Remote Learning Newsletter 11th January 2021
Article 4
The government has a responsibility to make sure your rights are protected. They must help your family to protect your rights and create an environment where you can grow and reach your potential.
Remote Learning
Since September 2020, we have already been delivering remote education where it has been needed, for pupils who are isolating at home. We have continually been improving our provision in line with expectations and emerging best practice.
The DfE guidance makes it clear that schools have a duty to provide remote education for state-funded, school-age children whose attendance would be contrary to government guidance or law around coronavirus (COVID-19).
The guidance states that:
“remote education provided should be equivalent in length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school and will include both recorded or live direct teaching time, and time for pupils to complete tasks and assignments independently. The amount of remote education provided should be, as a minimum:
- Nursery children have learning activities and packs for parents to collect are available from today, if your child is not in school.
- Reception: 3 hours a day on average across the cohort, with less for younger children
- Key Stage 1: 3 hours a day on average across the cohort, with less for younger children
Younger children in Key Stage 1 or Reception often require high levels of parental involvement to support their engagement with remote education, which makes digital provision a particular challenge for this age group. We therefore do not expect that solely digital means will be used to teach these pupils remotely.
- Key Stage 2: 4 hours a day
- We also recognise that some pupils with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) may not be able to access remote education without adult support.”
Teachers have planned remote learning and learning in school to mirror each other so that all children are getting the same curriculum. However, in school, teachers and support staff will be facilitating the learning through questioning, addressing misconceptions and immediate feedback throughout each lesson. Therefore, you may find that some children at home are telling you that they have completed learning that has been set. In school, the entire lesson is needed to deliver this learning and teachers have commented that the learning could continue for a longer period of time than they have available. Therefore, home learning will require some intervention from an adult to ensure that the child is completing all learning activities.
Last week, remote learning was set for all children from Tuesday 5th January, the day after Boris Johnson’s announcement that schools should only be open for vulnerable children or children of key workers. Our expectation is that children not attending school should be engaging with remote learning and submitting completed learning activities on a daily basis so that staff can provide feedback.
The DfE guidance says that they expect schools to:
“have systems for checking, daily, whether pupils are engaging with their work, and work with families to rapidly identify effective solutions where engagement is a concern”
Thank you to the many parents and children who have submitted their learning and received feedback from their teachers. Many children are engaging daily and successfully with work set. However, we can see on the TEAMS system that some children have viewed the learning but have not yet submitted their work. Please see last week’s newsletters on how to hand in work if you are unsure on how to do this. A small number of children have not yet accessed any remote learning or let us know that they are having difficulty in doing so. To fulfil our obligations, this week school will be calling parents where children have not engaged with the remote learning that has been set to offer advice and support. This will continue throughout the period of lockdown.
We appreciate that home educating children is extremely challenging and will do our best to support you. You may find it helpful if you have a structured routine at home for learning, with regular breaks. Children then have a mind-set of when it is time to learn and when they have free time. It is helpful if parents and children work together to establish these routines right from the start, then both child and parents know the expectations. Routines will be different in each household.
All staff are in school daily and are continuing to deliver whole class lessons as well as remote learning. Interventions for children attending school are continuing as usual.
If you have any safeguarding concerns, please contact school and speak to either Mrs Miller or Miss Stanton. Or, if it is a matter of urgency and out of school hours, please contact the MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub) on 0300 555 0050.
Best wishes,
Mrs Miller and Miss Stanton
