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Remote Education Provision: Information for Parents

At Norbury Manor Primary School aims to continue to provide an ambitious and broad curriculum in all subjects. Our overarching aims are to keep our core purpose of teaching and learning to continue as effectively as possible and maintain a connection between staff, pupils and their families. We have extensive plans for the provision of remote education where needed and ensure that when children need to be educated at home, for example, due to shielding, self-isolation, or if a national lockdown is implemented, they are given the support they need to continue learning.

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

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 more extended period of remote teaching.

Why do we have an online remote learning tool?

On 1^st October 2020, the Department for Education (DfE) published aa directive under the Coronavirus Act 2020, which states that all state-funded school-age children must be provided ‘immediate access to remote education.’ The DfE made clear within the Directive that ‘schools have a legal duty to provide remote education for state-funded, school-age children unable to attend school due to coronavirus (COVID – 19)’. This direction comes into force on 22^nd October 2020 and will affect ‘until the end of the current school year, unless it is revoked by aa further direction.’

Remote learning expectations

Where a class, group or a small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or local restrictions require pupils to remain at home, we have the capacity to offer immediate remoted education. We have a strong contingency plan to place for remote education provision, and this can be seen in the ‘Remote teaching and study time each day’ section. This planning is particularly important to support scenarios in which the logistical challenges of remove provision are greatest, for example, where a large number of pupils are required to remain at home.

In developing these contingency plans, we will:

Use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources, live teaching and teaching videos and that is linked to the school’s curriculum expectations
Give access to high-quality remote education resources
Use Bromcom Assessment, J2 Launch and Microsoft Teams consistently across the school to allow interaction, assessment and feedback.
Provide digital platform passwords.
Recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SERD may not be able to access remote education without adult support. We will work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum for all pupils.

When teaching pupils remotely, we will:

Set learning, so pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
Teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built upon, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject.
Provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by the class teacher in the school and provide high-quality curriculum resources.
Adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupil’s understanding
Plan a program that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, including daily contact with teachers.

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

Before the first day of remote learning, all parents and carers will be sent pupil’s login details for J2 Launch, Mathletics, and Reading Eggs. Parents/ carers will also be reminded to review our remote learning page on the school website, which outlines how to use the platforms.

On the first day of remote education, troubleshooting will take place to ensure all families have access to J 2Launch and all other digital platforms used by the school (Mathletics, Reading Eggs).

A live Microsoft Teams will be scheduled through J2 Launch on the first day in the morning. To ensure access is available for all, each year group attends at a particular time. This will enable us to schedule and explain in detail how to use the tools and the full timetable of lessons beginning day 2.

Support and guidance will be given to our families. Any families having difficulties accessing the online platforms will be supported by the Computing Lead and administration team to ensure access is available. Some pupils with Special Educational Needs or those working significantly below age-related expectations may receive an additional task, tailored to their individual targets.

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:

Planned lessons which require specialist equipment and/or materials (i.e., in Science, Music or Design and Technology) may be adapted to suit learners’ at-home accessibility to such resources.
English may be based on short extracts or stories rather than longer novel or book.
PE via online resources which will focus on keeping fit and active rather than for teaching specific skills.

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

Live Teaching Timetable

Tasks and hours each day

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

Children will access resources trough J2 Launch on LGFL, Mathletics, Reading Eggs and Busy things through LGFL. Language Nut will also be used for children who speak English as an additional language. Login details for each platform have been shared with parents/carers. No work will be uploaded to the school website.

Microsoft Teams will be used to deliver live lessons. Pupils will access the live link through J2 Launch. Pre-recorded lessons and video links will also be accessible through J2 Launch. The Administration team and Computer Lead will be available to support with any tech issues should they arise. Class teachers can be contacted via J2 messages. You can also contact members of staff through MCAS or the school email.

There will also be additional links to DfE approved resources, video clips etc.

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:

Pupils who do not have a suitable electronic device will have a device allocated to them if one is available to access remote learning – a device loan agreement must be signed in this instance. Parents will be offered data increase through the DfE scheme with specific mobile companies.
Instructions on how to access remote learning through the Xbox and PlayStation will be shared with parents and carers through MCAS and on the school website.
Pupils can complete their work on paper and upload a picture of it on to J2 Launch so the teacher can comment on it. This process allows pupils to use a mobile phone to access the learning. They can also attend live lessons using a mobile phone. Steps on how to achieve this can be found on our school website.

For any further information about remote learning or the platforms used, please contact Mrs Potter (Headteacher and computing Lead).

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Live teaching on Microsoft Teams through J2 Launch
Recorded teaching (video/audio recording made by teachers)
Recorded teaching by DfE approved providers, e.g., Oak National Academy lessons
In exceptional circumstances, printed paper materials will be produced by teachers (e.g., workbooks, worksheets)
Commercially available websites support the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences, such as Mathletics, Busy Things, Language Angel, Language Nut and Reading Eggs.
Long-term project work and/or internet research activities.

Pupils will use their personalised J2 Launch account to complete classwork, communicate with their teachers and learn 21^st-century digital citizenship skills. This account can be accessed by any device you and your child have available for use, be it a laptop, tablet, gaming device, desktop PC or mobile phone. This account still remains a school-controlled account. It just means that you have ultimate flexibility in choosing the device that best suits your family circumstances to access the online account remotely. Parents and children should never share the J2 Launch account password with another individual. This is explained with other precautions to children when modelling our online safety expectations in e-safety lessons.

We want to inform parents/carers that J2 Launch will show the other children's names in your child’s class. The ICO has said that this is a reasonable and proportionate way for children to access the resources during this current time.

LGFL and J2 Launch Privacy Policy can be found by clicking on the link below.

What are your expectations for my child's engagement and the support that we, as parents and carers, should provide at home?

We expect all pupils to engage in remote learning. In school, we are providing all pupils access to live lessons and online learning.

We expect parents/carers to work in partnership with the school. At home, we expect them to ensure children are ready and able to access learning, set routines, hold high expectations in the quality and quantity of pupils’ work, and maintain communication with school staff regularly.

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

It is important that the children engage with the remote learning activities to continue their education during self-isolation periods. However, we acknowledge that each family’s home circumstances are unique and that there may be factors that affect engagement with home learning. These may include parents working from home or limited access to technology, among other factors. Communication is essential, and we ask that If parents are finding things difficult to get in touch with their child’s class teacher so we can support and put measures in place. Below is how we will ensure your child is engaging with their work:

A register is taken twice daily, mirroring a normal school day.
School staff will check pupils’ engagement daily and will contact families for any non-attendance. Then, follow up calls will be made to families. Welfare calls are made via telephone after 2 days of non-contact on J2 Launch.
If pupils/families have any trouble accessing the resources/require any additional support or guidance, they can contact the school email, MCAS or J2 Message private message function to request assistance.
Teachers are available during the school day through J2 Launch except during their Planning Preparation and Assessment (PPA) afternoon, which is noted in the live lesson timetable.

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. Norbury Manor primary school aim is to make use of the good practice approaches outlined by the EEF toolkit to ensure that children are provided with timely and purposeful feedback that furthers their learning and that teachers can gather feedback and assessment that enable to adjust their teaching both within and across a sequence of lessons. Our approach is applied across all subjects and in every year group. 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 a follow:

Verbal feedback from teachers throughout live lessons
Work set on J2 Launch will be marked/have feedback given electronically. Learners will know there is a comment because a speech bubble will appear over the file in my files folder, containing the number of comments. The learner can comment back to the teacher in the same way.
Feedback can be communicated with pupils and families through J2 Launch voice recordings.

Pupils who access online learning will receive daily feedback.

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 rights and disabilities (SERD), may not be able to access remote education without support from adults at home. In partnership with Mrs Morton (SENCO), we will identify individual pathways for all pupils with SERD. 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:

Pupils may access other year group materials to support with their learning and development.
Work may be adapted/additional support given in whole class live teaching or after the live session where appropriate.
Google translate may be used to translate task into pupils first language.
Instructions may be recorded to support pupils understanding of the task.
Oak National Academy specialist content for pupils with SERD covers communication and language, maths, creative arts, independent living, occupational, physical and speech and language therapy.
The SENCO or external providers, e.g., Speech or Occupational Therapy plans, should have already been shared with home by those therapists, and this work can continue at home.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate, but most of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided may differ from the whole groups' approach.

The main difference in this instance is that pupils would not access live teaching, only the resources and activities.

Where possible, PowerPoints, worksheets, and teacher planning notes from lessons, delivered in school will be made available with relevant follow up task on J2 Launch.
Where possible, children will be directed to DfE approved programmes, e.g., Oak Academy, which aligns with the curriculum being taught in school.
Tasks will be set on Mathletics and Reading Eggs, which align with the curriculum being taught in school.
Parents can contact the class teacher via email or thorough J2 Message, a private message function as required, however, please understand that the class teacher will have a full, in-class teaching commitment.
Pupils isolating should access their year group’s learning through our virtual school platform: J2 Launch. This is the curriculum that would be taught in school to all pupils. For pupils who require the specialist provision, arrangements will be agreed in consultation with parents/carers, class teacher and SENCO.