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Exceptional Education at the Heart of the Community

Exceptional Education at the Heart of the Community

Remote Learning

1. What is taught to pupils at home?

The academy will endeavour to deliver the full curriculum to children, in line with what teaching would be in place should we be at the academy in person. Our curriculum offer will remain broad, balanced, and mirror the KS3 and KS4 National Curriculum. Our KS5 offer will also remain broad and balanced.

Whilst we will cover the subjects, there may be some adjustments that need to be made to the existing curriculum for more practical subjects (such as PE, Art, Design Tech and Music). We thank you for your support and patience with this.

2. If my child does not have access to online learning at home, how will you support us?

Where pupils do not have access to internet at home, we will be in contact to discuss the support available for either a place in the academy, support we can offer to provide internet access at home or paper-based resources.

We will do our very best to support any children without access to a device or internet at home with the support to rectify this. We are doing this through provision of dongles, laptops and the Horizons Project. If we are unable to rectify this then a child without internet or device access is able to attend our on-site provision, in line with the government guidance.

3. What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first few days?

In the instance that children need to engage in remote learning, due to self-isolation, bubble closure or whole school closure, the academy will work hard to ensure that no child is left without work to do in the immediacy. Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources. Students will have access to teachers for support and guidance. Where students do not have access to a device or internet at home and are unable to attend the academy alternative provision will be in place, please contact the academy for further details.

4. How will my child be taught remotely?

The school teaching staff will run their timetable of lessons as planned with students logging into MS Teams for live lessons. Your child’s online timetable can be fully accessed via Microsoft Teams, once logged in, click the calendar tab and select the relevant lessons.

We acknowledge however that there may be some situations where a full timetable of lessons may not be possible – particularly in the instance of significant staff sickness. In the event of staff absence, work will be uploaded to MS Teams for students to complete independently. In the event of staff absence in a live lesson, please do the following before contacting school:

·         Check the relevant MS Teams channel for messages.

·         Check student email.

5. What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide?

We expect every student to engage in lessons as they would in the classroom, and similarly our staff will be checking student understanding in the same manner as well. This could take the form of online quizzes, marking/assessment of assignments or work returned by email or other apps, or in-class engagement.

Student behaviour practices are expected to be in line with those within the academy, and additional rules will be in place for things such as microphone and camera use, raising hands, or class conversation through MS Teams.

We know that strong parental engagement is important to make this successful, and therefore endeavour to communicate regularly with you around how the remote learning is going. We will be there to offer support on how to access the information remotely around resources, lessons and your child’s attendance, behaviour and engagement.

We ask that you support your child by creating a quiet place for them to attend lessons at home, and do not record any lessons for your own use due to GDPR and data protection.

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

We will be assessing your child’s progress through work submitted daily via Microsoft Teams, engagement through questions in lessons, using online quizzing/marking tools and other work returned by email/other agreed communication. This will help us identify needs of the individual or needs of the class quickly and effectively.

7. How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support at home to access remote education?

We recognise that some pupils, for example those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), will require support from adults at home in order to access remote education.  We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers to support those pupils with tailored support from our dedicated SEND Team.