Remote/Home Education:
Remote / Home education provision from Springhead School and Sixth Form: information for families
Please see our Remote Education policy on the ‘Policies’ page. The information in the policy is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and families about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require bubbles to remain at home.
For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.
The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home
What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?
All pupils are issued with Remote/ Home Learning Packs, which contain activities, worksheets and other curriculum related resources which can be used at home. These have usually been sent home in advance so they are ready for use when needed during self isolation or lockdown situations. Further packs may be delivered to you by post, by email or delivered to your house if needed. Please also see the school website in the LEARNING section and then click on REMOTE AND HOME LEARNING.
The class teacher or a member of the class team will usually be in touch with you within the first few days to discuss support needs with you.
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 this is possible and appropriate. However, we will need to make adaptations to meet the learning needs, required levels of support and ages of our pupils.
Remote teaching and study time each day
How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?
Whilst the government sets specific hours of expected work for children in Mainstream schools for remote learning we are not expecting families to access remote learning for specified hours each day as each child and each family are so different. What we do ask is that if possible you do access some of the suggested learning activities each day. This may be watching and listening to a suggested story on You tube or taking part in some physical activity or in some cases it may be that your child is able to complete some written or ICT specific task. Where your child is able to access the work provided or access an online lesson then we do expect that they will. A few of our children will be able to do this with no or minimal support from family. What we do say to all of our families is that we recognise how hard it will be to have your child at home when they expect to be in school and if you are not able to engage your child in any of the suggested activities DO NOT WORRY. If there is anything that we have not provided that you think may help then please do ask the school to support.
Accessing remote education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
Online remote learning may be delivered through Google Classrooms, emailed work, printed materials in Remote Learning Packs, or online video calls via Microsoft TEAMS or GoogleMeet. Teachers will provide this information to families.
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:
Please let school know if you do not have a laptop or electronic device at home for your child to use to access home learning. We may be able to support.
Pupils’ Remote/Home Learning Packs are supplied and updated as needed by school mailing printed work home so that your child does not need to always access home learning electronically.
How will my child be taught remotely?
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
• printed paper packs produced by teachers (Remote Learning Packs)
• resources for home learning on the school website. See the Learning section and then click on Remote and Home Learning
• live teaching (online lessons)
• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
• textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
• Project work and/or internet research
• Lessons posted onto Google Classrooms, with the facility for pupils’ completed work to be shared with teachers.
• Work and resources emailed home
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 recognise that most of our pupils’ special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), will make it difficult to 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 this and also to reassure families that if your child does not access remote or home learning DO NOT WORRY. We will discuss this with you and reassure you that you do not need to access remote learning with your child if this creates issues at home. You need to be kind to yourselves, we know how difficult it is!
The requirement for schools to use their best endeavors to secure the special educational provision called for by the pupils’ special educational needs remains in place.
School will work collaboratively with families, putting in place reasonable adjustments as necessary, so that pupils can successfully access appropriate remote education without causing undue pressure upon the family or distress to the pupil.
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be supported?
• School will regularly check in with parents, carers and children, where appropriate, by phone and email.
• School will keep a log of pupils working at home and their level of engagement in lessons and activities provided.
• School will liaise with families who are finding it hard to engage their children in home learning, or who are struggling otherwise during national restrictions and plan appropriately to support them and their child. Above all we ask families not to worry or be stressed if their child does not access the provided Remote/Home learning.
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:
Where it is appropriate to the pupil and the kind of learning we have put in place, feedback will be given to pupils and families in the following ways:
Online video calls; Written feedback, eg via Google classroom, email; Phone calls.
Teachers will continue to make assessments of work completed, or online lessons contributed to.
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?
Remote Learning Packs or Google Classroom resources will be updated to reflect, where appropriate, the work which will continue in school. If this is not possible, suggested work and activities will meet their more general developmental needs.
January 2022
Useful links:
https://www.thenational.academy/
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