Strategy for Remote Learning in the Event of COVID-19 cases within the School Community

Background

Despite the rise of infection rate being relatively low in the local area, we need to be prepared for the provision of home learning should any children have to self-isolate for two weeks. The DfE Guidance ‘Remote Education Support’ states that by September 30^th schools will need a contingency plan and that-

In developing these contingency plans, we expect schools to:

• use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos and that is linked to the school’s curriculum expectations
• give access to high quality remote education resources
• select the online tools that will be consistently used across the school in order to allow interaction, assessment and feedback and make sure staff are trained in their use
• provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access
• recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support and so schools should work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum

When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to:

• 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
• plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers

We expect schools to consider these expectations in relation to the pupils’ age, stage of development or special educational needs, for example where this would place significant demands on parents’ help or support. We expect schools to avoid an over-reliance on long-term projects or internet research activities.

HIAS (Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service) have provided guidance via documents and a webinar, and some planning to help, but they recognised that schools are in very different circumstances with regard to age of children, technology (both in school and home) and parental engagement.

Staff workload is a major consideration when planning how we will deliver remote learning. Teachers cannot prepare lessons for their class, teach, mark, assess and re-plan whilst managing remote learning at the same time.

Initial Planning

Reflection

Following the Summer term home learning, we felt that the systems used worked for the majority of families.  Obviously there was less of an expectation that children had to send back completed work.  In this current situation, we will expect work to be emailed back and will set up a year group email address for each year group. 

So to encourage all families to engage with this system, we will:

• Communicate to parents that, in the event of children being at home self-isolating there would be an expectation that they would follow the home learning programme set by the school. This will be emailed to them and available on the school website.
• Communicate to parents that they need to email back the children’s completed work to the year group email
• Ensure that teachers have time to respond to completed work sent back or questions from parents who need more support. This is also an opportunity to address any misconceptions or provide more challenge.
• Ask parents to let us know if there is a technology issue that would necessitate children having physical resources rather than by email or on the website.
• Ensure emails of each year group set up by School office so teachers have access to these if needed
• Ensure, during a staff meeting, that teachers are aware of all the externally produced teaching videos e.g. Oak Academy, BBC Bitesize, BBC Teach, NCETM (Maths), Letters and Sounds and Phonics Play (phonics).

Curriculum Planning

Individual Isolation

• In the event of an individual needing to isolate, the school will provide home learning based on the planning the rest of the class will be following.  This may include links to national websites (Bbcbitesize, National Oak Academy) where specific teaching is needed.
• The class teacher will phone the individual parent and agree the best way to send the home learning (email or paper copies delivered to the home) and what level of support the parent needs
• It will also be agreed how the child will share their home learning – emailing or sending things back and how and when the teacher will respond to this as they will be teaching the remainder of the class during the day

Individual Cases

• Where children themselves are unwell, we will not be expecting any home learning to be completed, as this would not be appropriate.
• Where parents are unwell, we will communicate with them to establish how much home learning is possible.
• Where individual children have to isolate because a member of their family has tested positive for coronavirus, see Individual Isolation section above

Whole Class/ Year Group Isolation

• The first two days emergency plans will be ‘stand alone’ units focussed on specific objectives from the curriculum. When these are complete, the home learning provided for the remaining days will be a continuation of the taught curriculum before children had to self-isolate and equivalent as far as possible to the learning any classes remaining in school are undertaking.
• We will use the class/year group planning that continues from when the bubble is sent home.  This will be adapted to ensure it can be delivered by parents and supported by links to specific websites for key teaching points e.g. National Oak Academy, BBC Bitesize.  Or if needed, teachers will record them teaching a new skill and post on the website
• Home learning for KS1will consist of a daily timetable with Phonics, Reading, Writing, Maths and topic each day – but not all activities will need to be recorded, many will be practical.  Only recorded activities will need to be emailed back to school, but photos of practical activities could be sent.
• Home Learning for Early Years will follow the EYFS and will include phonics and reading each day as well as other fun activities that children would be doing in school as well as lots of opportunities for child led activities
• Where parents don’t have access to technology, paper resources will be prepared.

Lack of Engagement

• After the first four days of self isolation, if no photos/work have been emailed back or no contact from families, the class teacher will phone to check that everything is ok and offer support
• If there is still no engagement, the Headteacher will phone specific families.