COLDEAN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Remote Education Provision: information for parents

The information below is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

In order to comply with The Coronavirus Act 2020 and ensure continuity of education provision for our children we operate a four-step system detailed in the chart below.

How to use your Xbox or PS4 to access online learning

Click here to see our Individual Pupil provision (Step 2)

Click here to see our Remote Education and online learning provision (Steps 3 & 4)

Our Remote Education Policy is available here

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

A pupil’s first day or two of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach, while we take all necessary actions to prepare for 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?

During the first two days,

• Paper copy learning packs will be created for collection (or delivery in some circumstances).
• A limited number of laptops will be available for collection to facilitate online learning.

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 in some subjects. For example,

• Learning of scientific working skills and knowledge is adapted as far as possible to utilise resources that you might find around the home
• Music lessons rely on online, digital creation rather than practical experiences
• PE & Sport rely on individual / family activities utilising resources that you might find around the home

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:

Reception             at least 2 hours

Years 1 & 2           at least 3 hours

Years 3 – 6           at least 4 hours

This is as per Government guidelines.

We are acutely aware that pupils may not be able to complete the full complement of learning set each day due to other pressures at home.

 Accessing remote education

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

• Nursery and Reception children will access online learning using Tapestry from a mobile device, laptop or PC.
• Children in Years 1 – 6 will access online learning through Google Classroom from a mobile device, laptop or PC.
• The school website has a huge repository of additional learning activities collated during the first lockdown.

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:

• We surveyed all families in October to enable us to target support with loan of laptops.
• Teachers will enquire during their weekly phone calls to gauge families’ home access and advise to contact the school.
• Please contact the school to discuss any needs you may have: office@coldean.brighton-hove.sch.uk
• Once we receive a request for a 4G router, dongle or 4G data voucher, we will contact the DfE’s Get Tech for Schools site to apply.
• Printed materials can be requested and collected from the office. We will deliver if required.
• Pupils can send scans/photos to office@coldean.brighton-hove.sch.uk from a smartphone.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

• Recorded teaching e.g. White Rose Maths lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers
• Printed paper packs produced by teachers e.g. jotter book, Reading journal, worksheets, handwriting sheets (see below)
• Reading books pupils have at home
• Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences e.g. Times Tables Rockstars, Bug Club, Purple Mash

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 a school we understand the huge pressures that parents/carers are under in providing remote learning support during lockdown. We would therefore hope that:

• You read with your child every day for at least 10 minutes.
• In Nursery/Reception that you login to Tapestry each day and join in the activities as far as possible.
• In Years 1 – 6 that you encourage and support your child to log in to their Google Classroom and complete the reading, writing and mathematics learning tasks at the very least.
• Answer our phone calls home on Days 3 and 8 of any ten school-day period to discuss how the learning is going and try to overcome any problems.

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

• In Nursery/Reception teaching staff check to see who has logged in to their Tapestry account and who is engaging with the learning tasks by their feedback.
• In Years 1 to 6 teaching staff will note who is logging into our learning platforms e.g. Purple Mash and “handing in” tasks on Google Classroom.

Teachers and Inclusion staff will discuss any concerns in the weekly “check-in” phone call to try and identify ways in which we can support you to increase engagement.

If we cannot contact you on the phone for two consecutive weeks we will send an email and message via the Scholarpack App asking you to contact the school so that we can check everything is okay.

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. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

• Nursery/Reception teaching staff will offer feedback via Tapestry on completed learning activities and ‘postcards’ etc.
• In Years 1 – 6 teaching staff will:
  • Offer constructive feedback on assignments in Google Classroom and any activities completed in Purple Mash.
  • Offer whole-class feedback via Google Classroom.
  • Offer feedback on other documents uploaded e.g. photo of artwork.
  • Use quizzes and games that are automatically marked via digital platforms.

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:

• Our Inclusion team makes additional phone contact with the families of any pupils with an EHCP.
• Appropriately pitched learning tasks are created separately, in line with any specific needs, and delivered to pupils as required.
• INAs are trained to support children with their learning online using Google Classroom. They will be in regular contact with the children, and their families, to ensure they are able to access this and answer any questions that may arise.

Remote education for self-isolating pupils (Steps 2 & 3)

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?

If a pupil has to self-isolate due to a COVID-19 related reason e.g. self-isolating, quarantine, shielding then the school will deliver a “Remote Learning Pack” filled with lots of learning activities, links to our learning platforms and a jotter in which to record the learning.

This will be delivered on the day after we are informed of the pupil isolation.

Inside the pack will be:

• The pupil's Passwords Bookmark to enable access to various online platforms provided by the school
• Year Group Home Learning Pack
• Phonics/Spelling Booklet (Reception to Year 4)
• Handwriting sheets (Years 1 to 6)
• Two reading books from their reading level (Reception to Year 6)
• CGP revision books (Years 5 & 6)

The passwords bookmark will ensure that they can log into the various platforms that we subscribe to:

• Busythings
• Bug Club
• Numbots
• Times Tables Rockstars
• Purple Mash
• MyMaths
• Duolingo

If the pupil is feeling ill then we do not expect them to complete any remote education.

The class teacher will phone on Days 3 and 8 of the isolation period to check in and offer learning support if required.