Remote Education Provision: Information for Parents


The aim of this plan

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents/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 students are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

Please note we also have a contingency plan for managing staff absence.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to students at home

The level of response to the requirement for remote education will change to reflect the number of students absent from school, and the amount of capacity the school has based on the teaching commitments of our team.

All remote learning will be delivered in line with the school’s Remote Learning Policy via SatchelOne.

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 students being sent home?

Resources and assignments delivered in lessons will be available immediately via SatchelOne, in some circumstances we may send students home with workbooks to complete independently in the first instance.

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, (For Core PE lessons students may be set exercise tasks via the whole school PE Google Classroom or Student Intranet page).

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 students broadly the following number of hours each day:

  • Key Stage 3 students (Year 7, 8, 9) - 4 hours per day
  • Key Stage 4 and 5 students working towards formal qualifications (Year 10, 1, 12 and 13) - 5 hours per day

Accessing remote education

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

SatchelOne and Google Classroom will be used to support students in their engagement and access of resources for each lesson and the resources they will require for home learning. Meaningful and ambitious learning tasks will be set for those year groups working at home. We have produced this guide to support parents and students to access the resource at home. They can access all appropriate learning resources using their school email address (@shs.saet.co.uk) and password from this website: http://students.shs.worcs.sch.uk. In addition teachers may also use the following software for delivery of assessments and teaching:

  • SatchelOne
  • Google Meet
  • Google Workspace (Docs, Slides, Sheets)
  • Seneca Learning
  • Oak National Academy
  • Hegartymaths
  • Email (via Office365)
  • BBC Two - programming to support the GCSE curriculum, with a least two hours of content each weekday.
  • bbc.co.uk/bitesize/secondary

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 students may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those students to access remote education:

The school will utilise the support available through the DfE’s ‘Get help with technology during coronavirus (COVID-19)’ scheme. Under the scheme, the school can order laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers to support the following groups of pupils if they do not have access to a digital device or the internet through other means:

  • Pupils in Years 9 to 11
  • Clinically extremely vulnerable children across all year groups who are shielding or self-isolating in line with government and/or clinical advice
  • Children in all year groups who are unable to access remote education whilst attending school on a hospital site

To request a device, please complete this form.

Before distributing devices, the school will ensure:

  • The devices are set up to access remote education.
  • Appropriate safeguarding controls and support are in place to help pupils and their families use the devices safely.

At the end of he isolation / lockdown period:

  • All devices should be returned to school.
  • The Headteacher may consider extending the device loan period after consultation with a family and/or pupil’s teacher.

Once devices are ready for collection, the school will either arrange for them to be collected by families from school or delivered to pupils’ homes, ensuring infection control measures are adhered to as part of this process.

SAET IT staff are available to support the school community in the following ways:

  • Fixing issues with systems used to set and collect work
  • Helping staff and parents with any technical issues they’re experiencing
  • Reviewing the security of remote learning systems and flagging any data protection breaches to the data protection officer
  • Assisting pupils and parents with accessing the internet or devices.
  • Supporting DSLs / Headteachers with remote safeguarding tools.

Increasing data allowances on mobile devices to support disadvantaged children

Schools, trusts and local authorities (ordering for maintained schools) in England can request mobile data increases for disadvantaged children and young people in years 3 to 11 who are not able to attend school due to national lockdown restrictions. They must meet all 3 of these criteria:

  • do not have fixed broadband at home
  • cannot afford additional data for their devices
  • are experiencing disruption to their face-to-face education

Schools, trusts and local authorities can also make requests for children and young people who meet the criteria above, and are:

  • in any year group and have been advised to shield because they (or someone they live with) are clinically extremely vulnerable
  • in any year group attending a hospital school

Mobile data increases are currently not available for

  • children who typically receive home education (also known as 'elective home education' or 'home schooling’)
  • care leavers who are not attending school or further education
  • students in further education

To request additional data please complete this form. More information on the scheme can be found here.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

  • students need to follow their timetable lesson and have access to teachers at this time. Voice over recordings or live coaching / progress checks will normally be scheduled using the Google Meet link on each Google Classroom. You will be notified when staffing can not support this.
  • Teaching staff will be contactable by email and may involve; submission of tasks, support learning and responding to student questions, editing documents, giving access to students and awarding achievement points.
  • Each teacher is responsible for monitoring their own classes they teach. Activities for those learning at home will be proportionate and in equivalent length to the core teaching students would receive in school and ensure instructions are clear and a deadline is given.
  • Oak National Academy, Seneca Learning or other online tools will be used to supplement learning where required.
  • Should any safeguarding concerns arise through the teachers monitoring of students during the closure it will be recorded as a concern on CPOMS as usual.
  • On return from home learning to school, teaching staff will plan for students to have regular opportunities to; strengthen memory connections through retrieval, spaced practice, low stakes formative assessment and give students time to consolidate and embed their knowledge into their long term memory through carefully planned construct meaning activities.
  • Teaching staff will plan for opportunities to bridge gaps and develop understanding through resequencing curriculum, learning feedback forms with specific bridging questions or challenge tasks and use of other online tools for example Seneca and Google Classroom.

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?

The easiest way to access the session is using a computer with Google Chrome installed on it.

If students need to use a Phone or Tablet there are also Android and iPhone Apps available for Google Meet.

Technical guidance on accessing the meeting and installing any requirements can be found here.

When students join the meeting we are expecting them to follow these guidelines:

  • Make sure they are logged into your @shs.saet.co.uk Google Account. They will need their username and password from school
  • Please disable the camera and microphone before they join the lesson, your teacher will ask you to turn it on if it’s expected in the lesson.
  • Ensure that they are situated in an appropriate environment with minimal distractions
  • Make sure they are ready to learn, with the appropriate resources and materials
  • Ensure that they are dressed appropriately, particularly if they are using the camera function
  • They must inform the teacher if they need to leave the session at any point
  • Ensure that language and conduct is in line with school expectations
  • Where possible, a parent or carer should be nearby during the online session

 

Failure to do any of the above may mean that they are ejected from the session by the teacher early and will have consequences. In the event of any technical difficulties, please email itsupport@saet.co.uk

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

  • Staff will take lesson attendance in the normal way. First day absence contact will also continue as normal. If your child is ill and cannot attend remote lessons please contact the school absence to report the illness in the normal way.
  • Staff will monitor attendance and engagement, if students are regularly missing sessions and not turning their work in, subject staff, curriculum areas leaders, pastoral leaders or student support staff will contact parents/carers to identify any barriers and interventions that need to be implemented to support engagement.
  • Your child’s teachers will assess both engagement and progress for their remote learning and any issues will be reported to their form tutor and/or their head of year.
  • If engagement is a concern you will be contacted by your child’s form tutor in the first instance.

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 student work will be inline with our marking policy and could include the following:

  • Automatic feedback from online quizzes
  • Digital feedback from the teacher via recording and comments
  • Digital feedback from peers
  • Verbal feedback during online teaching / coaching sessions.

Additional support for students 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 students, for example some students 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 students in the following ways:

  • Lessons will be inclusive for all students and can be adapted to account for the needs of disadvantaged students and students with SEND working at home.
  • Students with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) will receive contact from the SEND team to support online learning for those students learning at home.
  • External agency support in place for SEND learners will continue remotely.
  • Students requiring auxiliary learning aids (overlays, coloured paper etc) will be supported to access online adaptions to support them. Reading pens are available for use at home if required.
  • In exceptional circumstances students classified as vulnerable will be able to attend full provision in agreement with the school’s DSL.

Safeguarding

Ensuring safeguarding arrangements remain effective while the school is partially closed is a key priority.

Our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy was updated during the national lockdown to include provisions for keeping students safe during the coronavirus pandemic – we will continue to follow these procedures for students who remain at home, until all students are able to return to school.

We will continue to ensure that a DSL or deputy DSL is always available and continue to liaise with external agencies such as WCF to support our most vulnerable, as well as how we will maintain communication with our most vulnerable students/families when they are not on site.

Remote education for self-isolating students

Where individual students 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 students 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?

We will provide access to all the resources as outlined above. However, students who are self isolating will not receive “live lessons” as teachers will continue to deliver lessons to students in school. We will ensure that teaching resources are provided and assignments are set to enable a student isolating to complete their allotted hours for remote learning. They will also have the opportunity to communicate with their teachers via email if they have any questions.