Remote Education Provision ( Published: 20/01/2021)

The remote education offer: what is taught to pupils at home?

• Remote learning encompasses any learning that happens outside of the classroom, with the teacher not present in the same location as the pupils.
• Each day, students are taught a planned and well-sequenced curriculum with meaningful and ambitious work from across all of their subjects.
• The timetable for live/recorded or planned activity is updated online weekly and delivered by subject specialists.
• We want students to remain active at this time and will continue to provide our students with opportunities to learn powerful knowledge for their future.
• Changes have been made to the more practical subjects such as Drama and PE and students can engage with practical drama activity or live active sessions in PE which promote physical activity for our students.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home?

All students will be expected to follow their timetable (as they would in school) as this provides a useful structure for them, although, they will not be expected to engage in ‘live learning’ every single lesson, there will always be set a learning activity whether that be ‘live’ or offline for them to access. Our provision is flexible to ensure students do not miss anything at all during this period and continue to progress!

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 place over the course of each day. Students are advised to follow their normal school timetable.

As is the nature of remote learning to prescribe set hours each day wouldn’t be useful, instead we expect the following based on current timetables for students and parents and carers are encouraged to use this as a guide and monitor where possible to ensure students are having regular ‘non-screen’ time. A quiet learning environment where possible is also needed.

If you require specific support or equipment to enable your child to continue their learning, please contact school or speak to your child’s tutor during the weekly phone call. Reception is open during normal school hours.

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

• Any live learning episodes will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. This is our only ‘live learning platform’ and students will be explained expectations for each lesson by their teacher, we do not prescribe a set time that lessons will be ‘live’ for, remote education is flexible and most effective when constructed of a range of live, recorded or planned activity that can be accessed by students as part of their learning.
• For subjects such as Drama or PE (where other digital platforms may be used) then Teams will still be the main communication forum where students will then be directed elsewhere from.
• In addition, live lessons will be recorded and uploaded to each students Teams channel should they not be able to access it live.

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:

• Much support to provide online access has been completed. Please be patient if you are waiting for a laptop or internet connection (e.g. dongle). Where required, paper-based resources will be sent home.
• We are working carefully on a priority list regarding the distribution of devices. If you are awaiting a laptop or internet connection (e.g. dongle).
• You can make a request for a laptop or internet connection (e.g. dongle) during your weekly tutor phone call if you have not already done so.
• We can also apply to increase your data allowance. Again, we are currently working to identify priority lists amongst our school community and are. communicating this regarding how to access the additional data with families.

How will my child be taught remotely?

• Live teaching episodes (online lessons) are all recorded for accessibility should students be offline. We do not prescribe a ‘set time’ for each lesson, this may range from 10 minutes to provide key explanation/instruction for students or the full lesson duration depending on the planning of the subject area and what they consider is ‘best practice’. The main expectation is students are present, logging in at the start of each lesson to see what is expected of them or what work is available.
• Recorded teaching such as teachers adding audio or visual explanation to resources for students to access offline, (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, BBC bite size, digital resources such as GCSE POD or Kerboodle alongside many others.
• Textbooks and reading books pupils have at home or that they can access online.
• Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
• Long-term project work and/or internet research activities.

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?

• Students should be logging on to Microsoft Teams for 8.40am each morning. They will have the opportunity twice a week to access their form time programme which is a key part of our personal development curriculum and an important part of their learning/wellbeing.
• Deadlines will be set by their class teacher.
• Please discuss with your child the importance of establishing and maintaining a positive routine at this time.
• Your support is much appreciated in ensuring students log in to access the live lessons and complete the accompanying resources.
• Please reinforce the message that the chat function within Teams is for relevant questions and answers only. This should not be used for social conversation.

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

• Teachers will be able to take registers to any live learning and will have systems in place to track student engagement each day/week.
• We have a robust, well informed and accurate way of assessing engagement each day/week and any students who are deemed to be ‘inactive’ and thus not engaging in any remote learning will receive communication from school to ascertain the reasoning behind this and subsequently be supported to re-engage.
• Weekly, tutors, teachers and heads of progress will feedback on engagement to our online learning.
• Firstly, a reminder that the work should be completed and the deadline set. Our high expectations remain the same, students should ensure they are satisfying the standards set by each teacher for submission of work.

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:

According to the deadlines set by class teachers, work should be submitted to class teachers via Microsoft Teams

Students should expect to receive a form of feedback fortnightly for English, Maths and Science or every three weeks for other subjects. Parents should note given the high quality of our education, formative feedback will be a key part of each lesson also.

Feedback will be in a variety of forms, for example:

• Comments recorded to student work
• A whole class feedback sheet with actionable next steps
• Feedback on quizzes and assessments

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:

• If your child is experiencing difficulty in accessing the work set, please speak to your tutor or contact their class teacher directly.
• Your child will be invited into school to access a short period/workshop of face to face learning if the difficulty persists.
• If your child is struggling to access the remote learning provision, there are additional literacy and numeracy interventions in place such as accelerated reader and Maths Whizz.

• Please also contact our school SENCO, Miss L. Dooley, who can support where needed with any specific and persistent issues:

ldooley@levenshulmehigh.co.uk

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

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?

• Students will continue to have the opportunity to access lessons ‘live’ from home as we delivered before Christmas last term.
• Should students have difficulty or be unwell to access such learning then recorded content will be accessible or paper-based resources can be arranged on a student to student basis.