Remote Education Information

Remote education provision: information for parents legacy information from 2021 (COVID-19)

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

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

The remote curriculum: what is taught to students at home

A student’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 students being sent home?

Immediate remote education provisions will take place using Show My Homework and Microsoft Teams.

In the first instance, work will be set on Show My Homework in order to give teachers the necessary preparation time to plan the delivery of high quality live lessons and other remote provisions.

Following this, a schedule of live lessons will be issued that will include a minimum of 50% live lessons using Microsoft Teams. Your child can expect to follow their usual timetable and work to be set in line with the curriculum they would follow in school.

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. Given the nature of some practical subjects and the need for specialised equipment, for example, Music, Art, Design Technology and PE, some teachers may adapt their curriculum to ensure work is accessible for students working from home whilst still covering curriculum content and preparing students for the next stages of their study.

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 students broadly the following number of hours each day:

KS3 and KS4

5 hours per day in line with the school timetable.

At least 50% of your child’s timetable will include live lessons via Microsoft Teams. For the remainder of lessons, independent work will be set via Show My Homework and your child’s teacher will be available on Teams for the duration of the lesson.

Please see the live lesson schedule for further details of live lessons for each year group.

Additional homework will not be set for students in KS3.

Accessing remote education

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

Live lessons will be delivered via Microsoft Teams and all work will be available on Show My Homework.
The majority of subjects also use Class Notebook in which students will complete classwork and/or assessments. Class Notebook is part of the O365 package and can be accessed through school email.

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you support them to access remote education?

We will work with all families to try to provide the resources needed to ensure all students within our school community have access to remote education and recognise that some students may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those students to access remote education:

A number of laptops have been made available to provide support for disadvantaged students without access. Parents should make contact with their child’s tutor or Head of Year to make the school aware of the technological requirement.
A number of 4G dongles are available for disadvantaged students for the duration of remote education. Contact should be made with your child’s tutor or Head of Year to make the school aware of the technological requirement.
Although we try to ensure that all students will have access to a laptop and/or device that enables an internet connection, if there is a specific need for printed materials, these can be arranged and provided on a case-by-case basis.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Live teaching (online lessons) using Microsoft Teams.
Independent work set via Show My Homework. Resources may include recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers).
Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences, for example, MyMaths, Linguascope, Focus on Sound and BBC Bitesize.
Long-term project work and/or internet research activities, for example, in Design Technology.

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?

All students are expected to attend all live lessons as per the live lesson schedule including registration each morning.
During non-live lessons (independent work / Q&A sessions), students should seek guidance/assistance from their class teacher if they have any questions regarding the work set.
Parental support is requested in the setting of routines to support your child’s education.

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

A register is taken for each live lesson; if your child is absent, the class teacher will send a follow-up email in the first instance to your child with the parent copied in to the communication.
Where engagement is a concern across a number of subject areas, your child’s tutor will make contact, followed by the Head of Year where appropriate.

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 will also be used in a number of subject areas.

Our approach to feeding back on student work is as follows:

Verbal feedback in live lessons including whole-class feedback and the use of quizzes.
Where work is set/completed in Class Notebook, feedback will also be available in line with individual Faculty procedures.

Additional support for students 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 students, for example some students 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 students in the following ways:

Work will be supplied through teachers and the Learning Support team to help with home schooling where remote education (i.e. live lessons) is not appropriate.
Ongoing home communications with a range of staff at all levels including SENDCo, individual teachers, Heads of Year, tutors and Learning Support Assistants. Interventions and additional support offered where appropriate.
Quality First Teaching (QFT) and effective differentiation in live lessons.
Greater use of assistive technology where appropriate and training students to use it to assist them with accessing remote education.

Remote education for self-isolating students

Where individual students 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 students 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?

Some teachers may be able to offer self-isolating students the opportunity to join a Microsoft Teams call in order to access the live lessons. Some subject areas may not be able to offer this given the nature of the work undertaken in face-to-face lessons.

Where it is not possible for self-isolating students to join a lesson via Microsoft Teams, work will be set on Show My Homework in line with the content covered in school.