Remote Learning Provision

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils, parents and carers about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home or if your child is required to self-isolate.  There is no expectation for your child to complete the work if they are unwell.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home?

As with the previous period of remote learning, we are continuing to deliver our full carefully planned and sequenced curriculum. This provision will continue to be provided should there be any future restrictions, or requirements for your child to self-isolate, requiring children to remain at home.

Where appropriate, some modifications or adaptations to the curriculum in some subjects may be required – for example, in the sequence of delivery of the mathematics curriculum. Learning sequences that can be taught most successfully remotely may be bought forward in place of sequences that contain more complex concepts which would be better taught in the classroom. Details of our curriculum mapping are published on our website.

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

In line with the government’s expectations, we expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:

Accessing Remote Learning

Remote learning is set via Tapestry for Shackadell class (reception aged children) and Seesaw for Years 1-6, or by the school providing hard copies of learning packs. Most of the children and parents are already familiar with Tapestry and Seesaw, both through the previous period of remote learning and through their regular use throughout the school year. All lessons are prepared in advance and scheduled by 8:30am each morning thus allowing children and parents to access these at the most suitable time to fit in with differing home working arrangements.

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:

• Laptops and iPads are available for loan to pupils where needed. Parents can contact the headteacher via phone or email should this be required. The email address for out of hours is: closed@astonmarys.herts.sch.uk
• Teachers will provide paper-based learning packs for individual children should this make learning more accessible to them. Requests can be made direct to the teacher or via the school office.

How will my child be taught remotely?

A key feature of many lessons we provide on Seesaw and Tapestry is the video and audio content. These will provide clear, modelled explanations, alongside worked examples, modelled writing etc. Children are able to respond onto templates provided as part of the lesson, on paper and upload a photo or record audio or video clips to share their learning with their teachers.  As with all our teaching, a variety of strategies will be used in our remote teaching and learning.

We recognise the importance of children maintaining a regular reading habit throughout periods of remote learning. Texts and extracts are shared via Seesaw as part of English, including reading lessons.

Reading books can be exchanged at school by arrangement. Should you wish to collect a pack of reading books for your child, please contact the school office or class teacher.  The book pack will be available for collection from the main entrance on the agreed day. Returned books can be left in the returned book box and will then be quarantined before being available again for loan.

We can also provide exercise books to support your child whilst learning at home. Please message your child’s teacher or contact the school office to arrange this. These will be available for collection as above.

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?

A key factor in the success of our remote learning offer is our successful partnership with parents. Our aim is always to support families in whatever way is needed to meet individual needs. We strive to maintain regular contact with families via our online learning platforms, telephone calls, email and regular newsletters. Our experiences during the previous lockdown showed that routines for remote learning looked very different between different family settings. In some cases, it was helpful to stick to a timetable closely resembling the school day; in other cases, timings were more flexible in order to meet the demands of parents working from home whilst also supporting their children’s learning. In all cases, plenty of breaks for exercise and relaxation were a key factor in maintaining pupils’ wellbeing and readiness to learn.

Teachers provide regular feedback to pupils in response to all of their home learning. This feedback is provided promptly via the online learning platforms, generally by the end of the day of the lesson. Feedback takes different forms according to the child, their needs and the task. For example, many pieces are marked in line with the school marking and feedback policy, using pink to identify areas of success and green for areas for development or next step learning. Alternatively, oral feedback may be given via audio comments and, where required, additional individual support will be provided through personalised online tutorials. Other pieces will receive a simple comment or ‘like’ – for example when a child shares evidence of their daily exercise.

Significant time is invested in the quality of the feedback provided due to the significant impact that this has proved to have on the progress our pupils make whilst learning remotely. Parental feedback has shown that children are motivated by knowing that their teacher will respond and, where areas for development are suggested by the teacher, many children respond to this by making improvements to their outcomes.

Teachers monitor engagement in every lesson and swift action is taken to engage with parents when concerns arise. This might be via a phone call, email, a doorstep visit or, depending on the age and needs of the child, a message of encouragement via one of the online learning platforms.

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:

• Provision of additional, scaffolded support to support learning via the online platforms
• Provision of additional resources (e.g. paper learning packs, exercise books and manipulatives) where required
• All reception aged children have been provided with a set of maths manipulatives and a mini whiteboard

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, remote education will be provided which closely matches what is being taught in school, wherever possible. Whilst this provides some challenges due to teaching pupils both at home and in school, we believe that it is essential to ensure progress is maintained. In this way, pupils are able to return to school after their period of isolation without significant gaps in their learning.

How to contact the school

If you have any queries or need to contact us out of hours, please use the email account set up to support families during the pandemic:

closed@astonmarys.herts.sch.uk