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Remote education provision: information for parents

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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.

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The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

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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.

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

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Class teachers will make contact with the pupil via Seesaw on the first day of remote education. They will simply reassure the pupil that they are still available for them and will briefly set out what will happen, as regards home learning, over subsequent days.

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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?

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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, a more cross-curricular approach to foundation subjects is being provided for afternoon study. A specific topic that would have been taught eg the Romans, will form the basis of activities set but this may then lead to links for Art, DT etc. PE activities will be set according to plans sent by the Lancashire PE team, or Chorley Schools Sports Partnership, specifically designed for remote learning.

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Remote teaching and study time each day

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

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In setting work for each class, we aim to fulfil the government’s requirements for different age groups, detailed below:

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Primary school-aged pupils :  EYFS and KS1  - The government requirement for this age group is approximately 3 hours per day

Primary school-aged pupils : KS2   -  The government requirement for this age group is approximately 4 hours per day

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Accessing remote education

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

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All work will be uploaded to Seesaw and links to all other online resources will be shared through Seesaw.

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

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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:

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• Parents will be asked to check that they have one or more of the following devices at home, all of which support remote learning : PC, laptop, tablet, mobile  phone, Xbox, Playstation

• If a parent has none of the above, they are invited to contact school and school will endeavour to provide a suitable device. They should do this by emailing the office email at : bursar@st-marys-eccleston.lancs.sch.uk or the headteacher at  head@st-marys-eccleston.lancs.sch.uk

• Parents who have no internet connection will be encouraged to use their mobile phones as ‘hot spots.’ More information on doing this can be found by emailing Mr Lyons at t.lyons@st-marys-eccleston.lancs.sch.uk

• Should all the above avenues have been exhausted, in exceptional circumstances school will provide paper copies of work. This is not the best option for pupils, however, as the learning input required to complete work will all be provided online eg videos etc. Parents who feel they have no alternative should phone school on 01257 451317 to discuss how school and they can work together to best support the child in this situation.

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How will my child be taught remotely?

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All activities are posted on or directed via Seesaw. Some examples of remote teaching approaches:

• live Zoom meetings for each class once a week (only applicable when the whole 'bubble' are working from home)

• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lesson ie video/audio recordings made by teachers from around the country)

• recorded input delivered by our own teachers eg for Phonics or for a morning greeting to explain the day’s work

• commercially-produced powerpoint lessons linked to our usual learning eg White Rose Maths daily lessons

• PE lesson packs produced by the Lancashire PE team and the Chorley School Sports Partnership

• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas eg Maths Prodigy, Maths Shed, Times Tables Rockstars, Spelling Shed, Phonics Play

• activity grids focused on specific areas of foundation subjects. Eight activities will be set for a two week period, by the end of which time, all activities should have been completed. A new grid will then be produced with a different topic focus (only applicable when a whole 'bubble' are working from home)

• The headteacher’s Monday morning Worship will be recorded and shared via Seesaw (when whole 'bubbles' are at home)

• The parish priest will record a Worship to be shared via Seesaw every Wednesday (when whole 'bubbles' are self-isolating)

• All teachers will record a segment of the weekly Achievement Assembly to be shared via Seesaw every Friday (when whole 'bubbles' are self-isolating.)

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Engagement and feedback

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

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• We recognise that every family’s circumstances are different and, therefore, approaches to home learning will be different.

• If possible, infant children should complete three hours of learning per day and KS2, four hours and they should aim to finish all the work set for a given day.

• There is no expectation as to when the work is done – morning, afternoon or evening or spread across all three. Family circumstances will dictate the way that works best for each individual family.

• However, we realise that, owing to a lack of household devices, parents’ own work commitments, other children’s work demands and so on, not every child will be able to complete all the work every day. If there are issues and difficulties, parents should contact the class teacher via Seesaw and an arrangement will be made that suits both home and school.

• Parents should provide as much support as they possibly can, bearing in mind their own work commitments and responsibility for other children. Younger children will require greater supervision but older ones, especially those in Y5 and Y6, should be able to work independently for a good deal of the time.

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

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• Teachers will be monitoring Seesaw every day and will, therefore, be aware of the levels of engagement of every child

• If school has concerns about a child’s level of engagement, parents will be contacted and the matter discussed. School will always try to be helpful and offer suggestions as to how engagement levels can be improved.

• If problems with engagement persist, despite offers of help, school reserves the right to take advice from the Attendance Team at Lancashire Education Authority.

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How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

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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:

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• Children should upload all completed work to Seesaw and teachers will view it as soon as they possibly can. The time taken will depend on the member of staff’s commitments in school. They may be slower to respond on days on which they are required to be in school.

• Feedback will be offered whenever and wherever appropriate and will always be constructive and help pupils to move on in their learning.

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Additional support for pupils with particular needs

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How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

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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:

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Pupils with SEND

Any pupils requiring bespoke provision will be supported by class teacher and SENDCO. Guidance will be given in how to adapt physical resources at home. Teachers will provide parents with bespoke targets to be worked on at home and support through our online messaging service on SeeSaw.

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Younger pupils

Children in EYFS will engage with online resources similar to those of other year groups such as White Rose Maths and Oak Academy. The individual activities linked to the online videos are of a very practical nature, therefore each child will be given a range of practical resources, such as cubes, whiteboards and playdoh to make the work accessible to all at home. Phonetically decodable books from our school reading scheme are shared with pupils via Seesaw. This is to allow the children to apply the phonics they continue to learn through their daily phonics lessons. To keep familiarity with the normal school routine, the children are set 6 Rainbow Challenges every week which cover a wide range of curricular areas. These will focus around a weekly theme.

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Remote education for self-isolating pupils

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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.

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

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We will endeavour to set work online that is identical to the work being covered in school to ensure all children continue to receive a high quality education, regardless of circumstances. All work completed at home will be assessed by teachers and personalised feedback will be given.