Underwood Church of England Primary School

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 where national or 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 document.

The Remote Curriculum: What is taught to pupils at home?

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent 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. The class teacher will contact you either by email or Seesaw to inform you of where you can locate your child’s work for the first two days. This will allow time for the teachers to formulate the timetable of activities for future teaching and learning.

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?

Yes. We teach broadly the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects such as P.E., where suggestions and ideas for P.E. and physical activity in the home will be provided.

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:

Reception / Key Stage 1 (Years R – 2)  - three hours per day

Key Stage 2 (Years 3 – 6)                         - four hours per day 

Accessing Remote Education

How will my child be taught remotely?

A weekly timetable of learning will be placed on the class web page and will be sent out to families through Seesaw or email by 8.00am each Monday morning. We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy  and White Rose lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
• Daily Teams meetings
• Occasional live teaching through Teams
• printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
• textbooks and on–line reading books
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
• long-term project work and/or internet research activities

Learning Platforms and Programs

To support your children’s learning we will be using a variety of learning platforms which will be identified on the weekly timetable. These include:

• White Rose Maths
• Oak Academy Online lessons
• Teacher-led teaching videos
• Seesaw
• Microsoft Teams
• Times Tables Rockstars
• Bug Club KS1 Online Reading Books
• Purple Mash

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:

• Where possible, school will loan laptops to pupils who do not have any provision at home.
• If there is an issue regarding internet connection or limitation of data usage, school will endeavour to provide equipment and data capacity, where possible. Please contact the school office if you require assistance.
• If you do not have online access to provision and solutions cannot be achieved through the support of school, your child will be provided with a daily or weekly work pack. Please return the work for marking at least once a week. The class teacher will be in regular contact with you by telephone.

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?

We fully appreciate that family circumstances differ significantly across the school community. Ultimately, we expect everyone to do their best at all times.

We expect pupils learning remotely to:

• Attend the daily Teams meetings
• Tackle the daily work set to the best of their ability and return work requested by their class teacher

• Seek help from staff if they need support

We expect parents to:

• accept the school’s guidelines for online meetings between pupils and staff before meetings are allowed to occur
• Follow the guidelines for safe online meetings between staff and children
• Encourage their child to engage with the work set and support them to return work requested by their teacher
• Let school know if their child is sick or otherwise unable to complete work
• Ask school for help when required

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

• In full lockdown or class self-isolation, a daily Teams meeting will take place each morning for the whole class
• If the whole class is locked down, the class teacher will make daily contact through messaging services, such as Seesaw
• The class teacher will monitor levels of engagement in daily activity through the attendance at Teams meetings, contact through Seesaw and the amount of work submitted. Class teachers will maintain a record of attendance at Teams meetings and work submitted daily
• If a teacher becomes concerned that a child is not engaging with Home Learning, they will contact the parent in the first instance. If the concern persists, the Headteacher will be informed. In responding, the school will deal with the issue sensitively and will offer as much support as possible
• Staff will aim to respond to messages between 8:30am and 4:00pm whenever possible (taking into account any teaching commitments if still in school). There are no expectations to respond to messages from parents outside of working hours

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

• Staff will check and acknowledge the work submitted on a daily basis
• Feedback will vary dependent upon the nature of the work and will include where appropriate general comments and/or specific areas for improvement
• Older children may at times be asked to self-mark pieces of work before submitting them so that the child and teacher can quickly identify any areas for further development and support
• Progress will be measured over time based upon the work submitted as well as the outcomes of any short assessment tasks set by the class teacher

Additional support for pupils with particular needs

We recognise that some pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may not be able to access remote education without a lot of support from adults at home. We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families and therefore we will work with parents and carers to support those pupils in the following ways:

• Work will be differentiated so that it is accessible for the child
• The class teacher or a teaching assistant will be available to provide support through  a telephone discussion or via a Teams meeting
• Our school SENCo will monitor provision and will be available to support parents and carers
• If the child is unable to engage with the remote learning, they may be invited to attend school, either part-time or full-time with the agreement of the SENCo and Headteacher

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

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 the majority of their peer group remains in school, the class teacher will:

• provide them with daily work, via Seesaw or email, which will be broadly in line with the work being carried out in school
• provide support when required
• mark and provide feedback for the work submitted by the child
• maintain regular contact with the pupil and parent by telephone or Teams meetings

How do I keep in contact?

Please contact our school office on 01773 782868 or by email office@underwood.notts.sch.uk if:

• You have a general enquiry
• You are notifying us about a change to your child’s attendance or pick up time
• Your child is ill even if they are learning from home
• You require support with acquiring technology
• You have a safeguarding concern

Please contact the class teacher by email, Seesaw messaging or telephone if:

• Your child is not engaging with the remote learning
• You need support with an aspect of the remote learning
• Your child needs support with an aspect of the remote learning
• You have a concern about the remote learning. If you subsequently feel that your concern has not been suitably addressed, please contact the Headteacher through the office email address.

The class teacher or another member of staff will respond as soon as possible but please bear in mind that all teaching staff are also teaching for a large part of each day.

Class teacher email addresses:

Miss Sheard / Mrs. Robbins              chestnut@underwood.notts.sch.uk

Miss Tombling                                      birch@underwood.notts.sch.uk

Mrs. Brudzinski / Mrs. Evans             hazel@underwood.notts.sch.uk

Miss Sherlock                                       willow@underwood.notts.sch.uk

Miss Ashley                                           elm@underwood.notts.sch.uk

Mrs. Raynor / Mrs. Eves                     ash@underwood.notts.sch.uk

Mr. Adcock                                            oak@underwood.notts.sch.uk