Remote education provision: information for parents
The information below outlines the remote learning provision in place at our school. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact either you child’s class teacher or the school office (01529 302595 or enquiries@kltprimary.co.uk ). If your child is having difficulty logging into their Microsoft 365 account, please contact the school office who will be able to reset their password. We will try to do this as soon as possible, but this may take up to 24 hours. If you have any questions about the work uploaded to our Teams' class pages, please contact your child's class teacher, who will be able to assist you.
As far as possible, your child’s class teacher will try to continue the learning that would have taken place in the classroom. For ease of access, this may initially be emailed directly to the main parent/carer.
In addition, pupils will be reminded of various websites that we subscribe to (Oxford Reading Buddy, Times Table Rock Stars, Numbots, Third Space Learning, Education City and Discovery Coding), where additional activities can be located.
As far as possible, we teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever this is appropriate. However, we may have to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example:
As a school we recognise that all children work at differing rates and factors such as resources and equipment, including access to the internet, affect the time that learning activities will take.
Government guidance states the following:
Key Stage 1 |
3 hours a day on average across the cohort, with less for younger children |
Key Stage 2 |
4 hours a day |
To meet the above expectations, teachers will prepare three sessions a day: English, Maths and topic. In addition, children will be expected to participate in further tasks, such as daily reading, spelling and times table practise.
Each day class teachers will also provide a ‘drop-in’ session (up to 30 minutes), where pupils can come together with their class and class teacher. The purpose of this session is to ensure that our children get the opportunity to socialise with their classmates, whilst allowing time to share and celebrate learning, and for children to ask questions about the work that they have been set.
We use two platforms to deliver our remote learning:
Reception: Tapestry
Years 1 – 6: Microsoft Teams for Education
These platforms are used to provide learning and set activities and work, as well as providing a means for teachers to give pupils’ feedback about their learning. Our daily class drop-ins also take place via Teams for Education.
As a school, we utilise Power Maths to deliver our Mathematics programme of study. Where appropriate, the practice books are sent home for children to access such learning remotely.
In addition, pupils have access to a number of web based subscriptions. These include:
Oxford Reading Buddy: https://www.oxfordreadingbuddy.com/uk
Times Table Rock Stars: https://ttrockstars.com/
Numbots: https://play.numbots.com/#/account/search-school
Third Space Learning: https://learn.matr.org/parent/login (parents/carers can set up a free login)
Education City: https://go.educationcity.com/?_ga=2.171129312.1557073388.1611063593-51504300.1611063593
Discovery coding: https://online.espresso.co.uk/espresso/login/Authn/UserPassword
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.
Where our families are having difficulty accessing remote learning, in the first instance we ask them to contact school so that we are able to best understand their needs and to find an appropriate solution. This might take a variety of forms, depending upon the identified need.
Limited/no access to the internet: School can provide families with mobile data (Vodafone data cards) to provide access to the internet. In addition, we are able to identify other avenues to support our families, such as through the government ‘Get help with technology’ scheme.
Limited access/no access to equipment: Depending upon the number of users in the family and the devices available, our school is able to lend equipment to our pupils.
Difficulty accessing printed materials: Where parents/carers make class teachers aware, arrangements can be made for work to be printed either for collection or delivery to families.
Difficulty submitting work due to limited/no internet access: We are happy to work with individual families to identify systems of providing printed work and returning completed learning, to ensure that pupils receive appropriate feedback in a timely manner.
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely. We recognise that a blended approach is required and the approaches used by each class teacher will be dependent upon a number of factors. These include: the age of the children, the subject and subject matter being taught, and the needs of each respective class.
The following approaches are used within our school:
Our expectation is that pupils engage on a daily basis with the remote learning that is provided. We recognise that a number of factors may affect the level of engagement of each, such as support from home due to parents/carers working, devices within the home, the number of children in the home, and the nature of the learning provided.
Engagement with school may take a variety of forms, these include:
We also recognise that pupils of differing ages may need greater or less support from their parents/carers.
Our Remote Learning Policy outlines how parents/carers can support their children with remote learning, with suggestions on how to structure the day. We recognise that a ‘one size fits approach’, isn’t possible in the context of remote learning and we are keen to work with our families and support their individual needs, to achieve the best outcomes for all pupils.
Where pupils do not actively engage with remote learning, or where there is no daily contact, we have established a system of actions to support the family.
This takes a day-by-day approach, where contact is instigated by school to ensure the safety and wellbeing of pupils and where targeted support, within a set time frame, is offered to meet the needs of the family.
Where concerns are raised, the Designated Safeguarding Lead may make the decision to complete an Early Help Assessment, or instigate the Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy, to ensure the safety of the child.
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.
Pupils are encouraged to upload their learning to their respective platforms so that class teachers can access their learning and provide feedback as necessary. Uploaded work may take a variety of forms, including word documents, photographs of Power Maths practice book pages, photographs of any other work, videos of their activities.
Class teachers will direct pupils where they would like uploaded work to be saved. For example, this might be in the ‘Class Notebook’ or ‘Assignment’ pages on Teams.
Class teachers will check for submitted work on a daily basis and will respond to work as promptly as possible.
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/carers to support those pupils in a number of ways. These include:
Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided is likely to differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school.
If a child is collected during the school day to undertake self-isolation, where possible, class teachers will try to send a pack of work home with the children, including, for example, their Power Maths Practice book.
During the period of isolation, as far as possible, teachers will endeavour to replicate the learning taking place in school with what is provided for the pupils at home. For ease of communication, this will be communicated via the parents/carers’ direct email address.
Where it is more difficult to mirror the learning taking place in the classroom, due to the content of the subject matter or the resources required, class teachers will provide alternative work which can be completed during the period of the isolation. If this occurs, class teachers will continue to ensure that such learning is planned and well-sequenced, providing a meaningful context for the pupil.
Pupils will be encouraged to share their learning, either in photograph form or via programs that have been utilised (such as Word), and send these via email for class teachers to respond to.