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.

Your child will be given a Home Learning pack which will contain study books and workbooks to complete independently in the first instance.

If your child is sent home from school, they will be provided with their Home Learning pack on leaving, otherwise you may collect it from school. If you are self-isolating and are unable to collect it, please let us know and school will arrange for it to be delivered to your home.

We teach broadly the same curriculum remotely as we do in school, so your child’s remote timetable will include a range of subjects. English and Maths are expected to be completed daily with other core and foundation subjects being completed at least weekly.  

We expect that remote education will take pupils broadly 4 hours each day. This includes both direct teaching (e.g. recorded lessons delivered by your child’s teacher on Seesaw; BBC Bitesize) and time for pupils to complete tasks independently (e.g. CGP study books; workbooks; reading; spellings; times tables rock stars).

It is best, where you can, to follow a routine for your child that closely mirrors that of the school day e.g. start at 9:00am and finish at 3:15pm with a break mid-morning and one for lunch.

We do not expect children to work outside of the usual school day. Your child’s teacher has set tasks which are appropriate for your child. If you find tasks are taking much longer, or your child is completing them much more quickly, please speak to your child’s teacher.

We are using an online learning platform called Seesaw. This can be accessed from several devices including a desktop; laptop; tablet; chrome book; kindle; phone; Playstation and X-Box. Guidance, login instructions and a unique code for your child to access this are included in their home learning pack.

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home, don’t worry, we have provided printed resources for your child. We will support you, where we can, to use technology for remote education. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

• We have provided printed resources, study books and workbooks in your child’s home learning pack.
• Your child can take a photograph of their completed work and upload it via a phone to their teacher.
• Teachers are available during school hours to support you and your child via email or telephone.  

• We will lend laptops to pupils where available. We have now been provided with 34 laptops from the DfE. These will be prioritised based on need and according to government guidance. If you do not have digital or online access at home, please let your child’s teacher know, so you can be considered for a laptop.

• Laptops will be issued to children who do not have digital or online access at home in the following priority order:

1. Pupils with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP)
2. Pupils who are in foster care
3. Pupils who have a social worker
4. Pupils who receive Early Help from the LA
5. Pupils in receipt of free school meals
6. Pupils who are pupil premium
7. Pupils who do not have access to a device.

• We can request mobile data increases for pupils who are not able to attend school due to national lockdown restrictions. You must meet all 3 of these criteria:

1. Do not have fixed broadband at home.
2. Cannot afford additional data for your devices.
3. Are experiencing disruption to your face-to-face education.

Please contact the school office if you fit the above criteria and would like to be registered for this.

The following mobile networks might be able to increase data:

• EE
• O2
• Sky Mobile
• SMARTY
• Tesco Mobile
• Three
• Virgin Mobile
• Vodafone

Other providers may join the scheme at a later date.

We understand these are difficult times for children and their parents/carers. Please remember staff are here to support and advise you with your child’s learning. You can contact school staff via email office@taj.leics.sch.uk; telephone 01509 214974 or by messaging your child’s teacher directly through Seesaw.

Please note: teachers are also providing face-to-face teaching to critical worker and vulnerable children so may not be able to respond immediately but will contact you as soon as possible.

We expect children to:

• Engage in their remote learning every school day by attempting tasks which their teacher has set, either by logging in to Seesaw or by completing the CGP workbook pages

• Read every day
• Practise their weekly spelling lists
• Regularly login to Times Tables Rock Stars
• Submit at least 1 piece of work daily
• Ask their teacher if they are not sure of what to do. 

We expect parents/carers to:

• Set routines to support your child’s education
• Contact school for advice and guidance if needed, to support with your child’s learning.

During work hours, teachers will:

• Check pupils’ engagement with remote education daily

• Telephone or email you where engagement is a concern to discuss the reasons for this.

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, the methods we will use to assess and feedback on pupils’ work include:

• Posting individual; group and whole class comments at least weekly on Seesaw

• Written or verbal comments in response to CGP work submitted.

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 to support those pupils in the following ways:

• Work in the home learning pack is differentiated according to your child’s needs
• Activities on line are differentiated
• Class teachers are available to offer support and guidance with teaching strategies during working hours. This may be via Seesaw messaging; email or telephone. If your child’s class teacher is delivering face to face lessons in school to critical worker and vulnerable children, please note it may be another member of staff who contacts you.
• Either the special educational needs and disabilities coordinator (SENDCo)­, or the SEND teachers in the resource base, will contact families of pupils with an EHCP or SEND support plan on a weekly basis to offer support and guidance.

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, the children who are self-isolating will continue to follow, as far as possible, the curriculum which is being delivered in school.

This will be provided through study books and workbooks in their home learning pack. Teachers will inform them of the pages which are to be completed daily.

Work can be photographed and uploaded to the school email office@taj.leics.sch.uk