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Providing Remote Education for Parents and Carers

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Providing Remote Education

January 2021

A Guide for Parents and Carers

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 (or bubbles) to remain at home, for example in a national lockdown.

It is important to understand that school may have to make decisions on the day that information is shared with our families due to illness or isolation of teachers or deep cleaning priorities. We will endeavour to keep everybody as informed as possible.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

Coop Academy Portland’s remote learning provision will evolve over time as we trial live lessons, expand our collection/delivery programme and roll out our chromebooks to many of the children in our school

What should my child expect from immediate remote education on the first day or two of pupils being sent home?

Children will access their class’ work by visiting our school website and clicking the Home Learning button. They will find their class listed and their work in order of weeks

Each week (i.e. Week 1) will show a PowerPoint/Slides presentation with a linear ‘flow’ of lessons, set out in the same order each week. Objectives will be shared with the pupil as a task title and the work set will follow the 3-step process (shown in the diagram above)

In all years, but particularly in Year 2 and Year 6, exam style questions will be used in the ‘have a go’ work to ensure familiarity with the SATS style questions

Teachers will use resources provided by Maths No Problem, Read Write Inc, the Oak National Academy, Times Table Rockstars, Spelling Shed, Kahoots, White Rose Maths and BBC Bitesize, as well as other resources identified by school curriculum leaders

These resource-based activities will be housed in a PowerPoint/Google Slides published weekly on the school website focusing on 3 core areas of learning: reading/phonics, writing and arithmetic and a programme of foundation subjects and science will be published regularly

The work will be set alongside subject activities with a communication, language and literacy focus, and fitness/mental wellbeing challenges. Turn-taking and independence will also feature in our remote learning work

Children and families can choose from a variety of communication channels for liaising with their class teacher; this could be via email, phone-call, google classroom or dojo

Live lessons will be delivered via Google Classroom and live recorded lessons (this is where the teacher models a task) will be delivered on Dojo

Children have been provided with exercise books for remote learning (and stationery) and workpacks for children who have limited digital access [these packs will go home with children and will reflect their curriculum classwork]

Staff will be timetabled for delivery and collection of work throughout the week until all pupils have a device to digitally submit

Parents are encouraged to share any problem at all with accessing their child’s remote learning by contacting the school office on 652 5124 or emailing

port-schooloffice@coopacademies.co.uk

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 for vulnerable or SEND children where appropriate in school. In some subjects e.g. some foundation subjects, children in school have access to some resources that may not be available at home, Every endeavour is being made to address this imbalance through a collection and delivery model directly to our children’s home. This will also support our feedback and marking programme.

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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:

EYFS

Daily ‘recorded live’ phonics teaching approximately 15 mins

Recorded sessions including story telling, activities to develop the Prime Areas. ( 20 min sessions)

2 hours per day (currently a flexible model i.e. not fixed times))

Key Stage 1

Daily ‘recorded live’ phonics teaching approximately 15 mins

Recorded sessions including story telling, activities to develop reading, writing and speaking & Listening

(20 minutes up to 1 hour for each session)

Number bonds, counting on and back, mathematical explaining work (20 minutes up to 1 hour for each session)

Foundation subject work including science (1 lesson per day) 3 hours per day (currently a flexible model i.e. not fixed times)

Key Stage 2

Teacher modelled activities (recorded live on Dojo) and independent learning directed tasks in English, Maths, spelling, handwriting and foundation subject work

4 hours per day (currently a flexible model i.e. not fixed times)

Upper

Key Stage 2

Maple Class

Pilot

10am to 3pm (hour for lunch)

Blend of live lesson introductions, modelled work and independent tasks 4 hours per day (a non-flexible model)

* plans to move towards the Maple Class pilot model

Accessing remote education

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

All children will view their work on the website under the Home Learning button. Children will follow the lessons in order and complete work in their Remote Learning exercise books that they have been given.

All pupils will access the teacher-modelling remote education through learning platforms Tapestry (EYFS), Dojo and Google Classroom (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2). 

Parents can contact class teachers directly for over-the phone tutorials to support them in accessing these digital platforms.

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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: 

A full review of family digital access has been carried out and a plan to address pupils without devices and families without internet is in place. All of our families should have access to a chromebook following February half term 2021

In the meantime, small screen plans (accessed by mobile phone) are in place with opportunities for our families to collect the corresponding workpacks from the school

Normal communication pathways are used (like Dojo) to keep with what parents are used to

All school staff are readily available to address issues with engagement and barriers to learning and there is a weekly programme of collection and delivery to maintain links with our families and provide resources, stationery and offer direct feedback to children

Our Trust Welfare and Engagement grid allows SLT to identify the children who are not ‘engaging’ with remote learning and the families are contacted to see how we can best support them with accessing remote learning

How will my child be taught remotely?

PowerPoint/Google Slides are used to show our remote learning plans as it is easy to scroll down and presents the learning tasks in a step-by-step, linear fashion. This can be found on the Home Learning button on our school website.

Alongside this, our children and families will use their normal platform for communication with the school ‘Dojo’ to watch videos of the teachers bringing the learning to life

In Year 6 Google Classroom is the model used for a much more interactive programme of lessons due to all children having access to a school-loaned chromebook (after February half term, we plan to roll out this programme

to all children starting with Key Stage 2)

Teachers follow their long term curriculum plans supplemented by a range of software apps and resources to help support remote engagement. This includes (but is not exhaustive): Loom, Kahoots and Screencastify, timetable rockstars, Ruth Miskin’s ReadWriteInc phonics, BBC Bitesize, Purple Mash, hit the button and Oak Academy material

Our aim is to provide an equitable offer for children attending school and for those working remotely from home with ‘Bubble Leads’ supporting accessing the remote learning programme and teachers supporting with a bespoke programme to ‘keep up, catch up’ for vulnerable children

Foundation subject activities will be sourced from The Oak Academy resources but will match our national curriculum programmes of study here at Coop Academy Portland. Teachers will adapt lessons where appropriate to promote communication, language and literacy and to develop opportunities for exercise, turn-taking and independence

We try to embed the training from Hywel Roberts to engage our learners, and use narrative, story-telling and dramatic techniques to bring alive the content of the lesson. We want our learners to be ‘bothered’ about their remote learning activities and to visualise their teachers bringing their work to life at home, as well as in the classroom

3-step model

Our Covid curriculum, in class and remotely, follows our curriculum long term plans and each lesson follows a 3-step model to support our children’s learning.

We will follow our Maths No Problem curriculum using images and models but we will teach our children this process to help support their learning and familiarise them with being inspired, having a scaffolded try and then working more independently

All parents in KS1 and KS2 have been invited to subscribe to the free Maths No Problem parent guides and workbooks have been issued to use at home to support learning

Our children are familiar with using a maths mastery approach in school and using concrete resources. To overcome this barrier at home they have been introduced to using the interactive manipulatives available on Maths Bots. These include counters, dienes, number-lines and tens frames. LInks to these are added to maths slides. New mathematics vocabulary is highlighted, and use of online maths dictionaries are signposted

Our teachers’ plans include regular opportunities to revisit work and revisit concepts of learning to help support long term memory learning

‘Live’ teaching programme

A live teaching programme will be rolled out following each year group receiving a chromebook - this is, and always has been our plan

Our children will follow the pilot model currently being accessed by our Maple Class children (upper KS2). This includes:

- 10am ‘Power Up’ maths and maths lesson introduction

- Independent maths work (following teacher modelling)

- Completing the session with a 10 ‘break-out room’ social interaction

session with close friends (see Rules of Remote Lessons below)

- 11:15am English introduction and writing modelling

- Independent English work task

- 11:45am mid-task check-in to address issues, remodel, gain feedback - 1pm Independent foundation subject task (science to be teacher-led) - Dojo/Google Classroom correspondence and live feedback opportunities available all afternoon

- 2:30pm Active Reading with class text (books delivered by MSE ‘Kev’)

Maths No Problem texts, class sketch-books, art resources, baking materials, books and other materials will be delivered each week to bring our ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum to life and promote our equitable provision for children working remotely

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We are keen to continue with our reading progress despite our children being at home.

Our teachers will continue to contact their daily readers to hear them read over the phone or via Google Classroom.

Some parents have requested taking videos of themselves listening to their children read instead - and this is absolutely fine. If anybody needs any reading material delivered, or any good texts recommended and dropped off we will! We love helping our readers!

Remote Reading Expectations

Type of reading

Who should be

doing it

Details

Reading for

Pleasure

All children

whether learning at

home or school

A bedtime book is a good example of this.

Can your child sound out the words applying their phonics knowledge?

1:1 reading

Children who need to practise their fluency in reading

Teachers will request regular reading sessions with your child

All children should have access to a book at their reading level (tell us if they do not)

Phonics

EYFS, KS1 and

Some readers in KS2

Virtual RWI lessons are available everyday

Your teachers will share with you the

phonemes (reading sounds) that your child

can do and the next sounds that they need to work on

Home reading

books

Children attending

school

Books can continue to change as normal

Listen to your child read everyday just like

normal

The more they read - the cleverer they’ll be!

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Any family that is struggling to provide books for their children to read at home MUST get in touch with school, via the school office email

port-schooloffice@coopacademies.co.uk or by ‘giving us a bell’

0151 652 5124

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 parents to see our school as an extension of the family!

Tell us when there is illness, a Covid isolation or if your laptop battery has died! Our school’s remote learning plans assume that all children will be engaged and ‘ready to learn’ by 10am. Although if your child has extra ‘keep up, catch up’ work delivered by a tutor, or your teacher needs you to tune in to their session, the school day can begin as normal at 8:55am

Any problems at all that stop your son/daughter/ward from doing their work from home, please tell us so that we can get our thinking caps on and get the issue sorted

Rules of Remote Lessons:

We expect that children will:

“arrive” or log in on time to all of their live lessons

be dressed appropriately for learning do their best to complete all independent learning tasks with headphones on (or in a silent space to think)

request help through Google Meet/ Dojo/Tapestry if they are unsure of what to do, or how to do it and abide by the class’ agreed remote learning rules

Normal behaviour policy will apply with parents being informed about any poor decisions made distracting other children from their learning

We ask that parents and carers

help children to log in to live learning (be willing to follow telephone tutorials to help set your child up)

monitor children’s safe access to the internet

report any problems accessing learning to the class teacher via Dojo, or chat in Google Meet or messages in Tapestry

answer their phone (or their door) to support our school ‘welfare checks’ and to deliver key materials to your child

Any problems outside of the teaching day, parents must email the school

office: port-schooloffice@coopacademies.co.uk FAO Class Teacher

set routines at home to support your child’s education ensure that children “arrive” or log in promptly each morning (late night gaming affects attention and motivation to learn)

Google Meet expectations- live sessions

During the live session, children will need to have their microphones switched off Learners can ask questions by digitally raising their hand or adding questions in the chat

If adults at home need to ask a question, please do so by the chat. The teacher will invite home users to activate their microphone when/if appropriate

If the video link is activated, then an adult must be present with the child throughout the duration of the session. All children and adults must be dressed respectfully and behave appropriately.

Teachers will orientate and amend the structure of the daily live sessions according to the age and needs of their classes following our pilot review in Maple Class

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

Student engagement with remote learning is monitored daily. A welfare and engagement register is taken each afternoon following the day’s work being completed by our children. Where pupils are not engaging, this will initially be followed up with contact home to try and resolve any potential issues.

Where pupils are attending remote education lessons but there are concerns with the quality or quantity of work being done, the individual teachers will make contact with home.

Weekly, teachers update the Covid-19 Welfare and Engagement Register and this is shared across the Co-op Academies Trust. Completion of this grid is based on where families have accessed learning remotely reflecting engagement with remote learning. It is RAG rated and is an informative tool to track the welfare and engagement of Portland families.

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.

Feedback will be given in two ways:

The first, immediate verbal or written responses during live lessons so that the class teacher can adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding

It is what the pupils do with this feedback that then improves their learning. The class teacher may respond with a learning opportunity to ensure that the learning has stuck

The second way is 1:1 teacher response with a verbal recorded message or written feedback using Dojo and Tapestry

Children upload work or send in photographs, or work is collected and this is marked and responded to by the teacher

Weekly, teachers will reflect on how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how to respond to feedback. Teachers when assessing feedback will ensure there are opportunities for learners to forget then remember a few weeks after to ensure that the skill or knowledge has ‘stuck’ and is a change in the long term memory.

Formal assessments will be planned for and formal assessments will be made based on remote learning (skills, matters and processes acquired), where it is appropriate to do so.

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Additional support for pupils with particular needs

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. Please contact our interim SEND Coordinator, Corynne Peace via the school office port-schooloffice@coopacademies.co.uk , with any specific queries.

Children with Support Plans in place accessing remote learning must be accessing the online learning that is provided by their class teacher daily. They must have appropriate tasks set according to their individual needs and not just an expectation to complete tasks that are being set for the whole class that they may be unable to access

Those children who are in the lowest 20% in reading will read 3x week to a member of staff. This will be ideally virtually and if not, via telephone.

If a child with SEND is finding it difficult to access the learning provided by the class teacher, then the activity must be differentiated and class teachers will endeavour to provide a small amount of live additional support on a weekly basis as a minimum focussing on preview and review teaching approaches so that learning is a change in long term memory

Additional support is offered each day for SEND pupils on a 1:1 or small group basis and this provision is through a TA, class teacher support from the pupil premium teacher

Speech and Language assessments will continue to take place on-site every Thursday facilitated by Miss Ceri Smith, and speech and language programmes will continue in the home-setting virtually (HP laptops provided for all Speech and Language children as priority)

Children with EAL who are new to our school will be signposted to activities from British Council (Kids) and will be provided with resources from Inclusion hub facilitated by class teacher

The SENDCo will check in with each teacher at least once per half term to discuss what is in place for each child with a Support Plan

Children in upper KS2 can continue to access their daily IDL English and Maths tasks at home allocated by their class teacher

A bank of windows desktops are being set up for children in the community to regularly access their 1:1 tuition from the academic mentors if they do not have a device at home

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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?

Children isolating will continue to follow the remote lessons on our school website under Home Learning

A pack of work will also be provided to complement the remote lessons, replacing the teacher’s daily engagement work on Dojo (due to him/her teaching the rest of the class)

If families can collect work packs then this will be arranged, alternatively we have an effective delivery programme to support our children in our community receiving their work packs and equipment

Welfare calls are made to the isolating family to check if everything is okay and if there are any issues with learning or any other aspect whilst in isolation e.g. food In the event that there are gaps in the school day for the isolating pupil, we direct pupils to video lessons provided by Oak National Academy, that match the curriculum we are teaching in school