Guidance for online learning from the DFE

 

The guidance for the 2021 national lockdown sets out the following expectations for remote learning.  

 

Schools and teachers are expected to: 

 

• Set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
• Primary schools should ensure pupils have three hours' work a day in KS1 and four hours in KS2, on average, across the cohort.
• Provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos.
• Have systems for checking, at least weekly, whether pupils are engaging with their work, and inform parents immediately where engagement is a concern.
• Gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum using questions and other suitable tasks.
• Provide feedback, at least weekly, using “digitally facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate”.
• Enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding.

 

National Lockdown - Wednesday 6th January - Remote Learning

 

On the 4th January Prime Minister Johnson announced a National Lockdown. Schools will be open to children of critical workers and "vulnerable" children. It is expected that other children will learn at home via remote learning. At Bushmead we are using a blend of daily online sessions using Zoom as well as our Learning Packs which are emailed directly to parents and uploaded to this website.

 

Thank you so much for all of your support with remote learning provision. We recognise the considerable challenges this poses and we are so grateful for all that you are doing. Please remember that home learning will look different in every household, so please do not feel undue pressure. No one knows your child better than you and if you feel they (or you!) need a break, please do whatever works best for you. We do understand that it can be particularly tricky to keep children motivated to work when they are out of the classroom and not mixing with the peer group. This is why we are using a daily register and teaching session over Zoom at the beginning of the day for teachers to give clear guidance on the the work for the day on the learning packs. These sessions will also be used to review work completed on the previous day.

 

The daily Zoom sessions will prioritise welfare to serve as a pastoral 'check in' sessions, to talk together, share stories and PSHE/circle time activities alongside academic formative assessment. Work, resources and feedback will continue to also be provided through the Learning Packs. 

 

All children will begin "on mute" and the class teacher will "unmute" them when it is their turn to speak. The children will be able to see each other and interact. Children who missed the live session regularly will receive a welfare call from staff in school to see if there is any way in which we can support families. We have a number of different ways we can support with technology issues which could include loaning a device, providing printed versions of the packs as well as over the phone advise on how to log in.

 

Each year group will have a time-tabled daily slot for these sessions. This will ensure that wherever possible siblings will each be able to attend their own session. The sessions will be at the same time each day. These sessions will be joined both by  children who are educated in school and children who are learning at home as we hope to encourage cohesion between these two groups. Zoom is a secure online system, however it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure that your child is supervised whilst using Zoom as with any other online learning, so internet safety guidelines are being followed at all times.

 

Online Safety – Parents/Carers please ensure you have looked at the following There are many benefits to the internet for connecting and learning. We want to ensure that everyone in our school community has a positive experience and is familiar with how to keep themselves safe online.

 

For information on keeping your child safe online you can access the following links: https://www.childnet.com/resources/video-lessons/the-r-rule

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/ https://parentinfo.org/articles/games,-apps-and-tech/all

https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/