Remote Learning Plan

When teaching children in school, the basic principles are the following:

• Find out what the children know within a well constructed curriculum (assessment).

• Instruct the children on how to make the next step of learning through worked examples (direct instruction).

• The children practise/apply the concept and the teaching staff provide clear and productive support (feedback).

• Ensure the children remember and retain learning.

Some of these elements are easier to provide remotely than others.

Assessment can be challenging, as the teacher is not directly present to construct tasks and questions. They also don’t know how much support is being provided to the child.

Instruction is challenging, because there isn’t the interaction with the children that you have in the classroom. It is also difficult to provide the appropriate instruction to children with different needs.

Practising concepts is less challenging, as tasks can be provided at the appropriate level, and should be less difficult to support at home. Online platforms also provide good opportunities for the children to tackle set tasks, as well as providing the child and teacher information on progress.

Feedback can be done remotely through marking, comments and follow-up tasks. However, the children are less able to support each other, and the feedback from staff isn’t as dynamic and quick as it is in the classroom.

Remembering and retaining learning is possible through the practising of concepts, as well as applying previous learning within new units.

Our Approach to Remote Learning

After the period of lockdown we learned a lot about remote learning and undertook training on digital learning platforms as well as receiving valuable feedback from you all. Each teacher produces their own plan, which reflects the needs of the children and their age. If these plans are needed, they will be shared with the relevant families immediately. All plans follow these principles:

1. Daily practise tasks

2. Units of learning across the curriculum

3. Feedback mechanisms

4. Communication systems

The chart above shows how this has been planned across the school.

We know that many families struggled with devices at home, and that some elements of Google Classroom were a little tricky without training. All of the online platforms are practised in school with the children, and indeed we believe we have purchased some extremely good new ones too. Now that we are better prepared, there are also paper based tasks that will be provided, as well as equipment that you may be short of at home. We have been allocated some devices from the DfE to be used when children need to self-isolate, and we can loan some of our devices too. There aren’t enough for everyone, so if you feel that you need to borrow a device, or need help with internet access, then please, please get in touch.

Expectations

• When a child or bubble are self-isolating, we expect the children to be completing the work provided on a daily basis (unless they are unable due to illness etc). Government guidance sets out that KS1 children should complete 3 hours per day, and KS2 children 4 hours.

• They should complete ongoing daily practise tasks as well as the units of learning provided by the class teacher. If necessary, class teachers will provide additional plans and packs every 2 weeks.

• There are a number of ways to keep in touch with us in school so please let us know if you are struggling with anything. You can send completed work back to the teachers through Google Classroom for some year groups, and by email for all classes. It can be work completed on a device or you can send a photo of something completed, whichever is the most suitable.

• The lessons and tasks provided will be what the children were going to be studying in class, so it is extremely important that they engage with it so that they are not behind when returning to school. We have selected Oak National Academy for video instruction, as there are high quality videos that take the children through the lesson step-by-step, and excellent coverage across the whole curriculum in each year group.

• The teaching staff will be monitoring which children have completed their tasks on a daily basis, and providing feedback on the work completed. Online platforms such as Accelerated Reader, Spelling Shed and Mathletics provide feedback after every task.

Live vs Recorded Lessons

I know some families have expressed a wish for live lessons, or virtual teaching, with the staff. On the face of it, this sounds a very good approach to meeting the principles outlined earlier. Unfortunately, there are a number of issues with using virtual/live lessons:

• The teaching staff have children in school who they need to support. With 30 children to cater for (in and out of school), with often a wide range of needs, different resources etc, we haven’t got the resources to provide live lessons fairly and efficiently.

• It is very challenging to cater for different learning needs through a virtual lesson.

• Teachers also have to keep up with providing feedback and answering queries on Google Classroom/email.

• Not all children would be able to log on to a virtual live lesson, or at the same time, which would make things very inefficient for the teacher, and also put some children at a disadvantage.

• Many children have siblings at home, and if we were to schedule live lessons through the day, many families would not be able to attend them all due to lack of devices and timetabling clashes. This would leave some children at a disadvantage, which is not something we are prepared to accept.

• Having a rigid timetable, might disadvantage some families who might have other pressures on their time.

• If classes have to self-isolate (including the staff), then providing live lessons becomes even more problematic due to access to resources etc. If staff are at home looking after their own families, providing live lessons again becomes extremely challenging. It staff are absent due to illness, live lessons will not be possible, and consistency would drop.

• There are often a lot of technical issues with virtual meetings, which would result in lost time that could be better spent on other learning tasks.

• There could be the possibility of someone from outside of school gaining access to the lesson. In some cases, offensive and inappropriate materials have been shared into virtual meetings intentionally.

• We would not be able to control the behaviour of other members of households, who may accidentally use inappropriate language in the background.

• There are privacy and confidentiality considerations when exposing different households to one another online.

Therefore, on balance, we have decided to focus our energy on quality online videos, online learning platforms, personalised learning units and paper packs.

We will be delivering live assemblies on Mondays and Fridays, as well as classes having weekly live sessions to bring all the children together.

Here is a link to an article from Ofsted on what they recommend.

The Oak National Academy videos have been selected so that the children receive instruction (and families too if needed) and explanation, with the added bonus that they can be paused and replayed as many times as is needed. This would not be possible with live virtual lessons, where children could be left behind, or others held back. The units of learning have been put together by experienced teachers, matched to the national curriculum and is funded by the DfE.

Nearly all of the daily practise online platforms can be used at anytime, not just in self isolation, and are very useful in bringing the children on in core skills.

Don’t forget the Learning Zone, Hobby Zone and Relaxation Zone too - there is lots to do!! The Learning Zone has over 100 links (and growing) to other quality resources, which can add to the work provided by the staff. This includes links to BBC Bitesize which is broadcasting primary age lessons on CBBC every morning.

Keeping in Touch

We do want to keep in touch with the children, and they can make contact with their teachers through different mechanisms (within school hours). If your children would like to speak to a member of staff on the phone, we will certainly call them. There is also the opportunity to provide messages etc through Google Classroom, which can be checked by the staff. The Arbor Parent Portal also allows parents to send messages to school.

The staff will share good examples of home learning through each class Twitter account, which can also be viewed from the class pages on the website. We will also investigate how we can include children learning at home in assemblies, through the use of recorded and potentially live streamed assemblies through Google Meet.

If you need support with translation, remember that pages such as this one can be translated using the button at the top, documents in Google Drive/Docs etc can be translated within the ‘File’ menu and there are apps that can help with translation too. Please get in touch if you need help.

Staff will make regular wellbeing calls with families to see if any help is needed, and importantly to ensure that children are safe and well.

Remote Learning Tips

• Establishing a daily routine is extremely important to keep the children focused and engaged.

• Providing them with a quiet and ordered place to work.

• Break the day up, and tell the children what is coming next.

• Reward them for trying hard, keep positive and set a goal for each day.

• Get in touch with the class teachers if you need any help.

• Monitor what the children engage with online.

Hopefully these plans will not be needed very often, as we know how difficult remote learning is for the children as well as the families.

Mr Sharp has overall responsibility for the quality of remote learning, and if you have any questions or suggestions, please get in touch.