During a period of closure, staff at St Leonards Lower School are committed to providing education and support to our children using remote learning.  

All learning will be conducted using Google Classroom platforms. This will allow staff to keep in daily contact in a professional and confidential manner with their class. 

Flexibility of Learning 

We realise that the circumstances that cause our school to close will affect families in a number of ways. In our planning and expectations, we are aware of the need for flexibility from all sides:

• Parents may be trying to work from home so access to technology as a family may be limited;

• Parents may have two or more children trying to access technology and need to prioritise the needs of young people studying towards exams or accreditations; 

• Teachers may be trying to manage their home situation and the learning of their own children; 

• Systems may not always function as they should. An understanding of, and willingness to adapt to, these difficulties on all sides is essential for success.

What is Remote Learning?

Remote learning is where pupils cannot physically present at school. As children cannot access school to learn, their learning will take place online. 

Teachers will assign lessons and accompanying resources that link directly to the long-term curriculum plan for their year group so that children can continue to access relevant objectives and ‘keep up’.

Teachers will provide adapted learning resources for children with additional learning needs.

It is important that children complete the work set.

Work will be set by teachers using a learning platform: Google Classroom

What is Google Classroom and how does it work?

Google Classroom enables teachers to create an online classroom area in which they can manage all the documents that their pupils need. 

Teachers set activities within the ‘classwork tab’, but can share information, announcements, web-links and questions within the ‘stream’ tab. Pupils can see assignments on the To-do page, in the class stream, or on the class calendar. Teachers can create assignments, send announcements, and instantly start class discussions. Pupils can share resources with each other and interact in the class stream. Teachers can also quickly see who has or hasn’t completed the work, and give direct, real-time feedback.

How will work be set?

Should remote learning need to be set for a class ‘bubble’, the work for the day in English, Maths and other subjects will be posted on Google Classrooms by 9.30am for each morning of closure.

Each day, children will log on and find their activities for the day. Information will contain:

• All website links needed to access home learning resources along with clear information about the learning for that week. This will include reference to daily tasks for relevant subjects

• Links to daily English lessons – a mixture of Oak National Academy and the school’s own curriculum plans

• Links to daily Maths lessons – these will predominately be linked to the Hamilton Trust Maths curriculum, however teachers may provide further resources such as those from Oak National Academy

• Worksheets to accompany lessons will be available to download. (They will be in the form of a Google Doc –these can be converted to a Word document if necessary). You will not be required to print out any worksheets if you are unable to do so. Worksheets will simply be used as a guide for presenting tasks. Recording work on paper will be sufficient. (A ‘Remote Education’ exercise book can be provided for pupils to take home).

Teachers may use written explanations or video clips to help children understand what it is they have to do. They may also post links to video lessons for you to follow. Although teachers may not be undertaking live lessons, there will be opportunities for them to interact live through for example; class meets, story times or online assemblies and they will post links accordingly. 

Most activities can be completed online and teachers will be able to see it via the Learning Platform. Sometimes a task might ask pupils to carry out an experiment or practical task e.g. growing seeds, organising tins and packets according to weight, or drawing or making a model. These tasks can be photographed and uploaded onto Google Classroom for the teacher to see. 

What is expected of pupils in EYFS?

In EYFS the majority of learning takes place through play. In the event of a full or partial closure we will provide daily ideas for purposeful play and creative activities related to areas from the Early Years Framework.  We will also record/upload videos of the daily phonics lesson with suggestions for follow up activities and provide guidance for practical maths, reading and writing activities that follow the same sequence of learning that we would be doing at school.

Children’s work should be shared with teachers through the Google Classroom platform. Parents can upload videos, photos and written observations and teachers will provide feedback. 

What is expected of pupils in KS1 and KS2?

 The expectation of lessons will be:

• Daily Maths lesson

• Daily English lesson

• Daily phonics lesson (Key Stage 1)

• Each day there will be a lesson for at least one of the foundation subjects linked to the Creative Curriculum topic (science, history, geography, music, computing, art).

Content for Maths - The Hamilton Trust Maths scheme is followed across school and resources will be posted that link to the same sequence of lessons being used in school. Oak National Academy video clips may be used to support the lesson content.  In the event of a partial or full closure, or a child self-isolating, the teacher will inform parents which lessons the class are working on in school so that the home learning videos and resources can be used.

Content for Phonics - Teachers will upload links to activities, videos and resources based on whichever spelling patterns and sounds are being studied. 

Content for English - In the event of a full or partial closure, teachers will provide guidance about the English focus for each day. This will include details about Shared Reading activities, GPS (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) and writing.

Oak National Academy Resources - Oak National Academy is an online classroom made by teachers, for teachers. It has over 10,000 lessons and resources covering a wide range of subjects, from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 11. In the Oak Academy virtual classroom, each lesson is an hour-long. Lessons are delivered by a teacher, with a pre-recorded video as well as quizzes, worksheets and creative activities. 

Suggested Daily Timetable for ‘Home Learning’

Children thrive from having structure and routine built into their learning. Please find below a suggested timetable for the day. However, don’t worry if this can’t be followed exactly – it’s just an example.

9.00 – 9.30      Exercise - Morning Workout

9.30-10.30       Log on to Google Classroom to find the set activities for the day

                        Complete English task

10.30-11.00     Break - Outdoor/Fresh Air

11.00-12.00     Complete Maths task

12.00-12.30     Lunch

12.30-1.00       Break- Outdoor/Fresh Air

1.00-2.30         Topic learning- see foundation subject planning 

2.30-3.00         Quiet Time or Mindfulness Reading, puzzles, colouring in, online games

3.00-3.30         Outdoor Learning Play in the garden, go for a minibeast hunt, tally chart items that you find (flowers, birds, cars, vans etc.) Make mud pies, plant some seeds, flowers or vegetables. 

Pupils in EYFS should do a short maths and phonics activity each day, other creative learning opportunities will be provided and the class teacher will provide the ideas for these to extend the learning in their maths and phonics.

Children in Key Stage 1 should aim to complete 2-3 hours of remote learning each day.

Children in Key Stage 2 should aim to complete 3-4 hours of remote learning each day.

Submitting Work

Ideally work should be submitted daily when it is completed as teachers will be able to respond to this in a more timely manner and offer support should it be necessary.  However, we understand that with home learning pressures, this may not always be possible.  At the latest, work must be submitted by 3pm Friday afternoon.

Please make sure that your child only sends completed work.

Contact with teachers

 • Teachers will respond promptly, within reason, to requests for support from families at home. However, in the case of self-isolation for individual pupils, teachers will be working from 8.45am - 3.45pm Monday to Friday and therefore will not be able to respond immediately to messages or submitted work.

• In the event of whole class isolation, teachers will be available via Google Classrooms during the morning 11-12 and during the afternoon 2-3. At other times, they will be preparing work and responding to the activities set.

• In the event of a full or partial closure, teachers from classes 1-4 will hold at least two whole class live sessions on Google Meet or Zoom. One will be at the start of the week and one at the end of the week. The purpose of these will be for the class to all be in contact together as a class, for the teacher to summarise the learning for that week and for children to share and celebrate work that they have done. Timings for the sessions for each class will be staggered to support families with access to only one device. Links will be provided for parents and children to follow. For pupils in EYFS the Google Meet facility will be used for story time.

• If unwell themselves, teachers will be covered by another staff member for the setting of activities. Communication during this time will not be undertaken until the teacher is well enough to work.

Monitoring Engagement with Remote Education

It is important that children engage with the remote education provided so that they don’t fall behind with their learning; however we do acknowledge that each family’s home circumstances are unique and there may be factors that affect engagement with home learning. These may include parents working from home or limited access to technology amongst other factors.

Communication is essential and we would ask that if there are circumstances that mean a child cannot engage at least partially with the remote education that their parent speaks to the teacher.

Teachers will be able to monitor children’s engagement in activities and their understanding. They will be able to determine whether a child is engaging sufficiently. (E.g. Are they logging on every day? Are they viewing the files teachers upload?) Is the work submitted completed to the best of that child’s ability and uploaded on time? If we have concerns about levels of engagement, then we will make contact with you so that we can work together to find a means of providing remote education that enables quality learning to take place.

Passwords

Passwords will be recorded in each pupils reading record, which will be sent home in the event of isolation.

Technical Issues

Every effort will be made by staff to ensure that work is set promptly on appropriate platforms but school cannot guarantee that the chosen platforms will work on all devices. Should accessing work be an issue, parents should contact school promptly and alternative solutions will be made available (e.g. paper copies of work, loan of iPads etc.). These will be discussed on case-to-case basis.

GOVERNMENT EXPECTATIONS FOR REMOTE LEARNING

When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to:

• set meaningful and ambitious work each day in an appropriate range of subjects

• provide teaching that is equivalent in length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school.

This will include both recorded or live direct teaching time and time for pupils to complete tasks and assignments independently, and will be as a minimum:

• Key Stage 1: 3 hours a day on average across the cohort, with less for younger children

• Key Stage 2: 4 hours a day

• Key Stages 3 and 4: 5 hours a day

Online video lessons do not necessarily need to be recorded by teaching staff at the school: Oak National Academy lessons, for example, can be provided in lieu of schooled video content.

Schools should consider how to transfer into remote education what we already know about effective teaching in the live classroom by, for example:

• providing frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher or through high-quality curriculum resources

• providing opportunities for interactivity, including questioning, eliciting and reflective discussion

• providing scaffolded practice and opportunities to apply new knowledge

• enabling pupils to receive timely and frequent feedback on how to progress, using digitally-facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate

• using assessment to ensure teaching is responsive to pupils’ needs and addresses any critical gaps in pupils’ knowledge

• avoiding an over-reliance on long-term projects or internet research activities

We expect schools to consider these expectations in relation to the pupils’ age, stage of development or special educational needs, for example where this would place significant demands on parents’ help or support. Younger children in Key Stage 1 or Reception often require high levels of parental involvement to support their engagement with remote education, which makes digital provision a particular challenge for this age group. We therefore do not expect that solely digital means will be used to teach these pupils remotely. We also recognise that some pupils with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) may not be able to access remote education without adult support and so expect schools to work with families to deliver an ambitious curriculum appropriate for their level of need.

Full details can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950510/School_national_restrictions_guidance.pdf