Remote Learning Policy

(June 2020)

SAXILBY CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL

 

REMOTE LEARNING POLICY

 

This policy is underpinned by the Christian ethos and values of the school. At Saxilby Church of England Primary School we seek to support every individual to achieve their best and recognise that each one of us has our own talents which should be nurtured. The Christian values of courage, peace, compassion, forgiveness, friendship and trust are vibrant strands woven within the very fabric of this school’s culture.

 

This remote learning policy has been written as guidance for staff and parents during the time that schools are closed due to COVID-19. It sets out the systems and technology that staff will use to keep the learning experience going for children, and details how they can be used effectively and safely, while allowing for the differing needs of families. The school’s usual Online Safety Policy and Acceptable Use Agreements still apply at this time but this policy is an addendum in these unprecedented circumstances.

 

A flexible approach:

We understand that everyone’s circumstances at home will be different. Some families have one child to support while others have several. Some families have one device to share while others may have more – and some things may work differently on different devices. Some parents will have plenty of time to help their children learn, while others will be working from home and may have much less time and some children will be able to work more independently than others or need greater challenge.

 

Due to this we are providing a flexible approach to remote learning. The government’s emergency legislation lifts curriculum requirements for schools, giving flexibility to provide support, activities and education in the way they see fit. We won’t be providing a full school day of activities as this will be unmanageable for the majority of families – not to mention keeping children at a screen for far too long. We hope to offer a variety of daily online and offline learning activities across the curriculum so that pupils can dip in and out and work their way through things as and when they are able.

 

Sites and services:

We are currently delivering remote learning through a range of sites and services, most of which are part of our usual online provision for children:

 

Purple Mash (Whole School) and Mini Mash (EYFS) provide a full range of software for learning activities across the curriculum and allow staff to set ‘To Dos’ for children to complete. www.purplemash.com/sch/saxilby

Differentiated maths activities can be assigned and completed through Mathletics (Whole School) www.mathletics.com/

 

Times Tables Rock Stars (Year 3 to 5) https://ttrockstars.com/

 

Spelling can be practised through Spelling Shed (Year 2+) www.spellingshed.com/

 

Charanga Yumu – music

 

Learning Spanish

 

Real PE

 

Classroom Secrets Kids

 

Chartwell’s Super Yummy Kitchen

 

Ruth Miskin’s Phonics

 

BBC Bitesize

 

Oak National Academy

 

We may try and make use of other subscriptions as time goes on. Further details will follow as necessary. If you require login details for any of these, please get in touch with the class teacher via the class email system.

 

Any use of online learning tools and systems is in line with privacy and data protection / GDPR requirements. See our policies.

 

Interaction:

We are keen to make remote learning an interactive experience through the submission of work by children and delivery of feedback from teachers where possible. As this period of home learning continues further, we are keen to try to provide some live face-to-face contact opportunities for children, to maintain a sense for them of being part of a class. We are planning to trial use of the free Microsoft ‘Teams’ Video Conferencing tool to do this. While teaching a primary-age class this way is not practical, we are hoping to use it to provide some safe, supervised and structured opportunities for children to ‘meet up’ with their teacher and classmates. Please see the section further down regarding use of Teams.

 

Communication between staff and pupils / families must be through the authorised school systems above and not through email or personal social media accounts. It should follow the usual rules outlined in the Online Safety Policy and Acceptable Use Agreements. Due consideration should be put in by staff before sharing photo or video as to whether there are any issues regarding reputation, professional conduct, online safety or other safeguarding. We would strongly recommend that staff avoid using personal devices and should only use school provided equipment.

 

Educational Provision:

While we understand that remote learning may be easier for some families than others, we no doubt all agree that keeping regular learning going during the period that schools are closed is of important to reduce the impact on children’s education. Staff will send weekly timetables and home learning packs via ParentMail where possible. This will outline a range of online and offline learning activities in a variety of subject areas and contain tasks and links to follow (in any order and at a time that suits). We appreciate that some families won’t be able to engage with the full timetable but would encourage parents to engage with the English and Maths tasks.

 

Different year groups will have different links to activities based around this stimulus. We have also given three family project ideas to run across each week so that if you have more than one child they can work together on activities with you. These are just ideas and can be adapted to suit the resources / time you have available or replaced with projects of your own. We still plan to have an assembly of some sort each day and other optional events and enrichment activity ideas such as outdoor learning will be spread throughout the week to help keep the children engaged and enthusiastic, as well as supporting their social interaction and physical and emotional wellbeing at this time.

 

Use of Video Conferencing technologies (Teams):

We hope to initially offer a 20-30 minute slot for those children who have not been in school to catch up with a teacher teaching the key skills in English and Maths for that year group. Due to the fact that most staff are teaching during the day, it may not always be the child’s usual class teacher. We hope this will help to motivate your child this half term and help them to maintain their relationship after all this time apart. We will then arrange opportunities for wider groups from each class to connect.

 

Like the rest of our online offer, these meetings are not compulsory, so your child does not need to attend and we appreciate that not all families will be able to. If you would like to but are unable to due to technology restraints, please get in touch in case we can help.

 

The safety of both children and staff when using this technology is paramount and we will be following relevant advice from Teams, the Children’s Commissioner and the NSPCC. In order to protect both children and staff, we require that if you wish to take advantage of these opportunities on Teams, you agree to the following:

  • Support access to Teams via the child’s school email account
  • An appropriate adult must be aware that their child is connected to a Teams meeting that has been set by school. This is to ensure that a child is not participating in inappropriate communications that have not been scheduled by the school.
  • Children must take part in the meet up in a suitable communal environment (not a bedroom) and be appropriately dressed (uniform isn’t necessary, but they should be fully dressed in clothing that covers top and bottom half of the body).
  • All members of the household must be aware that the meeting is taking place and make sure they are also suitable dressed and use appropriate language and behaviour when nearby or in the background.
  • You must make sure your child have ‘logged off’ the call correctly once it is finished – before turning off any devices.
  • You and your child will not try to contact any staff using these online tools outside of the pre-arranged meet ups which will be arranged through emails and ParentMail.
  • Screenshots, photos or recordings of Teams meetings must not be made and the links must not be shared with others.

 

We will ensure that:

  • No staff member will contact you or your child using Teams outside of any pre-arranged meetings and if they do need to contact you they will arrange to do so with you using school emails.
  • Teachers will ensure appropriate security settings are in place for the meeting. They will ensure that access is only granted to the expected registered users invited with a password or direct link. Screen sharing, file-sharing, annotation and chat will be restricted. Teams teaching will be recorded to ensure staff are using the platform appropriately.
  • Participants’ audio or video may be muted until appropriate and they may be removed from the room if rules are not being followed.
  • Teachers will stay in the meeting until everyone has ‘logged off’.
  • Teachers and any other adults on the call (or in the background) will use appropriate language / behaviour throughout the call.

 

We will then make arrangements to schedule meetings and will be in touch with further information via ParentMail.

 

Safeguarding & Remote Learning:

With the increased use of digital technologies that comes with remote learning, safeguarding implications need careful consideration. Parents are advised to spend some time speaking with their child(ren) about online safety and reminding them of the importance of reporting to an adult anything that makes them feel uncomfortable online.

 

While we will be doing our best to ensure links shared are appropriate, there may be tailored advertising which displays differently in your household or other changes beyond our control.

 

Online safety concerns should still be reported to the school’s Online Safety Lead (Catherine Stratton) as normal. Parents can do this by emailing enquiries@saxilby.lincs.sch.uk.

 

The following websites offer useful support:

  • Childline – for support · UK Safer Internet Centre – to report and remove harmful online content
  • CEOP – for advice on making a report about online abuse

 

In addition, the following sites are an excellent source of advice and information:

  • Internet matters – for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
  • London Grid for Learning – for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online · Net-aware – for support for parents and careers from the NSPCC
  • Parent info – for support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online
  • Thinkuknow – for advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online
  • UK Safer Internet Centre – advice for parents and carers

 

Staff should continue to be vigilant at this time and follow our usual online safety and safeguarding / child protection policies and procedures, contacting a safeguarding lead directly by phone in the first instance.

 

Links to other policies (available on the website):

Safeguarding / Child Protection Policy

Online Safety Policy

Behaviour Management Policy

Data Protection / GDPR Policy

 

This policy is in constant review given the changing circumstances during the Covid-19 arrangements for schools.