WestLea Primary School

Remote LEARNING PLAN

In the event of a lockdown or a group of children needing to self-isolate (individuals, class groups or whole school), the school has a plan to ensure the curriculum continues to delivered to be children in the most appropriate way.

Aims

  • Ensure consistency in the approach to remote learning for pupils who aren’t in school
  • Set out expectations for all members of the school community with regards to remote learning
  • Provide appropriate guidelines for data protection

This plan will be applied in the following instances:

  • All schools are closed due to a national lockdown.
  • Westlea Primary School is shut in compliance with advice of Public Health, due to coronavirus outbreak.

We will consider providing remote education to pupils in circumstances when in-person attendance is either not possible or contrary to government guidance.

This might include:

  • Occasions when we decide that opening our school is either:
             Not possible to do safely
             Contradictory to guidance from local or central government
  • Occasions when individual pupils, for a limited duration, are unable to physically attend school but are able to continue learning, for example because:
  • They have an infectious illness
  • They are preparing for or recovering from some types of operation
  • They are recovering from injury and attendance in school may inhibit such recovery
  • Their attendance has been affected by a special educational need or disability (SEND) or a mental health issue.

Our remote curriculum

Our aim as a school is to ensure all pupils learning remotely have access to the same quality of education as those in school. Therefore, we will teach the same curriculum as we do in school. However, we might need to make some adaptations in some subjects in order to make learning accessible to those at home.

For example: In subjects that require a significant number of resources such as the practical aspects of Science, Music, Art, Design and Technology, the teacher might either post a pre-recorded lesson of themselves demonstrating the activity or a video made by specialist teachers from Oak Academy (see link to their lessons below)

https://classroom.thenational.academy/subjects-by-key-stage

BBC Bitesize: has a range of lessons suitable for pupils in Year 1 upwards.  For further information, follow this link: BBC Bitesize

Remote teaching and study time

The Government guidance states that remote education should be equivalent in length to the core teaching a pupil would receive in school. Pupils will receive both recorded or live direct teaching time. The minimum education provided should be:

  • Key Stage 1: 3 hours a day on average across the cohort, with less for Early Years.
  • Key Stage 2: 4 hours a day

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

Teachers will post each day’s timetable for the completion of tasks, which will state specific timings for each activity in line with the Government guidance. Pupils are expected to complete every task set for each day if they are fit and well. Engagement in home learning is compulsory as is the expectation that Westlea Primary School makes the provision available and accessible to all.

Whole School Closure

Previously, we used Microsoft Teams as an online teaching and learning tool. All pupils will be sent their school login details and must access Teams using these details only.

In order to give pupils pastoral support, answer any questions, clarify expectations and celebrate children’s work, every year group will hold a class assembly on Teams once a week.

Teachers will either hold daily live lessons or pre-record videos of core subjects such as Maths and English using Teams.

Early Years will pre-teach the story of the week on a Monday Teams class meeting and pre-teach the following weeks story on the Friday.

Should you need assistance with accessing Microsoft Teams please speak to the school office or your child's teacher.

Pupils who do not have digital or online access at home

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:

  • If your child does not have access to a device or are sharing their device with their sibling, please contact the school office and we will be able to loan you an iPad or Chromebook.
  • If your child does not have internet access at home, please contact the school office as the school can support with this as well.
  • If you would prefer to collect printed work packs, please contact the school office to make arrangement for this.

Support for children with special educational needs and disabilities

Teachers will work closely with the school SENCO and the ELSAs to provide personalised and 1:1 support for children with additional needs.

This will include:

  • 1:1 support sessions on Teams
  • Regular phone calls
  • Personalised tasks and resources

 Engagement and feedback

  • All pupils, who are fit and well, are expected to engage with remote learning daily.
  • Parents are required to support their child adapt to routines by following the daily timetable set by their teacher.
  • Teachers and teaching assistants will feedback to children and support them with any work they struggled, by a written explanation or pre-recorded video.
  • Children are also given the opportunity to ask questions in live Teams lessons; through the daily portfolio submissions and during the weekly Class assemblies.
  • If teachers are concerned about any child, they will contact their parents to give adequate support or advice.