Remote Learning

This page was set up during periods of lockdown (Covid-19 pandemic)

Remote education provision for Great Sankey Primary

Information for parents and carers

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from our remote education offer during any period of time where pupils are expected to or have to remain at home.

What should my child expect from remote education each day?

Staff will post a morning message on the Google Classroom stream to greet the children. Children will then be expected to take part in a daily morning ‘registration’ session to make sure they are well and are ready for the day’s activities. They will be given a suggested timetable for the day as well. This is only a suggested timetable as we recognise that parents may be working from home and need to support their child with their remote learning alongside their own job.

Activities for the day will be posted on the classwork tab and children are expected to work through the tasks. Children are encouraged to take a least one photo of their work per day and post onto the class stream.

Questions and queries can also be posted onto the stream or alongside the task. The teacher will endeavour to answer these during the day, however it may not be an immediate response as they are also teaching in class.

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 / Key Stage 1
An average of 3 hours a day for children in Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2
An average of 4 hours a day for children in Key Stage 2

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

Parents and children are familiar with Google Classroom as we have used it since March 2020 and continue to use it as a tool for uploading homework tasks and other useful information for families. Online learning will also be delivered thrpough the digital programs we use such as Reading Eggs, TT Rockstars, Spelling Frame and Learning by Questions.

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:

• Survey parents via Parentmail as to who does not have sufficient access to electronic devices and / or Wi-Fi access.
• Carry out a loan service for those pupils who do not have sufficient electronic devices at home.
• Support with providing dongles etc. to ensure Wi-Fi in the home where necessary.
• Staff will aim to limit the amount of printed resources needed, however, where there are worksheets and parents do not have access to printing, they will be either encouraged to record the work in their books or send in an email request to school to have it printed and collect from the school office.
• Paper packs / published work books supplied where appropriate.
• Pupils school workbooks to record work sent home where appropriate.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

• Recorded teaching (e.g video/audio recordings made by teachers, Oak National Academy lessons).
• Live teaching (online lessons as well as sessions to maintain a sense of school community).
• Access to prepared slides which depict the learning for the lesson
• Printed paper packs produced by teachers where appropriate.
• Purchased online educational resources which support the teaching such as Learning by Questions, Reading Eggs, TT Rockstars, White Rose Maths etc.
• Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences

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?

• It is expected that all pupils working remotely at home engage in their online learning each day. However, we recognise that for our younger children, they will rely on their parents for support and acknowledge that many parents will be working from home. As always, our message is to do what you are able to do.
• If your child is unable to engage in their remote learning on that a particular day due to illness etc. we ask that you contact the school in the morning to report their absence from learning. Teachers will then be aware that there will be no engagement from your child on the Google Classroom that day.
• Children are encouraged to post at least one photograph of their work onto the class stream each day so that the class teacher can offer some feedback and make comments. Children can also turn in assignments as well as comment on their work on the class stream. Our KS2 children all have access to Learning by Questions which automatically allows teachers to monitor engagement with the resource.
• We encourage parents to be involved and support their child’s home learning but recognise for many who are working from home, this could pose a challenge so as always we ask you to do what you can.

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

Teachers will monitor online engagement daily by checking the stream for uploaded photographs and comments which discuss the work set. Engagement can also be checked through monitoring the turned in assignments and for KS2 pupils, the use of Learning by Questions also allows for checking.
Teachers will contact you via telephone if they have noticed a lack of engagement to establish what challenges you may be experiencing at home. This conversation will be around how we can further support you and your child with home learning and to encourage greater engagement.

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:

• Teacher comments (individually, group or whole class) on the class stream to celebrate achievements and offer ways to improve the piece of work if appropriate.
• Quizzes such as Fast 5 retrieval tasks, spelling and knowledge quizzes linked to a specific topic will all support the teacher in their understanding of how well the child is performing at home.
• For KS2, the use of Learning by Questions automatically assess the child’s performance in the number of questions correctly completed as well as the number of attempts at the question made. This informs the teacher as to who is secure in the knowledge or needs further support with it.
• In EYFS and KS1, the use of Reading Eggs ensures that the reading programme is personalised for the child’s ability and allows them to move through it at their own rate of progress. The teachers has a report sent to their device to keep them informed of this.

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 in the following ways:

• By providing personalised paper packs (where appropriate) for the children to support with their learning.
• By assigning differentiated work for SEN pupils (where appropriate).
• By ensuring that, where possible, live sessions are set up as 1:1 or small group to support them and to deliver intervention.

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