Remote Learning
Remote Learning Contingency Plan
As part of our response to the global pandemic, we are committed to maintaining children’s learning if they are required to isolate or their year group bubble is closed. Our main avenues of support for children will be through our Class Dojo (Years 1 – 6), Tapestry (Early Years) and virtual classrooms, which are hosted through Microsoft Office Teams software. Through these we will be able to provide lessons and support for children should the need arise.
In order to ensure that learning is continued, irrespective of lockdown or self-isolation, Loughborough C of E Primary School has developed the following plan. This plan offers remote learning opportunities, whilst also acknowledging that some households have limited access to devices.
This plan will be applied in the following instances:
Level 1 - An individual is self-isolating awaiting test results, or because of a positive test within the household.
Level 2 - A whole bubble or cohort is self-isolating because of an outbreak of coronavirus.
The plan complies with the expectations and principles outlined in the DFE document Guidance for Full Opening of Schools and the legal duty for schools to provide immediate remote education for pupils who are unable to attend school due to Covid 19 restrictions.
When teaching remotely, Loughborough C of E Primary School aims to:
- plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers
- set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects
- teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject
- provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos
- gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work
- enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding
- Consider these expectations in relation to pupils’ age, stage of development or SEND, and try to avoid making significant demands for parents’ help or support
- provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access
Our approach:
We will have two levels in place for the provision of remote education. These levels will allow the school to provide an effective and high-quality provision for children without compromising staff wellbeing with excessive or unrealistic workload.
Level 1 – for children who are self-isolating
The first level will cater for children who are required to self-isolate or who are awaiting test results. Through Class Dojo, Tapestry or by direct email, class teachers will make contact with parents to advise them where to access appropriate work, learning and supporting content supplied by third party providers, such as Oak National Academy and BBC bitesize. Children will be able to remain in contact with their class teacher through Class Dojo and Tapestry (Early Years) and teachers will acknowledge any completed work uploaded within 48 hrs.
Oak National Academy has been selected to support remote learning for a number of reasons. The Oak Academy lessons are in-line with our teaching ethos – they encourage the use of retrieval practice, explicit teaching with high quality modelling, and the use of consolidating activities. The online lessons are free to all and offer a recorded taught session so that the children can access physical teaching from a teacher and then access work relating to that lesson within the same website. There are also hundreds of lessons specifically aimed at children with SEND needs and requiring additional support.
Safeguarding & Special Educational Needs
These are the steps we will take to ensure that children isolating at home remain safe:
- The school office will contact parents to make sure they understand to communicate any test results to the school when received.
- If the child is entitled to means-tested free school meals, parents will be offered a weekly food parcel provided by the catering service. Arrangements will be made to safely deliver following self-isolation requirements.
- If a child is deemed ‘vulnerable’ in any way, the Designated Safeguarding Lead (Mrs Stillwell), will ensure that appropriate agencies are notified and will carry out regular ‘safe and well checks’ via phone contact with family.
- If a child does not engage in online learning, the class teacher will inform the DSL who will contact parents to discuss how the school can support parents to help their child to engage in learning.
- If a child has an EHCP or significant SEN requirement, the SENDCo (Miss McKillop) will contact parents to discuss how the school can continue to support the child during remote learning.
Level 2 – Provision for a whole-school closure in the event of local or national lockdown, cohort or bubble closure due to Covid 19 outbreak
Should the school close for any period, teaching staff will aim to deliver a curriculum that is a continuation of the teaching and learning being provided in classrooms. This will take the form of a Microsoft Office "Teams" virtual classroom for each class, where class 'meet ups' and 'catch up' sessions will be arranged. A blend of teacher-produced materials and videos alongside links and embedded content from external providers will be used. Children will remain in contact to share successes and communications through Class Dojo. In our Reception class (Early Years) we will continue to use Tapestry to direct parents and children to appropriate activities and learning opportunities and to stay in regular contact.
We acknowledge that video explanations, especially videos of the class teachers, is one of the most effective ways to explain to children what to do and to help them to engage with their learning. Therefore, we will endeavour to support the majority of core lessons in this way. Videos from third-party providers such as Oak National Academy, White Rose Maths and YouTube may also be used in addition to teacher videos.
Where a teacher identifies misconceptions, significant weaknesses or gaps in a child’s learning, they will provide feedback and further support to the pupil as appropriate. This may take several forms including
- asking the child to repeat the activity or complete a further similar activity
- directing the child to re-watch recorded content or signposting to similar video instruction on a third-party site
- arranging ‘catch up’ sessions through Microsoft Office Teams during an afternoon (Parents will be notified of this in advance and protocols for the pupil and parents will be agreed with the teacher)
Please note that a period of 1 full working day is needed for teachers to prepare to successfully make the transition from classroom to remote learning. This enables resources to be prepared, digitised and uploaded as described above.
Online provision will be comprised of the following:
Class Dojo ‘Class Story’ and ‘Pupil Portfolios’ to share and celebrate children’s work and activities (Tapestry for Early Years).
Daily English lessons (up to one hour of learning) will follow the same structure and teaching sequence that would normally be provide in the classroom with a balance of grammar, spelling and written activities.
Daily maths lessons (up to one hour of learning) will continue and consolidation work will be supported through follow up activities and, for Key Stage 2, Century Tech learning pathways.
Daily reading (up to 30 minutes recommended) will be supported in KS1 through activities posted by the class teacher, and through Accelerated Reader online quizzes for KS2. Reading comprehension activities will form part of the English lesson each week.
PE sessions (at least 3 times per week up to 20 minutes each) will encourage children to keep active. These may be links to videos and content from external providers. Daily challenge activities may also be used to provide good incentive and motivation for pupils.
Two cross-curricular topic or science lessons per week (up to one hour each) will be provided and will offer a balance of activities from a range of subjects. This will be linked to our International Primary Curriculum topic that the children have been learning and researching about in school.
One PHSE lesson per week (up to one hour) will be provided which will follow the Jigsaw scheme of work used throughout the school, and other materials may be used to support and supplement this.
One RE project will be allocated for the duration of the lockdown. It will take the form of a series of questions for the children to research, discuss and reflect upon and will be linked to their current RE topic from our RE curriculum following the ‘Understanding Christianity’ materials, or looking at one of the major world religions.
Collective Worship will be provided by Mrs Stillwell three times per week, and will either be pre-recorded or broadcast live through Microsoft Office Teams. Children may be directed to other sources of content for assembly times, such as Oak National Academy, Fischy Music or YouTube, depending on relevant themes for the day.
Physical Resources
Where an announcement of closure permits time to do so, and where age-appropriate, children will be sent home with a pack of resources that will support their learning. These may include:
- Pen, pencil, ruler, rubber, pencil sharpener
- Whiteboard, pen and whiteboard eraser
- CGP workbooks that are normally available in classrooms
- An exercise book containing lined paper
- Reading book
Safeguarding & Special Educational Needs
In addition to provision outlined in Level 1, during a Level 2 closure the following will also be put in place to ensure the well-being of all pupils:
- Those not engaging in remote learning are to receive a phone call from a member of SLT or the SENDCo to discuss how the school can support the family to remove the obstacles to engagement. This may be followed up with further phone calls.
- Where children would normally receive additional support from external SEND agencies, the SENDCo will make arrangements for those to continue via Microsoft Office Teams as long as this is in accordance with the protocols set by those agencies.
- If children are entitled to means-tested free school meals, parents will be offered a weekly food parcel provided by the catering service or food vouchers through the national food voucher scheme. Arrangements will be made to safely deliver following self-isolation requirements.
Children of Key Workers and Vulnerable Groups
Should there be a closure where the children of critical workers and vulnerable groups are still attending the school, the lessons provided on Class Dojo/Tapestry/Microsoft Office Teams will be used to ensure that they continue to access high-quality, age-appropriate lessons. In this way they will also maintain contact with their class and teaching staff.
Children who have limited access to devices
Children who have difficulty accessing remote learning due to lack of access to an internet connected device, will be provided with a device by the school. In some circumstances, hard copies of the lesson materials may be delivered. A list of children who require this service will be maintained by Mrs Stillwell. Should internet access be an issue, it may also be possible to provide access to the internet with a wireless 4G dongle and SIM cards with 90 days of free data are also available. Please also check with your internet service provider, for any arrangements that are offered to support children learning online.
Further access to learning online
Usernames and logins
In preparation for remote learning, parents and children will receive logins and passwords (where necessary) for the following platforms and websites:
Microsoft Office Teams (Pupil Email address)
Class Dojo (Pupil and Parent logins)
Accelerated Reader (Years 3 – 6 only)
Other recommended websites
BBC Bitesize Primary Catch Up Lessons
Online Safety
We strongly urge parents and carers to supervise children while they are online to monitor the sites and materials that they are accessing.
Wherever possible please set parental controls at age appropriate levels (find guidance how to do this here).
Talk to your child regularly about what to do if they do not feel safe online (find advice and support about this here).
If you are worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with your child online, report concerns here.
Information and advice about how to keep children safe online, can be found on the online safety section of the school website.
Raising Concerns About Your Child’s Learning and Contacting Us
In our planning and expectations, we are aware of the need for flexibility from all sides:-
· parents may be trying to work from home so access to technology as a family may be limited;
· parents may have two or more children trying to access technology and need to prioritise the needs of young people studying towards GCSE/A Level accreditation;
· teachers may be trying to manage their home situation and the learning of their own children;
· systems may not always function as they should.
An understanding of, and willingness to adapt to, these difficulties on all sides is essential for success!
We welcome parents messaging teaching staff directly via Class Dojo or Tapestry. Please be aware that messages will only be responded to between normal teaching hours of 8:50 to 4pm. You may also contact the school office by email at office@lceps.leics.sch.uk and Mrs Stillwell at jstillwell@lceps.leics.sch.uk In the event of school closure, these inboxes will be monitored during office hours 8am to 5:30pm.
And Finally…
We value the mental health and well-being of all our pupils. If your child is struggling in these areas, please let us know so that we can try to work closely with you and signpost you to further support (Find out more here).
Please be assured that wellbeing is at the forefront of our thoughts and the need for children to take regular breaks, get fresh air, exercise and maintain a reasonable balance between online engagement and offline activities. Consider using the school closure time to learn a new skill, follow their own interests to discover more about the world around us or just be creative (Ideas here).
Throughout the year, and especially when school was closed for the majority of pupils, staff have worked over and above to ensure that children are reassured and that contact with them has been maintained. I cannot thank the entire staff team enough for rising to new challenges in this unchartered territory! Thank you for all the amazing support we have received from parents and carers – you have been doing a fantastic job! Stay safe and kind.
Mrs Stillwell