Remote Learning Offer at Town Field Primary
Since the start of the school closures in March 2020 there has been an increased focus on remote education at Town Field with a wide range of approaches continually been developed, evaluated and refined.
Despite the challenges, remote education has made a significant contribution to enabling our children to continue to learn and progress when unable to attend in person.
It is really important that we continue to build on the remote education we are able to provide and make sure that our children are not missing out on learning as we may face periods where children or staff are not able to attend school.
Attendance:
Remote education should not be viewed as an equal alternative to attendance in school. Remote education should only ever be considered as a last resort where a decision has already been made that attendance at school is not possible, but pupils are able to continue learning.
Government:
The Government recognises the importance of children continuing with their education during periods of time at home as a result of restrictions on attendance. As of August 2024, schools are legally required to ensure that children have immediate access to high quality remote education from the first day of absence, related to two scenarios:
· School closures or restrictions on attendance, where school access for pupils is restricted.
· Individual cases where a pupil is unable to attend school but is able to learn e.g. recovery from an operation.
Guidance specifies that the remote education provided from school should help pupils to stay on track with the education they would normally receive.
Town Field Primary will provide remote education if:
Pupils are unable to attend school in person due to unplanned closures, for example, due to adverse weather
The school is required to close or restrict pupil attendance because there are higher than normal levels of staff absence, for example due to strike action
In exceptional cases, a child might be unable to attend for medical reasons but well enough to learn from home, for example recovering from a short-term infectious illness or preparing for or recovering from an operation.
We use the school website for our remote learning provision through the virtual learning environment (VLE) built into it. Pupils can access this by clicking on the Pupil Login button in the top left hand corner.
If your child does not have access to the internet or technology at home then please get in contact with us as there are several ways we can support to make sure that they get access to all the learning that they are entitled to.
How does the School Spider VLE work?
School Spider's pupil’s area means they can pick up work set, complete it and load it back up for marking, engage in online class discussions and blog with pupils in their class and their teacher. This is under the supervision of teaching staff who will approve comments (it also has an automatic checker which pick up on words or phrases that may cause concern and alerts us).
What sort of work will be set?
The amount of work set will be, on average, three hours per day across all activities for Key Stage 1 and four hours for Key Stage 2. This will be a mixture of watching recorded lessons, completing work (both on the computer and away from it and live check ins and feedback. Regular active breaks from the screen are important to maintain both physical and mental well-being and we encourage you to support your child in taking short breaks throughout the day.
Work and instructions will be uploaded by the class teacher and will continue the learning that either was due to be taught in class (whole class) or reflects the work being taught in class (for individual pupils at home).
There will be a mixture of teacher produced resources and activities as well as commercially available online resources such as Oak National Academy, BBC Bitesize and Times Tables Rockstars. Whichever activity or resource best fits the learning will be chosen rather than just using one source.
The activities set will be downloadable in formats that will be accessible to all (for example text may be put direct onto the activity page on school spider or converted to PDF rather than in a word document which not every device will be able to read).
There will also be a range of activities to 'go off and do' to ensure that children are not having to sit in front of the screen for prolonged periods.
We do not expect children to have to print anything off to be marked. They can type straight into school spider, take a photo or save a document and upload it. They will then get feedback on their work from their teacher and the class can have discussions so that they can talk about what went well and what would be even better if... The teacher can also address misconceptions and difficulties that the pupils may have and plan the next steps of learning.
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:
The school works with all pupils to ensure there are no barriers preventing them from accessing remote learning. This includes;
Providing appropriate and safe devices for pupils to access the remote learning offer.
Providing data and internet access where needed in order for pupils to sustainably access the remote learning offer.
Providing home packs which include any stationery and reading books, so that all can access and continue to learn through remote learning. These resources are aligned to and mirror, the digital remote learning programme in such a way so that no pupil is disadvantaged or will experience gaps in their learning
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
Attendance of remote learning will be taken at appropriate intervals during the day. At times of absence due to any technological issues or barriers;
School will be in touch that day to discuss and support addressing these barriers ahead of the follow day’s sessions.
Where there has been absence not due to technological barriers;
School will make a phone call to the home. These checks and calls will be performed regularly in order to check welfare of pupils and support pupils’ engagement in learning in line with expectations.
At all stages we will work together with parents, carers and pupils to support their engagement and attendance. We will offer support and advice to parents and carers whenever it is required.
Pupils with SEND
Provision for remote learning will be designed for each child’s age, ability, and specific SEND needs. To support teachers, pupils with SEND will also be supported by our SENDco to ensure that any remote learning that takes place meets their needs and individual targets.
Feedback
Pupils will receive feedback in several different ways. These are balanced and appropriate to support teacher, pupils and purpose. These include;
In the moment feedback during live sessions, through teacher / pupil interaction
General marking of work submitted/ uploaded
Verbal feedback, sent through a recorded message attached to the pupil’s work (deep feedback)