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?

The school is set up to revert to online teaching effective immediately. We use the online platform Microsoft Teams, all the students have been taught to use it during ICT lessons, where their teachers can teach and upload work straight away.

If students have problems connecting to the internet or do not have the resources to do so, work packs will be provided. These can either be collected from the school main reception or parents can request that they are posted to them.

Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as if they were in school?

Staff will be online from 8:30am to register their groups and will meet them for tutor time or to introduce Whole School Worship to them. Following on from this, students will be expected to follow the timetable as if they were in school. Teachers will be online to assist and work will be planned and outlined for all students in all lessons.

Staff, even though they may not be on site, continue to operate the school day as normal and will conduct remote learning as effectively as possible for all students.

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, in engineering, students for KS4, might not have all the expert equipment on hand to help them to produce their pieces. Therefore, practical work, that can be completed at home, will be assigned and theory work will make up the basis of the work set.

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 3 and 4

5 hours per day, as outlined by their school timetable

8:30am-8:50am

Registration/ Tutor Time

8:50am-9:50am

Period 1

9:50am-10:50am

Period 2

10:50am-11:10am

Breaktime

11:10am-12:10pm

Period 3

12:10pm-1:10pm

Period 4

1:10pm-1:45pm

Lunch

1:45pm-2:45pm

Period 5

Accessing remote education

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

Churchmead School is using Microsoft Teams in order to engage students with their online learning. All students will have access to this via their email, through the Microsoft package that we use in school. Through this system, the students have access to things like:

  • Microsoft Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Excel
  • Online Videos

This allows the students to be able to access the systems and applications that they would have to hand in school on a daily basis.

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:

  • We have surveyed all students and have some understanding of which students might need to borrow a laptop. We will therefore try to utilize this information in order to provide a laptop on day one of isolation. 
  • Parents can also contact the school directly if the information provided by the students in the autumn term has changed, and we will see what we can do to support them.
  • If students are unable to access the internet, then paper-based resources can be sent home for the duration of the isolation period.
  • If students do not have online access, they can send them into school on a weekly or fortnightly basis so that they can be marked. This will allow any misapprehensions or conceptions to be drawn out before students continue with the work.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Despite not being in school, Churchmead recognises that not all students learn the same way, and continue to endeavour to engage all the students in a helpful and conducive way.

Some examples of remote teaching approaches used by Churchmead teachers include:

  • live teaching (online lessons)
  • 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
  • Quizzes
  • Question and response activities
  • commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
  • long-term project work and/or internet research activities (as per the schools full opening guidance, schools full opening guidance, schools are expected to avoid an over-reliance on these approaches)

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 students to engage with remote education as soon as it is required. Each day of remote education begins with a registration session with their form tutor and it is essential that every child attends this. As well as maintaining contact with the tutor, this session will help to troubleshoot any issues.
As parents/carers we need your support to ensure you child sticks to the routines of completing school work at the right times and is provided with a space they can work without distraction. Where this is not possible, please let us know and we will do what we can to help.
Please reinforce clear boundaries with your child during their remote education, such as not allowing them to use their mobile phones (unless being used for the lesson).

  • Students are expected to engage with their lessons according to their usual timetable
  • Students are expected to follow their usual timetable and parents can support this by ensuring they have access to their child’s timetable and are clear on what lessons they should receive each day.

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

Student engagement with remote learning is monitored daily. A register is taken for every lesson as well as the morning register with tutors. Where students are not engaging, this will initially be followed up with contact home to try and resolve any potential issues.
Where students are attending remote education lessons but there are concerns with the quality or quantity of work being done, the individual teachers will contact home. If this is an issue across a number of subjects, the Head of Year may make contact home to see if any support can be offered.

Students who are working from packs will also be contacted on a weekly basis to see how they are managing their work. If they are finished, there will be updated packs available for them to complete.

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:

  • Teachers may deliver a lesson through Microsoft Teams and set work to be completed through the remainder of the lesson. This work may be handed in electronically using the assignments function in Teams or teachers may ask students to email it to them.
  • With assignments submitted through Teams, there is a feedback function built into the platform, where teachers can mark or comment on student work.
  • Teachers are not expected to mark every piece of work in depth, but they will be checking work and addressing any errors or misconceptions with students in the following lessons.
  • In depth feedback will be given to longer pieces of work, which require students to be given instructions on what went well, even better if, and ways to improve their work
  • We may use quizzes through online forms to assess student understanding. This provides instant student feedback and scores are recorded so that teachers can address common mistakes in future lessons.

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 can clearly track engagement of students with SEND and targeted calls home are made when engagement is not high.
  • We ensure that students with SEND are carefully talked though how to engage with live lessons
  • TA’s are online in lessons with students so that they know what they are doing
  • Separate rooms have been created in Microsoft Teams so TAs and teachers can withdraw small groups to assist them in any lessons where they are unsure of the content and ideas.

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? 

For students that are not self-isolating with a bubble the school will provide work for them as soon as we are notified that they are self-isolating, this usually is available from day one.

Students will be set work in line with what is being completed in the classroom as closely as possible. Where possible they may also be able to add the student to the lesson through Microsoft Teams, although please understand that this will not always be possible or appropriate.

Work can be returned to teachers either electronically via email for electronic documents or using photographs of completed work. Feedback will be provided in line with the guidance on feedback and marking.