Remote education provision in the Bramham Shadwell Federation: 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 children to remain at home.

With a combination of daily live lessons and independent work, we feel we are providing a flexible approach to home-learning that enables all of our children to maintain contact with their peers and teachers, and to continue following our enriched curriculum as closely as possible.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at 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. For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this document.

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

Children will have received a work pack from their teacher which contains a range of core and foundation subject tasks. This should be sufficient to last for 1-2 days whilst the school prepares for online learning. Children can also complete other tasks such as Mathletics, reading and spellings. Children will also be provided with an exercise book in which to complete work.

For remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

We will teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school, to ensure our children do not miss out on key learning and can transition back into school smoothly when necessary.

In some cases, we will have adapted work to make it more suitable to be completed at home, but it will still reflect our broader curriculum aims and objectives.

Remote teaching and study time each day

How will you deliver home learning each day?

Children in all year groups will follow the scheduled lessons and work detailed below. All live lessons will be delivered by the child’s class teacher using Microsoft Teams:

9:00 – 10:00 – Live registration and Maths lesson

10:00 – 10:30 – break

10:30 – 11:30 – Live English lesson

11:30 – 13:00 – Lunch

13:00 – 14:00 – Live Foundation subject (at least 3 live sessions per week)

14:00 – 15:30 – additional subject work to be completed independently including assemblies, PE, wellbeing activities.

Some children will receive live intervention sessions for reading, writing and maths throughout the week delivered by the teacher or teaching assistant.

Spelling and times table tests will take place every Friday.

Each class will receive a weekly timetable of work. Here is a typical example:

Accessing remote education

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

We are using Microsoft Teams to deliver all of our live lessons and to upload work documents for all subjects. All children have an individual login and have been shown how to use the system. A separate letter has been sent to parents with instructions on how to access and use the system.

Teachers have a class email address which they will use to liaise with parents and update them with class or individual child information.

Each class will also have a regular quarantined reading book exchange box placed outside of school which can also be used to provide additional exercise books when necessary. Teachers will update their classes on their box rota.

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:

Parents can request equipment from school in order to access online lessons. We can also apply for internet access schemes run by the Government/private providers where necessary. Parents can contact the school office if they require additional equipment or support.

All online work will be designed to be accessed without the need for printing and can be completed in the exercise books provided by school.

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 stipulate that all children will have an adult nearby for assistance when using Teams (younger children will need more help to navigate the system) and that children have a plain background and are muted during sessions unless the teacher is in discussion with them. Please refer to our Child protection and Safeguarding policy on our school website for more information.

If you do not have enough devices for your children to access live lessons at the same time, we recommend you create a timetable at home so your children get a mix of live and recorded sessions. Parents must notify the class teacher in advance if they require a recording of a lesson.

English and maths work must be submitted by 1pm each day to give the teacher time to check it. Feedback cannot be given on work submitted after this time. Likewise, teachers will not have the capacity to give detailed feedback on every piece of work submitted – rather they will feedback to specific children who may need further support or will give general feedback to the class in the next live session.

Work can either be submitted through the ‘assignments’ function on Teams, or emailed directly to the class teacher.

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

A daily register is taken in the first live session of the day. Teachers then monitor attendance in subsequent daily lessons. If a child is absent from lessons for more than one day, or is repeatedly late for lessons, the class teacher will contact the parent/carer to check on the child and offer any support to get the child back online regularly.

Teachers will also monitor when work is handed in and will contact parents/carers directly if they feel work is not submitted regularly.

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. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

Parents can be assured that teachers will look at every piece of work that is submitted through Teams or emailed to them. Where necessary, they will provide individual feedback to a child with suggestions for improving the work, or they may just acknowledge receipt of it. Teachers might give general feedback to the class in the next live session and/or adapt their lessons to pick up on common misconceptions

 

Additional support for pupils 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 pupils, for example some pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may need additional support which we will provide in the following ways:

Dependent upon teacher and teaching assistant availability, children will receive small group or one to one intervention sessions in the afternoons to work on specified areas of need. The daily live sessions allow teachers to monitor the progress of these children and put in place any additional support.

Teaching assistants will also join live lessons to provide support to children via ‘breakout rooms’.

Teachers and members of the Senior Leadership Team will be in regular contact by phone and email with vulnerable children and families.

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, we will provide the following:

Children will be able to access daily lessons being taught live in the classroom via Teams. Teachers will livestream the lesson so the child will be able to see any slides and hear the teacher’s input. They will then remain online and will be able to ask questions if necessary. In lessons where this is not practical such as PE or Art, the teacher will have set a similar task for the child to complete at home.