Accessing remote education

Children will be accessing their online remote education through Google Classroom and will all have their own accounts through which they will be able to complete the work set and receive feedback from their teacher. Your child can use Google Classroom to record questions and send messages to their teacher and support staff. Staff can respond quickly to your child during the school day to provide support, extension or enrichment as appropriate.

Through Google Classroom, pupils will be encouraged to access a whole class morning video meeting via Google Meet during which the teacher will briefly run through the activities for the day and respond to any immediate questions. Teachers will also hold an afternoon meeting to catch up with the children and address any concerns about the morning work.

Other learning opportunities are available through: BBC Bitesize; IXL; Purple Mash; Times Table Rock Stars; White Rose Maths; Spelling City.

Children will need access to a tablet or computer to be able to fully engage in remote learning. Work can be submitted via Google Classroom using either a Google Document or uploading photographs/ screenshots of work. A guide for how to do this has been distributed to support families. Parents will be invited to download the Google Classroom App as this can be a simpler way to upload work. For children where this is not an option, an email to their class teacher can replace this.

Parents are encouraged to communicate with their child’s class teacher where issues arise. This could include emails; briefings using platforms such as Google Meet or one-to-one telephone calls where necessary, to inform parents and elicit their support.

We appreciate that families have different circumstances when it comes to technology available at home for accessing remote learning. If required, families should liaise with the school office to request the loan of a laptop, for a fixed period of time,  in line with our Acceptable Use Agreement. The laptop will be set up for home use by our IT Technician and parents/guardians must complete a release form, available from the school office.

School office telephone number: 01772 864 135.

We also recognise that many families do not have home printers and will therefore not require the printing of material.

The remote learning opportunities provided during any period of closure will be part of our current planning and will use the resources developed and endorsed by the Department for Education through the Oak National Academy. Daily learning will be provided for English, Mathematics and the wider curriculum subjects and will usually consist of a pre-recorded video including teacher modelling with integrated consolidation tasks as well as activities to apply the learning.

Some remote learning opportunities may be taken from other high-quality sources such as IXL, Purple Mash, BBC Bitesize and others – as they would be during the normal school day. 

Where lessons are video links, they can be accessed later by pupils, making flexible use possible in the context of limited or shared device access.

Because the use of Google Classroom enables the creation of simulated or virtual classrooms, it is easier to carry over what we know about effective teaching from the live to the virtual environment. This can include clear teacher explanations of new content which are sequenced to build on previous learning, targeted questioning, and scaffolded practice.

Furthermore, through Google Classroom, pupils will be encouraged to access a whole class morning video meeting via Google Meet during which the teacher will briefly run through the activities for the day and respond to any immediate questions. Teachers will also hold an afternoon meeting to catch up with the children and address any concerns about the morning work.

Continuing to teach all or most of the normal planned curriculum in the remote environment is important. Subjects where this can be more challenging are those that would normally include significant elements of practical work in the live classroom, for example sciences, music or technology. However, in these and other cases, video demonstrations are effective for enabling children to engage in practical work, particularly when accompanied by teacher explanation, commentary or an electronic resource (such as Oak Academy, BBC Bitesize resources and YouTube).

Active learning and Physical Education provision will be supported by Preston North End and Lancashire P.E. to enable delivery through video demonstrations and ensure children are encouraged to keep active.  

Some of the online provision will look different throughout the school and there will be differentiation in the approach taken by teachers to reflect the age of the children:

It is recognised that very young pupils are likely to have particular needs which cannot easily be met in some of the ways described above. For such pupils, it is likely that the priority will be progress in early reading. As a school, we will ensure continued access to appropriate reading books and resources is available for early readers.

Helping parents, carers or other adults at home to continue to support children in their early reading, where appropriate and practical through structured practice of phonics content, is another important part of contingency planning for children at this stage. Phonics learning will continue through remote provision.