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 page.

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.

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

 

We will set some Literacy and Maths activities on our online learning platform: Purple Mash. Children use their log ins regularly at school, but these will be sent out via SchoolPing where required.

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?

 

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we will need to make reasonable adaptations during this period.

Remote teaching and study time each day

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:

Key Stage 1	3 hours
Key Stage 2	4 hours

 

Accessing remote education

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

 Purple Mash:

https://www.purplemash.com/sch/parkwood-n4

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:

 

• If your child does not have a suitable device to connect to the internet with at home, we will loan you a device for the period of remote learning. Please contact the school office should you require this.
• If it is not possible for your child to access remote learning via the internet, we will provide printed versions of the learning activities. These can be collected from the school office the day after the remote learning restrictions begin
• Work completed offline can be brought to the school office where it will be handed over to teaching staff for feedback. Marked work can be collected after 2 days.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
• printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
• textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences

Minimum provision in event of whole-school closure:

	EYFS	KS1	KS2
Subject learning	1 live phonics lesson (either pre-recorded or delivered to small group online)	1 live English lesson to start the week’s learning (either whole class or small group depending on the focus of the lesson)	1 live small group Maths and 1 live small group English lesson
	1 live maths session	1 live Maths lesson (either whole class or small group depending on the focus of the lesson)	1 live whole class session (theme based and/or weekly reflection on learning)
	1 story/song session either live or pre-recorded	Daily maths and English activities set in Purple Mash and/or offline	Daily maths and English activities set either via Purple Mash and/or other online and offline resources.
	Daily maths and English activities set either via Purple Mash/Mini Mash or other/offline	Weekly Theme based activities set either via Purple Mash and/or other online and offline resources.	Weekly Theme based activities set either via Purple Mash and/or other online and offline resources.
Spanish	1 Spanish lesson for EYFS/KS1 with Raquel (either live or pre-recorded)		1 live Spanish lesson with Raquel – Year 3 and 4 together and Year 5 and 6 together.
	Weekly Art challenge
	Individual pupil access to Duolingo
Whole school	Weekly story reading video sharing
	Weekly PE challenge with Kenny
	Online whole school weekly assembly

 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 expect all children to engage with remote learning, including live sessions and work set on our online platform, Purple Mash. If a child is unable to access the internet, we expect printed copies of their work to be completed and brought in regularly for feedback.
• We expect parents to support their child with routines, completion of work and engaging with the remote learning.

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

 

• Teachers will be checking work submitted on Purple Mash on a daily basis. They will also ensure engagement during live sessions through questioning and live feedback.
• Where engagement is a concern, we will contact parents to see how we can best support them.

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. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

 Feedback comments on work submitted via Purple Mash (Daily)

• Verbal feedback during live sessions
• Written comments on printed work submitted to the school office 

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 not be able to access remote education without support from adults at home. We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers to support those pupils in the following ways:

 

• We will meet with parents with SEND to tailor an approach to remote learning that best supports their needs
• We will offer alternative forms of remote learning where this is a better fit
• We will constantly review any alternative provision to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the children

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

 

Children self-isolating for a substantial period can expect to be set work both on Purple Mash and in the form of printed worksheets. These will be set at the beginning of the isolation period and will set out the learning for the coming week. Teachers will provide feedback on a weekly basis where work is submitted. Teachers will require more time to respond to queries for isolating children as they will continue to be teaching the rest of the cohort at this time.