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.

For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at 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.

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

Students have access to Google Classroom, this was used during sessions where students were self-isolating in the Autumn Term 2020.  Google Classroom is the delivery platform for all lessons in the school, including for those where students are allocated work to complete at home without a live lesson taking place.  Any necessary materials such as exercise books will be posted by the school to students,

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?

• The same range of subjects will be taught remotely as is done in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example in practical subjects such as Design Technology, Art and PE the curriculum will be amended to enable it to be delivered on line.
• Design Technology have developed practical sessions for students to use materials they can find at home, these adaptations require minimal equipment and little parental/carer supervision.  In Physical Education live lessons have been developed with short videos to enable students to undertake physical activities at home with the member of staff leading these.  In Art, the curriculum continues with guidance provided through live lessons and students continuing to work in Art books.

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 pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:

Secondary school-aged pupils not working towards formal qualifications this year	Students in Key Stage 3 will receive five 50 minute lessons a day following the student timetable.  Breaks and lunch will correspond with the times in school.  Students will also attend registration as per their usual school day and complete the Personal Development Curriculum through Form Time.
Secondary school-aged pupils working towards formal qualifications this year	Students will receive five, one hour remote learning sessions in a school day following the student timetable or less depending on the Year 13 timetable.  Breaks and lunch will correspond with the times in school.  Students will also attend registration as per their usual school day day and complete the Personal Development Curriculum through Form Time.

Accessing remote education

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

Lessons will be delivered on line using Google Classroom.

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:
• Parents of students who qualify for Pupil Premium funding were asked to provide information about their child’s access to IT equipment and internet access. School applied for DfE laptops based on the response and during the first lockdown 14 devices were distributed. Following this initial distribution a further questionnaire was sent to all parents of PP qualifying students regarding access to IT. In addition all parents received communication that gave them the opportunity to express a request for assistance with IT equipment. From this we received 75 requests. Government supply of laptops equalled 36 and school ordered additional stock. Dongles have been purchased and distributed to those students who have had internet access issues.
• These devices have been set up with management and safeguarding software. Initial distribution was to students in examination years and then other students who required access. Parents are given the option to collect devices or where required devices are delivered.
• Students are also offered the option of attending school to access IT suites if there are issues with remote access to learning.
• Parents have received communication regarding support with IT via online forms and through regular communication from the Headteacher.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of approaches to teach pupils remotely. Teaching approaches will include:

• live teaching (online lessons) using the Google Classroom platform
• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers who have received CPD on making their own videos)
• printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
• textbooks and reading books students have at home
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences, ensuring the age appropriateness of these
• Lesson activities allocated through Google Classroom with which students engage and submit at the end of the lesson where the member of staff may not be online for all or some of the lesson

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?

Expectations:

• All students should attend live lessons as given in their school timetable and attend registration
• Parents/carers should ensure that students are accessing live lessons by using the school timetable to check students are ready to learn
• Where students cannot attend on line lessons, parents/carers should ensure that students have completed work packs sent from the school
• The Attendance Officer and Progress Leaders make contact home with students who are not attending live lesson regularly having reviewed attendance on SIMS

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

• All teaching staff will complete a SIMS register for the online lesson which is monitored by Progress Leaders
• Teaching staff will email the relevant Curriculum Leader when a student has not attended an on line lesson and contact will be made home
• Where appropriate, completed activities will be undertaken on an individual student document generated from Google Classroom and submitted to the teacher, thus ensuring that work has been completed
• Where a student cannot complete a document in Google Classroom then a copy should be uploaded onto the class page for staff to check that work has been undertaken

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:

Teachers will:

• Use the school marking overview system to provide feedback through Google Classroom which students will then alter at home as part of the on line learning sessions
• Google quizzes will be used to ensure retrieval of prior learning at the onset of a lesson as appropriate and feedback is then automatically generated to the student and to the teacher
• Work will be marked on Google Classroom by the class teacher and this is then available for student and parent/carer to review

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:

The SEND Department (Special Educational Needs Department) work with families to deliver remote education to pupils with SEND (Special |Educational Needs and Disabilities) in the following ways;

• Regular phone calls home from Learning Support Workers to offer support with both online learning and well-being.
• Collaborative working with teaching staff and families to monitor SEND pupils’ progress and attendance to online lessons.
• Continually keeping teachers informed of effective online teaching methods and good practice to support students with SEND.
• Families can able to access advice from the SENCO if required.
• Working with outside agencies to ensure access to education for all students with SEND.
• Termly online parent forums where families can make appointments to discuss concerns and access advice from the SENCO.
• Co-ordination of  the provision of equipment to pupils who are without adequate IT resources

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?

• Where students are self-isolating they will continue to access the remote learning using the Google Classroom platform.  All elements of the policy will apply to all students whether they are self-isolating or not.
• When school returns and students attend lessons in the building, those students self-isolating will join the lesson live as the teacher will use Google Classroom to deliver the lesson remotely whilst teaching in class.  Where necessary materials will be sent home through the post to enable them to maintain their learning