Remote education provision

Information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education at Holy Trinity CE Primary School, where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

For details of what to expect when 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?

In the case of pupils having to self-isolate outside a period of national lockdown, please see below. In the case of pupils being educated remotely during a national lockdown, learning will transfer straight to the school’s chosen online learning platform, ‘Google Classroom’. In the first few days of lockdown pupils should work through the lessons which have previously been posted on the platform under the following headings, 'Remote Learning Week 1’ and ‘Remote Learning Week 2'. The tasks in these vary according to the year group the child is in. There are ‘Remote Learning Week 1’ and ‘Remote Learning Week 2’ folders for each year group in each of the seven Google Classrooms, from EYFS up to Year 6.

After an initial period of transition from learning in the classroom to learning at home (which should last no longer than a couple of days), the pupils will be directed to a new week of home-schooling lessons as planned by the class teacher. These will be located in a folder dated accordingly and named ‘Remote Learning – Date’. Weekly online lessons will be planned and shared as outlined below.

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?

Pupils will be taught the same curriculum remotely as they would be taught in school wherever possible and appropriate. The staff will continue to follow long-term and medium-term plans during periods of remote learning. However, adaptations may need to be made for some subjects. For example, it may not be possible to replicate at home a science lesson taught in the classroom because of the need to have certain apparatus. This could also be the case for subjects like art and technology for instance. Where this is the case, lessons will be planned for the children to access at home which are aligned to what would be taught in the classroom with perhaps less of an emphasis on the practical element.

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:

(This is in line with national guidance.)

Accessing remote education

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

During an extended period of lockdown, the school will use Google Classroom as the online learning platform for setting work and outlining lessons. This will include the use of other G Suite for Education tools such as Google Meet and Jamboards.

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:

• In cases where a pupil does not have suitable online access at home, the school will make provision, following discussions with the parent, to loan devices where possible (laptops or iPads) for that pupil.
• In such circumstances, the parent should email the school office office@holytrinitysch.co.uk to alert the school.
• If a device is loaned, parents will be asked to sign an agreement setting out its use and care.
• Any device will be set up before being loaned so the child is able to access Google Classroom enabling him/her to engage fully with all aspects of online learning.
• In such cases, engagement with online learning will be monitored and support offered to ensure devices are used productively.
• While resources will be posted on Google Classroom to support and guide the children through the learning, staff will be mindful of setting work which can be accessed directly from the screen thus reducing the need to print material. This is for the benefit of all pupils and families.
• The device supplied to a pupil will enable him/her to submit work to their teacher through Google Classroom, to see completed work posted on Jamboards and to engage with twice-daily Google Meets.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

• The class teacher will plan a comprehensive and appropriately sequenced series of lessons for the children in his/her class. This will span a week.
• A home-schooling letter giving an overview of the week’s work will be emailed out to parents the Friday before the week is due to start, through the Teachers2Parents email system.
• On the Friday when the home-schooling letter is emailed out to parents, the lessons will be posted on Google Classroom. These will appear together under a heading dated according to the week they are assigned to, e.g. ‘Remote Learning 11.01.21 – 15.01.21. This is with the exception on English and maths lessons for the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week. While instructions for these will appear on the home-schooling letter emailed to parents, they will only appear live on Google Classroom for the children to access the day before they are due to be completed.
• The instructions which appear on Google Classroom will be written by the class teacher for the child in such a way that he/she can access the learning. The instructions will be accompanied by a range of resources which are designed to support the learning. These might be, for instance, PowerPoints, links to websites, worksheets, images, pre-recorded lessons, smart notebook slides, YouTube videos.
• While the school will provide some pre-recorded lessons delivered by staff, pupils will also be directed to recorded teaching programmes provided by Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize when appropriate.
• Through Google Meet, pupils will receive two sessions of live teaching each day. The morning session will provide teaching points and guide the pupils through the English and maths task. In the afternoon session, feedback from the morning tasks will be given, the pupils will be guided through the afternoon lessons and there will be time set aside on specific days of the week for teaching staff to deliver Collective Worship, share a book, engage in Philosophy for Children and celebrate achievements during the week.

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?

While it is recognised that home-schooling puts enormous pressure on families especially in those households where both parents are working full time, the system set up by the school should allow pupils to access the learning with a degree of independence.

It is expected that pupils will complete the majority of tasks set each day and certainly the English and maths tasks.

It is expected that pupils will attend the majority of Google Meets. Where this isn’t possible, it is expected that the pupils will join at least one meet a day.

The amount of support parents will be required to give their child will depend on their age and, to an extent, on their ability to access the online teaching platform (Google Classroom) independently. The purpose of twice-daily Google Meets is to teach the lesson to the children and provide them with the tools they need to access all of the tasks set. However, parents may need to support their child in navigating their way around the online teaching platform, reading the instructions the teacher has provided, negotiating their way through the resources and uploading completed tasks.

Parents will be guided in the importance of setting routines, establishing expectations and providing a designated work station, through home-schooling letters. Home-schooling letters will also lay work out a day’s work according to a suggested daily timetable for the pupils to follow. Twice-daily Google Meets will feature in, and promote, this suggested timetable.

The school will ensure systems are in place to support the children and allow them to be as independent as possible. For instance, links to Google Meets will appear at the top of the ‘Classwork’ page in Google Classroom. In order for children to attend meets they simply need to click on the link. All classwork for a week will be posted under one clearly labelled heading in Google Classroom which will appear directly below the links to Google Meets. Within this folder, daily maths and English work will be clearly labelled so the children know which lesson to tackle and when.

Initially, Google Meets will be set aside to lay down expectations and guide the pupils through systems so they are clear on where they can access their lessons, how they log on to Google Meets, how they post completed work etc.

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

The school will monitor the quantity and quality of work completed and posted on Google Classroom by the children. On a daily basis staff will assess, in feedback sessions delivered through Google Meet, how well a pupil has engaged with a task. Pupils will be asked to bring their completed work to a meet to share what they have done as part of the feedback and marking process. Google provide feedback to teachers following Google Meets which includes information regarding attendance and the duration of the log in.

On a weekly basis Jamboards, an online display feature of Google Classroom, will be compiled for each class. As part of this process, support staff will also monitor the quantity of work posted, feeding back their observations to teaching staff.

Where engagement is a concern, parents will be contacted by the school so that any issues can be discussed and overcome in a timely fashion.

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:

Morning and afternoon Google Meets will be used as a platform to provide feedback to pupils on the work they have completed. The feedback will take many forms. Sometimes it will be appropriate for pupils to mark their own work with the teacher, particularly in the case of maths tasks, with answers being shared. Feedback might be in the form of sharing a piece of written work read out by an individual pupil or shown on screen. It may be delivered as a teaching point shared with the whole class as a teacher comments on a particular activity. Occasionally points might be awarded or a comment recorded by the teacher and attached to a completed task. Assessment might be through a question and answer session, with a teacher posing a question and the pupils using the features of Google Meet to indicate a response and share their thoughts. When appropriate, Mentimeters and Padlet plus other online sharing platforms will also be used to gather responses from the pupils after a question has been asked by the class teacher. This will provide an additional assessment tool.

Class Jamboards will be created on a weekly basis. The purpose of Jamboards are to provide a record of the work the pupils have completed and the knowledge the class has gained in the week through carrying out the tasks. It will be used to reinforce the learning process through the sharing of information and extending, as well as consolidating, a pupil’s understanding of topics. As well as engendering a sense of teamwork, they will also be used to provide feedback through the comments that are posted alongside the work displayed.

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:

Lessons, mostly notably English and maths, will provide the pupils with differentiated tasks. In some cases, a bespoke programme will be provided for individual children and posted privately on Google Classroom for them to access.  

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?

In the case of pupils having to self-isolate outside a period of national lockdown, two weeks of remote learning can be located on the school’s chosen online learning platform ‘Google Classroom’ and accessed immediately. This appears under the following headings, ‘Remote Learning Week 1’ and ‘Remote Learning Week 2’. The tasks in these folders vary according to the year group the child is in. There are ‘Remote Learning Week 1’ and ‘Remote learning Week 2’ folders for each year group, from EYFS up to Year 6.

The tasks which can be located in ‘Remote Learning Week 1’ and ‘Remote learning Week 2’ are stand-alone tasks which relate to the National Curriculum for each year group. Each curriculum area is catered for including daily maths and English tasks plus activities related to each of the foundation subjects.

Once the school is aware that a pupil may be absent from school for an extended period (in accordance with that determined by ‘Track and Trace’) the class teacher will post tasks specifically for that child which mirrors, as much as possible, the work their peers will be covering in class. A bespoke learning programme will be set up for them.