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 or the ability to safely staff the school require some cohorts or whole bubbles to remain at home. This will also apply where parents choose for their child to stay at home and during a period of time where an individual pupil is self-isolating.
The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home
During a pupil’s first day or two of being educated remotely teachers will be in touch with parents individually to discuss the situation with parents and to agree a way forward which takes into account the individual context of the child, their families and any other commitments during a longer period of remote teaching.
What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?
The teacher is likely to send with the child / or through the post a ‘home learning pack’ with a range of appropriate resources. They will ring you within the first day or two to discuss this and what you will have the capacity to do at home in terms of work.
There will be no expectation that you will have to do the work set with your child and there can be discussion around what you feel is appropriate and can be managed with the class teacher. It may be appropriate for more independent living skills activities to form the basis of work, or we may conclude that for the wellbeing of the family we will suspend schoolwork activities until your child can return to school.
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?
Due to the individuality of our pupils, their needs and the amounts of support that they require to access remote learning, their individual offer will be very varied. Our first priority within the family will be to establish what would be reasonable for the parents being able to manage whilst maintaining positive wellbeing in the household, when bearing in mind all the other pressures the family may be facing (support siblings with home schooling, working from home, supporting extended family with shopping etc).
Where families are able to support some level of home learning the visual resources sent home and the types of lesson delivered online would be looking to reflect the curriculum style of teaching we use to help the pupils to feel that there is consistency in expectations and in the offer.
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 be individualised according to the pupil and family needs. Therefore we will not be setting an expectation in terms of a number of hours each day across the school.
We recognise that, whilst we do have some classes where pupils are able to access their remote education independently and therefore be working for most of the school day either through the remote lessons or linked activities, the majority of the pupils will require significant 1:1 support to access remote learning. For this reason we are liaising closely with parents to understand the amount of work that they feel is appropriate for them to work through with their child. This flexible arrangement can easily be adjusted to support the family depending on how their situation changes.
Accessing remote education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
In order to be able to offer online learning without making the whole experience too complex we have been working with Zoom to deliver the lessons. We are very much aware that virtual learning will not be appropriate and successful with all of the pupils in the school, however it is proving to be beneficial for a larger number of the pupils than we had initially thought it would be.
These online learning sessions are all arranged individually by the teacher. The teacher and support staff will be assessing how the children are accessing the virtual learning and may suggest alternatives or strategy to improve engagement.
Teachers and parents work closely together to assess and record evidence.
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:
Where pupils are struggling to access online learning due to the lack of access to the technology to do so. Freemantles school is:
- Lending laptops or tablets to pupils, more information is available through kferris@freemantles.surrey.sch.uk
- If required we can also lend devices that enable an internet connection (for example, routers or dongles), more information available as above.
- Teachers are aware of parents who are unable to print resources and we are either sending out or delivering home learning packs to support and supplement the lessons that are being taught on line.
How will my child be taught remotely?
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
Some examples of remote teaching approaches:
- 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)
- online reading books
- commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
- Ideas of other important learning activities which don’t feel like school work.
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?
As indicated elsewhere we are keen to work closely with parents and want to set up a remote learning package which is achievable for the specific family context. Where a family feels unable to manage ‘school work’ due to their child’s perception of the distinction between home and school we still receive reports of progress in important areas such as communication and life skills.
Therefore our expectations are that parents will engage in these conversations with us and feedback honestly about how things are and what is achievable
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
This will largely be achieved either through the online learning or the regular conversations held with parents.
In many cases the children who are struggling most to engage with the remote learning at all are the pupils who are attending school, either part or full time, and are therefore accessing an educational offer through this route at the time.
How will you assess my child’s work and progress?
As in the rest of our planning for remote learning the assessing of work and progress will be individualised.
Teachers may be seeking feedback from parents, collecting evidence through photographs sent in, or using online quizzes to assess the children’s understanding depending on the child and their needs.
The communication with and feedback from parents is as important here as it is in any other part of the programme.
