Howick Church of England Primary School

Remote Learning

Rationale

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. 

At Howick we are committed to providing both direct and remote teaching and learning opportunities to all our pupils. In order to deliver a coherent range of curricular experiences, our staff are committed to giving pupils access to learning activities which will meet their needs, building upon prior learning.

Aims

• To provide a progressive curriculum which ensures high levels of attainment.
• To ensure that we have clear expectations for work and feedback either at home or in school so that all children are able to achieve and parents are able to actively engage in learning.
• To provide a broad and balanced curriculum aimed at developing the whole child.
• To develop resilience, perseverance, challenge and support so our children have the confidence to aim high and aspire to more, becoming creative, critical thinkers.
• To recognise each child as a unique individual.
• To ensure that learning is underpinned by the teaching of basic skills, knowledge, concepts and values.
• To provide enhancement opportunities to engage learning.

Teaching & Learning: Roles and Responsibilities

The role of staff:

• To provide new learning as well as reinforcement and consolidation of prior learning.
• To build upon the skills learned during lockdown as appropriate.
• To promote an ethos of inclusion, respect, fairness and equality.
• To ensure that cyber resilience and internet safety is central to all digital technology. See Digital Learning and Teaching Policy.
• To provide support and guidance for pupils.
• To keep abreast of research and national agenda.
• To engage with effective learning and teaching resources.
• To foster an open pathway of communication between the school and home where appropriate.
• To adhere to government Health and Safety guidelines.

The role of the pupils:

• To ensure everyone feels valued, respected and included.
• To promote respect in relation to the rights of others.
• To contribute their views during direct and remote learning.
• To engage in learning through our digital platform.
• To offer peer support and guidance through shared learning.

The role of parents:

• To support the school values.
• To foster an open pathway of communication between the school and home where appropriate.

Guidelines for Learning and Teaching

We know that the idea of supporting your child’s learning can seem daunting. It is important to remember that you are not expected to become a teacher and that your child does not need to learn in the same way as they do in school. The most important aspect is the relationship that you already have with your child, this will enable you to support and reassure them during this unusual time.

All children and young people will routinely be provided with work from their school. This should form the basis of your child’s day around which you can plan other activities. We expect that all pupils will engage with remote learning and follow class timetable as far as possible. All classes have a Google Classroom. All teachers are responsible for planning, assessment and for meeting the needs of all children. To ensure continuity of provision in the event of staff illness, access for the senior management team will be granted.

Across the week, your child will be set a variety of activities from most curricular areas. However, there is no expectation that children should be undertaking formal learning activities all day every day from 9am-3pm. With your child, plan the day out in advance, doing this will help to reduce pressure or anxiety. Ensure that they have a range of short ‘chunks’ of time when they are engaged in an activity.  Learning may include;

• 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)
• textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
• 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 (as per the schools full opening guidance, schools full opening guidance, schools are expected to avoid an over-reliance on these approaches).

Staff will provide; 

• Daily feedback/marking for all classes for Maths, Literacy and Phonics ( 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)
• Weekly feedback for foundation subjects
• A phone call home during the isolation period to check on well being, access to learning and progress.

If during this process we become concerned about engagement with work, a member of the SLT team will be informed so that you can be contacted.  We would like it to be clear that we are here to support and want to work with you as a team during any remote learning periods.  

Not all activities should require direct adult support, plan so that children can undertake some activities independently in order to ensure that you can continue to work at home if necessary. It is important to make sure that your child is not sitting working online all day, factor in time for breaks, lunch, shared activities, time outdoors and fresh air. 

Independent research and learning should be encouraged.   A variety of different activities such as board games, puzzles or outdoor games can help your child to further develop skills such as problem solving, turn taking, cooperating with others and resilience. There is no right or wrong; playing a board game in the evening can be just as valuable as completing a maths worksheet.

The assignment function within Google Classroom should be used to enable pupils to submit evidence of their learning .Teachers will assess and track all learning submissions and provide appropriate feedback where relevant.  Where possible pupils should log in to their accounts to track progress.  Where web-based activities do not offer a tracking/assessment function then pupils should record their progress and share with the teacher.  This could be in a document/spreadsheet or a screenshot of the result.

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. If this is the case, we would ask you to contact the school office so that an alternative can be provided.  This can involve the lending of an electronic device or supplying paper copies of work which can then be returned to school once the isolation period is over.  

The Google Classroom help centre for further support if required. https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/?hl=en#topic=6020277

Supporting children with additional needs

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:

• carefully differentiated and varied work
• increased contact from school including the SENCO, Mr Andrew Hunt

Finally and most importantly, remember that you are not alone. School staff are keen to support you and your child wherever they can. There’s no such thing as a ‘silly’ question. If you are in doubt, please use Google Classroom to communicate with staff or for specific issues use the class emails;