St Hugh's CofE Primary School

This section of our website is dedicated to remote learning for our pupils and is designed to support parents and carers. This information 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.

The page provides information in order to facilitate remote learning. Systems and procedures may develop and evolve and this will be updated when relevant and necessary in line with updated government guidance.

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

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent 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.

Our School Virtual Learning Environment (DB Primary) is available for all children in school to log into, this is accessed via the school website with an individual username and password.  Each class has a dedicated class community on DB Primary where the daily learning will be displayed for your child.  This will either be on a daily blog or on the class community page itself, depending on the age of the pupil.  Additionally, children will be provided with a fortnightly paper work pack to progress through with many activities matching the remote learning on DB Primary. 

Teachers will communicate to the children via the class email system on DB primary and will phone home once a week to discuss learning with your child.

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 (linked to the National Curriculum) as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, the DfE endorsed Oak Academy and BBC Bitesize programmes may be used to facilitate the teaching of the foundation subjects. All lessons will link to the National Curriculum Programme of Study and will cover the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding for the relevant subjects.

Remote teaching and study time each day

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

The Government state that 3 hours of Remote Education should be provided to younger primary age-group children each day and 4 hours to Key Stage 2. This will be a combination of live, pre-recorded and independent learning. This of course is very different for the children of the Early Years. We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take pupils broadly the same as a school day, allowing for regular rest and well-being breaks.

Accessing remote education

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

Tasks will be communicated via email and/or the dedicated year-group pages on the class DB Primary class community or blog. Specific resources will be shared by teachers and will include Oak Academy, BBC Bitesize, White Rose Hub Maths powerpoints, BBC Primary learning Iplayer, recorded powerpoints, Read Write Inc videos for younger children or videos from the teacher.  There also may be an opportunity some weeks to join a zoom assembly or special event/lesson with their class and teacher.

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 have identified vulnerable pupils, those with shared device access or no access. Parents are asked to contact the school office should their circumstances change.
• A loan agreement for devices will be issued between the school and families who require these.  Please note that school only has a very limited number of loan devices.
• Should families have no internet access, school will look to provide Dongles to support the access of online materials. Again, parents are asked to contact school in order to facilitate this.
• Should parents require further printed materials, these will be provided by teachers on request. Requests should be made in advance and resources can be collected via the front office. 
• Completed work can be dropped off at the same time as the new work is collected.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

• Occasional live sessions – this could be in the form of lessons, discussions, assemblies, virtual registration
• pre-recorded teaching – this could be using Oak National Academy, videos on commercial websites and YouTube etc. Video clips recorded by staff and or/ annotated PowerPoint animations.
• printed paper packs
• commercially available websites such as Times Tables Rockstars, SPaG.com and phonics play, video clips from sites such as BBC and YouTube

•         longer term project work and 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?

First of all, parents should note that the government does not expect them to perform as teachers nor expect remote learning to be ‘education as normal but from home’. School would hope that families work together with us to continue to keep children engaged with their remote learning. It is recognised that families have individual circumstances such as multiple siblings, home working etc. We appreciate that attention, presentation and standards will be different to the expectations of school. School expects that children log into DB primary daily to access the learning as directed by each teacher daily and attend any live sessions, where possible. The government recommends, as outlined above (3 hours KS1 and 4 hours for KS2) the amount of time that a child should be engaging for with remote learning. School provides work to meet these requirement and therefore expect pupils to complete as much as possible (obviously, this depends on your home circumstances).

In addition, CBBC provides 3 hours of additional learning. Oak Academy has supplementary lessons for all subjects. 

**this will be dependent on circumstances, the ability of the child and nature of the task.

School aim to have pupils working independently where possible. From time to time, pupils may need support and encouragement to stay on task, concentrate and adopt correct learning behaviours. We also know that some children may need support with logging on, accessing different devices and submission of work etc.

Remember to break up the days with lots of breaks. Short, sharp bursts of activities will be more manageable for the children. Allow your child to choose the order of the tasks themselves in order to develop their ability to become independent learners. If you need any additional help or support, then please contact your child’s class teacher.

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

Engagement will be monitored in many ways:

• attendance on online sessions
• completion of online tasks and access and use of DB Primary
• submission of completed work

If children are not engaging or where engagement is a concern we may contact via email, via telephone call or our Home/School Liaison Officer. We will work with parents to identify any barriers to support them.

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:

•          feedback through dialogue via email or phone conversation

•         use of self-assessment using the answers provided

•         submitted work or evidence e.g. photographs may receive comments from staff

•         feedback given via online platforms

•         Feedback will vary depending on the age of the child, ability of the child and nature of the task. Feedback also can take a variety of different forms.

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:

• providing work that meets the individual needs of the child via dedicated email communication or on their DB page.
• EHCP  and vulnerable pupils have been encouraged to attend school  where possible
• when attendance is not possible, teachers and teaching assistants are liaising with our SENDCo to offer  bespoke work/tasks linked to their individual needs

Nursery and Reception:

We appreciate that younger children are not able to access devices independently, cannot work independently and do not have the same attention span as older children. Staff will send suitable, daily activities to complete at home via DB Primary, email or the website. Staff will also provide links to stories and, when appropriate, instructional pre recorded videos from staff.

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.  However, whilst the country is in lockdown any self-isolation children can access the same provision remotely as the rest of their class.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

There is no difference in our approach to self-isolating pupils.

 The platform for setting online learning will be DB Primary and we will communicate learning via the class community and teacher emails.

•         Work may be set by adults other than your child’s usual class teacher.

•         Work will be planned weekly.

Keeping in touch with pupils and parents:

•         The class teacher and SLT will be responsible for checking on the welfare and safety of children during prolonged periods of absence.

•         For older children, they may upload their own work and communicate with their class teacher or teaching assistant.

•         Messages may not be read or responded to immediately.

•         Teachers are not expected to answer or respond to messages or provide feedback outside of directed time and not before 8am or after 5.00pm.

These websites and resources are recommended by the DfE to help parents and carers keep their children safe online. Please follow the links for further advice, support and activities.

Think U Know  –  provides advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) on staying safe online

Parent Info – is a collaboration between Parentzone and the NCA providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations

Childnet  – offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support

London Grid for Learning – has support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online, including tips to keep primary aged children safe online

Net-Aware – has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC, including a guide to social networks, apps and games

UK Safer Internet Centre – has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services