Remote Learning
Remote Learning Provision From 11.01.21
Information for Parents
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents and carers about what to expect from remote education when we have entire cohorts of pupils at home.
In all situations when remote education is required, we aim to ensure that work set will:
- Be meaningful and ambitious.
- Cover a range of subjects.
- Be equivalent in length to the normal school day curriculum provision.
- Be clear, well planned and well sequenced.
- Provide clear explanations of new content.
Work will not:
- Be a long-term projects.
- Be based purely on internet research.
Research
We have consulted research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). The key messages are that for learning to be effective, the following three factors are crucial:
- ‘quality of the teaching is most important’
- ‘monitor progress and provide guidance and support’
- ‘explanations clearly build on pupils’ prior learning’
What will we do in our planning to help?
- We are going to follow our normal curriculum plans, delivering the content pupils would have studied in school as this follows a clear sequence of learning.
- We will plan carefully for quality explanations by incorporating live lessons which enable important interaction between teachers and their pupils.
- We will make clear links to prior learning.
- We will monitor progress through attendance to live lessons, use of chat box question and answer and reading work complete on the online class notebook.
- Pupils should follow their normal school timetable and all live lessons will have a calendar invite so pupils can clearly map out their week.
How long can I expect work to be set for each day during remote education?
We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) should take pupils the same amount of time as the standard school day, this is five hours each day.
To allow us to ensure that our pupils who require Keyworker places in school can access the learning at the same time as those pupils who are at home, we have changed our school day so ALL PUPILS FOLLOW THE SAME LESSON TIMES.
Pupils in school will register at 8.45a.m. - 9.00a.m. (School will open for pupils from 8.30a.m.)
Lesson 1 9.00a.m. - 10.00a.m.
Break 10.00a.m. - 10.15a.m.
Lesson 2 10.15a.m. - 11.15a.m.
Lesson 3 11.15a.m. - 12.15p.m.
Lunch 12.15p.m. - 12.45p.m.
Lesson 4 12.45p.m. - 1.45p.m.
Afternoon break 1.45p.m. - 2.00p.m.
Lesson 5 2.00p.m. - 3.00p.m.
How will be child be taught remotely?
Minimum live streamed teaching for Year 7-10:
English/maths/sci - live delivery for at least two lessons per week.
History/Geography/Spanish - live delivery at least once per week.
All other subjects - live delivery for at least one lesson per fortnight (if you teach pupils for a double on one week only it would be for one hour of this double).
- Learning resources will be uploaded to 'Assignments' on Microsoft Teams.
- Live streamed lessons will be scheduled through pupils’ calendars and they just need to click ‘join now’ at the relevant time.
- Work completed and submitted on pupils Teams online class notebooks.
- Assessment and Feedback will be through whole class feedback, use of chat box, feedback on the online notebooks.
Overall, 50% of the remote offer for Years 7-10 is live streamed delivery and 50% independent is assignment work with live Teams feedback and Q&A through Teams channel.
For Year 11 100% of lessons are live streamed and all work and lessons are accessible through Microsoft Teams.
Staying safe in online lessons.
We have a set of guidelines which can be found on our ‘Safer Online Lessons’ guidance below. We recommend all pupils and parents read and understand these guidelines.
Here is a link to our guidance for remaining safe in online lessons.
Guide to Safer Online Learning
What happens if my child does not have online access at home, how will you support them?
We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We maintain a ‘Device Tracker’ in school which identifies all pupils who have a device and appropriate internet access at home. If pupils require a laptop we will arrange a loan and the laptop will either be delivered to the household or we will arrange collection; this is dependent on the context.
If you require support with accessing online materials/use of a device at home please email us on admin@hillsidehigh.co.uk or alternatively you can ring the school office and ask to speak to your child’s progress leader.
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 expectations are that pupils complete all remote education set via assignments in Microsoft Teams and that they attend any live lessons that they are invited to. We recommend that pupils follow their normal school timetable in order to stay organised. Parents and carers can help at home by talking to pupils about their normal school timetable and looking at the assignments and live lessons scheduled on their calendar. Parents and carers can also help by recommending and encouraging pupils to follow their normal school day and taking breaks at appropriate times.
How will we monitor engagement ?
Day to day, teachers will check who has viewed assignments and check engagement through Teams posts, chat box and online class notebooks. For pupils completing work in school, there will always be a teacher present to monitor engagement.
We will record attendance to live streamed lessons.
If we are concerned regarding attendance to live lessons and/or engagement with learning teachers and progress leaders will make parental contact.
At the end of each week, all teachers will use the Remote Learning Engagement Trackerand identify any concerns with regards to engagement with remote learning that week.
This information will be collected each Friday with follow up phone calls to parents taking place on following Monday by Progress Leaders.
We will use the day to day checking and attendance records to inform our rewards which will include positive phone calls home.
How will you assess my child’s work and progress?
We will follow our normal school policy which emphasizes the importance of feedback being as immediate as possible. Feedback can take many forms and it will not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, as when pupils attend school, we will use whole class feedback, marked quizzes and live modelled answers among many other methods. Much of the feedback will be during the live streamed lessons and using communication through Teams class posts.
Whilst pupils complete work remotely, any written feedback will be provided on their online class notebooks. Pupils will be expected to read feedback and act on this using a purple font.
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:
- Reminding teaching staff at the expectation to look at pupil SEN plans and make reasonable adjustments when planning remote learning
- All pupils on the SEN register will receive a weekly telephone call from a Teaching Assistant to offer additional advice and support with remote learning. These weekly calls will be discussed with the school's SENCo and appropriate actions taken to resolve any issues
- In line with DfE guidance all pupils who have an EHCP have been offered a school place. Where parents/guardians have decided not to take the place pupils with an EHCP are in receipt of the above phone call and if necessary, more frequent contact throughout the week
- Pupils in receipt of 1:1 support in school are staying in daily contact with their 1:1 Teaching Assistant by telephone
- The Inclusion Base and Nurture Base facilities within school remain open and operational to support pupils with complex needs
Remote Education for self-isolating pupils when there are no National/Regional restrictions
When there are no National or Regional restrictions on attending school there will still be cases whereby a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate and we will provide immediate remote education. We have strong contingency plans in place which allows access to high quality resources and uses a curriculum sequence during periods of self-isolation.
What happens if my son/daughter needs to self-isolate due to either:
- Having symptoms
- Someone in the household has symptoms
- Being in contact with a positive case
- Having to quarantine?
If we are informed that your son/daughter needs to self-isolate for one of the reasons above you will immediately be sent the following letter:
This letter includes details of all the online tools your son/daughter has access to and can start to use immediately for their remote education (from day 1 of being at home). They should access this immediate remote education for the first two days if awaiting a test result.
If your son/daughter is required to isolate for a longer period of time e.g. 10/14 days, we will collate work from each of their class teachers and this will be set via Microsoft Teams. This work would be aligned to the curriculum your child would have been following if they were attending school. We aim
to teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate, although, we recognise at times we may need to make some adaptations.
If your son/daughter experiences any problems or requires further support they can contact their teacher via email. We recommend they also check their class Teams channels daily to keep up to date with any class posts.
