Home Learning

Home Learning Provision

• Each year group to have a live daily assembly on Google Meets which will act both as an chance to reflect, and serve as a registration/daily check-in with the whole year group. All children expected to attend. Office staff to follow up with anyone not present during the morning. 

• Directed English and Maths tasks to be set via Google Classroom each day. These are to be differentiated to children’s ability. This will include short pre-recorded videos which will act as the ‘teacher input’ section of the lesson. All children are expected to complete within the same day and hand in evidence of their learning by 3pm so that teachers can assess the need for next day intervention. 

• Directed foundation subjects should also be set in a similar way to if children were in school, ensuring good coverage of the regular timetabled lessons, albeit adapted to suit home learning needs. This does not need to include a video as for the core subjects. This will include a weekly RE lesson.

• Children to take part in Google Meets interventions as requested by their teachers.

• A variety of live lessons will also supplement this core provision where circumstances allow it.

Staff responsibilities to support home learning provision

Teaching and Learning staff use any time they are not teaching the children in school to complete the following tasks: 

• Monitor Google Classroom and provide prompt feedback to children learning at home.

• Carry out interventions with children already identified as needing additional support in a particular area of their learning

• Provide same-day ‘drop in’ support session open to all children (around 30 minutes per afternoon)

• Carry out a 30 minute ‘next day’ intervention with those in the year group who require additional support from the previous day's morning sessions. 

• Planning and preparation for upcoming lessons or interventions. 

• Record videos for upcoming Maths/English inputs

• Record other content for Google Classroom such as reading aloud a story or section of the whole class guided reading text.

• Making contact with pupils and parents as necessary. 

• Continue work needed to fulfil other roles within the school community eg: attending professional development training, working on curriculum policies, etc.

In School Provision (for children of Key Workers and other identified vulnerable children)

• Take part in the live daily assembly - one teacher to lead, other staff to monitor attendance, take care of the admin/technology side of running the Google Meet. 

• AM Session 1 - English/Maths taught by one Class Teacher in year group. 

• AM Session 2 - English/Maths taught by other Class Teacher in year group.

• PM - Foundation subjects supported by TLSAs. Planning is done by teachers and adapted as necessary, teachers remain nearby to support with any behaviour issues as needed. Activities should ensure children do not need to work in close proximity as social distancing will be encouraged within classrooms due to smaller pupil numbers. 

How does my child access the daily assembly and other live sessions?

Go to https://meet.google.com or navigate to the Google Calendar under the Classwork tab on their Google Classroom.

How does my child access any online remote education?

We use Google Classroom for all our home learning. Every child has their own login (call the school office if they cannot access this). Work is set each day, with video input from class teachers to support their understanding and engagement. All instructions and all communication with class teachers takes place through Google Classroom initially.

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

Approximately 4 hours each day

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

We have offered to loan a laptop to any child has no access to a suitable device. If your child is sharing with another family member or having to use a mobile phone to access their learning, please contact the school office and we will arrange for you to borrow a school laptop.

We may also be able to provide internet access to your home through a government scheme. Please contact the school office if you are having to use mobile data or have any other internet issues which may inhibit your child's learning.

How will my child be taught remotely?

Please see the section above which details the daily learning provision. 

Why are there not more live teaching sessions?

Our home learning provision has grown significantly over the periods of school closure. The enhancements include up to three live sessions with your child's teacher each day, pre-recorded video teaching for most lessons, and small group interventions within a day of learning being handed in. 

If all lessons were taught face to face, we would not be able to offer this wider provision and more personalised catch up support. Families who are unable to access the lesson on time, would also be disadvantaged. With pre-recorded videos, children can also pause and rewind the teacher's input to better understand what is being taught.

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

Children - We expect every child to attend the daily assembly and any additional live intervention sessions. We also expect every child to hand in their English and Maths learning by 3pm each day. As shared with them in their first assembly, we expect them - as junior aged children - to be as independent as possible in their learning so that all family members are able to manage during this time of lockdown.

Parents and carers - We expect you to ensure your child is dressed and sat in an appropriate location to attend their assembly at the start of the day. We expect you to maintain appropriate routines and structure for their day including a break for lunch and an appropriate bedtime. We expect you to inform us if your child is sharing a device or is in some way restricted from engaging in their learning so that we can support you.

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

Your child's teacher monitors their learning 'live' from 9am - 3pm. This means most of the time, children receive real-time, immediate feedback to questions and learning that is handed in. Each day, this learning is reviewed and the teaching team decide which children should be the focus of next-day intervention support either to address misconceptions or to provide further challenge.

If there are concerns about your child's engagement, class teachers or the office staff will call you to discuss how we can work together to support your child.

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 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 have set up our home learning offer to provide as much support as possible, including:

• through video teaching and live intervention sessions

• by managing our in-school provision to allow key staff to be available to support those at home at all times

• by providing school places to the most vulnerable

If you need any further support, please contact the school office who will be glad to assist you or direct you to the person best placed to do so.

• Where one class teacher is unable to work due to being unwell, the rest of the year team will cover the allocation and marking of work deploying teaching assistants where appropriate. 

• Where all class teachers in a year group are unable to work, the planning and covering of the classrooms will be managed by a member of the leadership team (where this leader has their own class, this will be covered by their year group teachers)

• Where a teaching assistant is unable to work, their duties will be covered by other members of staff in the year group, directed by the year lead

• Other scenarios will be considered as they develop

• All homework tasks will be set via Google Classroom, enabling children to feel confident with the set up in which their home learning will take place

• Teachers will regularly follow up homework which is not completed, and this will be completed in school where necessary

• Teachers to facilitate conversations with children and parents if online learning at home is an issue, emphasising that each week’s homework is a dry run for future lockdowns as much as it is ongoing learning support

• Laptops for children who do not have access to them will be provided before school closures to ensure these children will have immediate access to any home learning

• Google Classroom logins should be stuck into every child’s homework diary

• Teachers to be aware of children who struggled either academically or emotionally during previous school closures

Please note - children are no longer required to self-isolate as close contacts of positive cases. 

• Teachers will create a set of ‘Online learning for your first day of absence’ tasks on Google Classroom. This enables children who are isolating to be able to access learning from their first day of absence.

• English and maths home learning will be set from the second day absent, and each day afterwards with the expectation that children complete this and ‘turn it in’ each day. This learning will mirror the in-school learning so that it is meaningful and ambitious in helping them to continue to progress in their learning.

• Comments to be given daily by the child's class teacher on their home learning to enable them to make progress.

• Phone calls or Google Meets with those isolating should be undertaken at least weekly.

Please note - schools are no longer required to group children into 'bubbles' but this scenario is kept active as it is possible such control measures may be required to be reintroduced should the picture of the pandemic change.

• Directed English and Maths tasks to be set via Google Classroom each day. These are differentiated to children’s ability. 

• Directed foundation subjects are also set in a similar way to if children were in school - this includes a weekly RE lesson.

• Short pre-recorded videos should be used regularly to introduce lessons in place of the ‘teacher input’ section of a lesson in the classroom

• Teachers or teaching assistants (to be decided at the point of closure of bubble) to hold Google Meets with children daily to maintain contact with the children, best support their learning and monitor their welfare

• During the second week of isolation, teachers ‘RAG rate’ their pupils, making notes on how well children appear to be coping at home and if learning is being completed. 

• Teaching assistants and Mrs Sedwick to conduct ELSA sessions via Google Meet for children who seem to be struggling with being at home 

• Where directed, teaching assistants will monitor children’s home learning so that the class teacher can hold small intervention groups via Google Meet with select children where necessary. This is likely to commence within the first 3 days of any bubble closing.