents to support their children’s work, including finding an appropriate place to work and, to the best of their ability, support pupils with work; encouraging them to work with good levels of concentration.
Every effort will be made by staff to ensure that work is set promptly and as far as is possible by the end of the previous day. This is to allow parents the opportunity to familiarise themselves with what is required. Should accessing work be an issue, parents should contact school promptly and alternative solutions may be available. This may include providing paper copies or a loan laptop, and or devices that enable internet connections, under the governments scheme. These will be discussed on case-to-case basis by contacting the headteacher.
All children sign an ‘Acceptable Use Policy’ at school which includes e-safety rules and this applies when children are working on computers at home. Where a child does not adhere to the acceptable use policy and/or is consistently disrespectful to other members of the community while working remotely, a phone call will be made by a senior member of staff to discuss the behaviour with the parent.
All pupils, except those who are ill, are expected to:
- Complete work to the deadline set by teachers
- Seek help if they need it, from teachers
- Alert teachers if they are not able to complete work.
If teachers have concerns around the level of engagement of a pupil, they will contact parents via email or phone to assess whether school intervention can assist engagement.
Additional support for pupils with particular needs
At St Mary’s we recognise that some children, 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:
- Differentiate tasks to meet the needs of individuals
- Provide additional support from LSAs as and when needed
- Ensure that pupils with EHC plans continue to have their needs met
- Liaise with partner organisations e.g. Speech and Language to ensure provision continues
- Loan families additional practical equipment that they use in school
Remote Learning policy
Refer also to the policy which can be found in the policies' section of the website