Specific Aims
- To outline our approach for pupils who will not be attending school, as a result of government guidance ie Local or National Lockdown or the advice of Public Health England resulting in the closure of a class bubble.
- To outline our approach for supporting remote learning for those pupils who are at home due to the need to quarantine or due to parental choice.
- To set out expectations for all members of the school community with regards to remote learning
- To outline our expectations for staff that will not be attending school due to self-isolation but that are otherwise fit and healthy and able to continue supporting with the teaching, assessing and planning for pupils.
Who is the plan applicable to?
Every child is expected to attend school from September 1st 2020. In line with government guidance, pupils, staff and families should self-isolate if they display any of the following symptoms:
- A continuous, dry cough, a high temperature above 37.8℃,
- A loss of, or change to, their sense of smell or taste
- Or who have had access to a test and this has returned a positive result for Covid-19.
Family (pupil/parent/carers):
At Shepton Mallet Community Infants' School & Nursery we recognise that the varying home experiences for children will impact on the ability for families to follow rigid timetables and to maintain the school routine that is familiar to them. It is important to the well-being of families that a flexible approach can be taken to accessing remote learning and that this can be done at times of the day that suit individual cases. Keeping to bedtimes and including daily reading will be strongly recommended. If a class bubble is isolated, the children will be sent home with packs of work to use for recording home learning tasks. Should anything be unclear in the work that is set, parents can communicate with class teachers via Class Dojo. We encourage parents to support their children’s work, by viewing the work set together, and then making appropriate plans to complete the work. Every effort will be made by staff to ensure that work is set promptly but school cannot guarantee that the chosen platform will work on all devices. Should accessing work be an issue, parents should contact school promptly and alternative solutions will be made available (e.g. paper copies of work). These will be discussed on a case-to-case basis.
Staying Safe online
As part of remote learning, parents will be sent an online safety reminder. This will outline steps that parents need to take to ensure that children are safe online and to signpost places that can get help if they have any concerns.
Stage 1 - Remote Learning for Pupils who are at home but not shielding/ in class that has been closed / part of a full or local lockdown
Every child is expected to attend school from September 1st 2020. Where children are not in school, the usual school policy and procedures for establishing the whereabouts and wellbeing of the pupil will be followed. Where a child has not been advised to isolate due to information from Public Health England, the government, through a track and trace system or because they have symptoms, children will be sign posted to remote learning through Class Dojo. This will also be the case for children who are in quarantine due to returning from abroad.
Stage 2 - Remote Learning for individual pupils who are in isolation
Where a child has been advised to isolate due to information from Public Health England, the government, through a track and trace system or because they have symptoms, children will be sign posted to remote learning through Class Dojo. Parents will also be provided with a home learning menu from the class teacher via Class Dojo.
Stage 3 - Remote learning for pupils due to a class closure or full/ partial lock down.
We will provide links to appropriate remote learning for pupils who are not able to attend school so that no-one need fall behind. An outline of the provision that will be made and some guidance on the role of pupils, teachers and parents is outlined next. Shepton Mallet Community Infants' School & Nursery has used research from the Educational Endowment Foundation as a basis for our approach to remote learning. Key things we have considered include:
- Teaching quality * Access to technology (especially for disadvantaged pupils)
*Supporting pupils to work independently *Different approaches to remote learning suits different types of content and pupils
The school’s chosen platform for providing remote learning will be Class Dojo. Through this platform, children will be set tasks, activities and work and teachers can differentiate, comment on work and assess if needed.
Teacher expectations
When providing remote learning, teachers must be available between 9am and 3pm.
When providing remote learning, teachers are responsible for:
- Setting work:
- Related to the current topic covered within the English and Maths curriculum.
- Additional work to be set relating to Topic Subjects if they are covered on the day/days of absence.
- Work may be set daily by class teacher using a range of sources (online websites, prepared slides, printed work).
- Daily work will be uploaded to Class Dojo (PDF format). Class Dojo will also be used as the messaging system between class teachers, parents and pupils.
- Teachers will liaise with year group colleagues to ensure consistency across the year group and subject.
- Pupils with limited or no access to technology can be provided with paper copies on request.
- Providing feedback on work:
- Pupils will submit work via Class Dojo.
- Teachers can leave brief comments about the work received on Class Dojo.
Keeping in touch with pupils who aren’t in school and their parents:
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- Teachers are to respond to messages on Class Dojo any time between 9.00am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Parents are to be aware that any messages received before or after these times may not be replied to due to quiet hours.
- Any safeguarding concerns will take precedence and usual procedures of notifying DSL will take place.
- Class teachers should attempt to contact all pupils in their class every week via Class Dojo when in school.
- All contact with parents should remain polite and encouraging. Teachers must adhere to school’s online policy and acceptable use policy when contacting parents and pupils.
Teachers will plan lessons that link directly to the curriculum focus for that year group and will provide resources to support tasks for home learners.
This will contain:
- A link to Class Dojo – the school’s chosen main platform for delivering Remote Learning. Clear guidelines on how to support your child will be available in the timetables to
- Staff will add worksheets where applicable to the children’s Class Dojo accounts electronically and it will be the responsibility of families to print/use these resources at home (or contact the school to ask for a ‘paper pack’ which can be collected from the school office in a socially distant ’)
- Teachers will use the facilities within Class Dojo to give children some instruction to tasks where required and to communicate and to give feedback on completed
- Teachers will respond promptly, within reason, to requests for support from families at
This will be done via Class Dojo.
Subject Leaders
Alongside their teaching responsibilities, subject leads are responsible for:
- Considering whether any aspects of the subject curriculum need to change to accommodate remote learning.
- Working with teachers teaching their subject remotely to make sure all work set is appropriate and consistent.
- Monitoring the remote work set by teachers in their subject through meetings with teachers or by reviewing work set.
Alerting teachers to resources they can use to teach their subject remotely.
Senior Leaders
Alongside any teaching responsibilities, senior leaders are responsible for:
- Co-ordinating the remote learning approach across the school.
- Monitoring the effectiveness of remote learning through virtual meetings with staff and team leaders, feedback from parents and pupils to the effectiveness and provision of work set.
- Monitoring the security of remote learning systems, including data protection and safeguarding considerations.
- The Designated teacher for Remote Learning is the Headteacher.
Remote teaching for staff who are self-isolating
Teaching staff are required to self-isolate if they show symptoms outlined at the start of this policy or they have been told to shield and/or have received a letter to confirm this. If a member of staff is required to self-isolate, they are expected to:
- Follow normal reporting procedure for planned
- If a member of teaching staff is isolating due to the closure of their Bubble, they will be expected to set work through the online platform outlined earlier that is as closely linked as possible to the learning that other children of the same age are experiencing in school. It is not possible to provide the exact same
- It is expected that staff get tested. Should a staff member be tested, it is expected, as per national guidance, to share the result of this test with school so that appropriate plans can be made.
- Whilst self-isolating, and if able to do so, non-teaching staff will be given an individual project to work on which is line with whole school improvement priorities or asked to support with the online learning provision for their year group. These projects will be communicated by the Deputy Headteacher or Headteacher and will be allocated on a case-by- case
If unwell themselves, teachers will be covered by another staff member for the sharing of activities. Communication and planning during this time will not be undertaken until the teacher is fit to work.
Curriculum
We know that there has been much disruption to children’s education over the last six months, therefore Shepton Mallet Community Infants' School & Nursery is committed to ensuring that all children continue to receive a quality education should the need for remote learning arise.
The remote learning set for children will be in line with the learning that would take place in the classroom so the teachers will provide resources that deliver the main aspects of the curriculum plan; this includes Relationship and Health Education.
The remote learning set by teachers will follow the long-term curriculum plan for their class as far as possible, so that children can continue to access the relevant curriculum for their year. Teachers will provide adapted learning resources for children with additional learning needs, i.e. SEND or where English is an additional language.
The Governors and Senior Leadership Team at Shepton Mallet Community Infants' School & Nursery are fully aware that these are exceptional times and each family is unique, because of this we will approach remote learning in way which suits their individual needs. We realise that the circumstances that cause our school to close will affect families in a number of ways. In our planning and expectations, we are aware of the need for flexibility from all sides:
- parents may be trying to work from home so access to technology as a family may be limited;
- parents may have two or more children trying to access technology and need to prioritise
Pupils and Parents
Staff can expect pupils learning remotely to:
- Complete work to the best of their ability which has been set by the class teacher.
- Ask for help from teachers if having difficulty with the set work.
Staff can expect parents with children learning remotely to:
- Make the school aware if their child is sick.
- Seek help from the school if they need it. Teachers should refer parents to the Covid page on the school website which contains links to a range of online resources.
- Be respectful of quiet hours when sending messages via Class Dojo.
Governing Body
The governing body is responsible for:
- Monitoring the school’s approach to providing remote learning to ensure education remains as high quality as possible.
- Ensuring that staff are certain that remote learning systems are appropriately secure, for both data protection and safeguarding reasons
Who to contact
If staff have any questions or concerns, they should contact:
- Issues in setting work – talk to subject leader or SENDCO.
- Issues with behaviour – talk to SLT
- Issues with IT – talk to IT lead
- Issues with own workload or wellbeing – talk to the Headteacher
- Concerns about data protection – talk to the data protection officer
- Concerns about safeguarding – talk to the DSL