Remote Education

At Colmore Junior, we believe that attendance at school is essential for pupils to get the most out of their school experience, including for their attainment, wellbeing and wider life chances. Remote education is not viewed as an equal alternative to attendance in school and will only be considered as a last resort where the alternative would be no education.

We will consider providing remote education to pupils in circumstances when in-person attendance is either not possible or contrary to government guidance. This might include:

Occasions when we decide that opening our school is either:

Not possible to do safely;
Contradictory to guidance from local or central government.

Occasions when individual pupils, for a limited duration, are unable to physically attend school but are able to continue learning, for example because:

They have an infectious illness;
They are preparing for or recovering from some types of operation;
They are recovering from injury and attendance in school may inhibit such recovery;
Their attendance has been affected by a special educational need and/or disability (SEND) or a mental health issue.

The school will consider providing pupils with remote education on a case-by-case basis. Pupils receiving remote education will be marked absent in line with the Pupil Registration Regulations.

In the limited circumstances when remote education is used, we will:

Gain mutual agreement of remote education by the school, parents/carers, pupils, and if appropriate, a relevant medical professional. If the pupil has an Educational, Health Care Plan (EHCP) or a social worker, the Local Authority (LA) will also be involved in the decision;
Put formal arrangements in place to regularly review it and identify how to reintegrate the pupil back into school;
Identify what other support and flexibilities can be put in place to help reintegrate the pupil back into school at the earliest opportunity ;
Set a time limit with an aim that the pupil returns to in-person education with appropriate support.

This information below is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents/carers about what to expect from remote education.

What will remote education look like?

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being at home?

In the first day or two of pupils being sent home, we will email parents with links to a variety of online learning platforms for children to access immediately. This will include ones used routinely in school such as MyOn, TTRockstars, My Maths as well as other external providers such as Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize. We will encourage pupils to log onto these platforms during this time while we ensure all Google Classroom accounts are active and ready to be used to set and share learning from this point onwards.

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

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects to accommodate the larger audience they are being delivered to. We may also use some of the DfE endorsed resources to support the delivery of our subjects. Where these are chosen, they will link closely to our planned curriculum and cover the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding.

Remote teaching and study time each day

The Department for Education states that younger primary-aged children (Year 2 and below) will be provided with three hours of remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) and those in KS2 (Year 3-6) will be provided with four hours of remote education. This will be a combination of live Google Meet sessions, pre-recorded lessons and independent learning. The learning should be paced across a typical school day, allowing for regular rest and well-being breaks.

Accessing remote education

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

Remote education will be accessed through the Google Classroom platform. Every pupil within school has an individual login to access their google classroom. Tasks will be communicated to each class on their class page. All resources needed will be available as links from the platform. We endeavour to ensure that task do not require specialist equipment or pre-printed worksheets and can be completed simply on plain paper.

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 will monitor access to establish whether children are able to access Google Classroom successfully. We will continually monitor engagement when pupils are accessing remote education and contact families where an issue is identified.
We will ask parents to identify if there are any issues with internet access or device access. Parents are asked to contact the school office should their circumstances change.
We will support families to apply for unlimited mobile data or dongles if this is needed to access remote education.
We will loan devices to families where this is identified as an issue. Parents will need to sign a loan agreement where this is needed.
Parents are asked to contact the school office if they would like additional information about supporting access.
If pupils need printed materials, parents should contact the school office to make this request.
Work can be submitted via the Google Classroom platform.

How can I access learning if my children are sharing a device with siblings/parent?

Tasks will be uploaded to the google classroom to complete during the day to enable flexibility of timing to suit parents. Where used, live lessons will be recorded and made available after the session to allow siblings to watch their lesson at a later time.

Additional Support for Pupils with SEND and/or other needs

We recognise that some pupils, for example those with special educational needs and/or 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:

The SENDCo will contact families to establish any issues arising and look to put in place arrangements that allow pupils with SEND and/or other needs to access remote education. Collaboration between school and parents/carers is key to putting in place an appropriate curriculum, teaching and support that will enable the pupil to continue learning effectively.
Where possible and appropriate, outside agencies will offer support as required either in school or remotely.

Delivering Remote Education safely

We have a duty to safeguard pupils at Colmore Junior and recognise that keeping children safe online is essential. In addition to our Safeguarding Policy, we will:

All staff are familiar with the school safeguarding policy and know how to recognise and respond to the signs of abuse.
Ensure pupils use their own login details to access google classroom and other external platforms such as MyOn, TTRockstars and MyMaths and don't share these with others.
Platforms used will be age appropriate and have required privacy settings
Filtering and monitoring software (Impero) will continue to monitor online activity and any concerns will be shared with class teachers and the DSL so appropriate steps can be taken.
During live direct teaching sessions ensure that children have cameras and microphones turned off- these sessions will be recorded for pupils to access at different times. Pupils may be asked by a teacher to respond to questions using other functionality of google classroom such as google polls, chat function or thumbs up.
Pupils will be made aware of how they are expected to behave online.
Parents will be informed of the sites being used within remote education and the staff working with their children. Staff will wear their staff lanyards.
Parents will be asked for children to undertake their learning in a shared space such as a living room and not in a bedroom. If possible, an appropriate adult to be visible or within earshot of the pupil at home.
Pupils and staff will observe appropriate dress codes
Engagement with online learning will be monitored and contact made directly with families where there are concerns.
Further guidance and support on keeping children safe online is available for parents here.