Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local or national lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, The Department for Education expects schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education.
The expectations for remote learning are as follows:
- Set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects across the curriculum.
- Teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject.
- Provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high-quality curriculum resources and/or videos.
- Gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work.
- 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.
- Plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers.
If your child is isolating whilst the rest of their bubble are in school, the children at Dean Field Community Primary School can expect the following provision from school.
| What | Details | Where it can be found |
| A timetable of the week | A breakdown of which subjects will be taught on which days | Seesaw – pinned to the top of the News Feed
If completing a work pack the timetable will be at the front. |
| A brief daily explanation of the day’s work | A simple voice recording from a member of staff in the year group explaining what the day’s lessons and planned activities are along with a visual of this. | Seesaw |
| Lessons | Uploaded slides, worksheets and links to other relevant websites. These will be the same as the ones used in the classroom. | Seesaw |
| Feedback from the teacher | All children are expected to post the work they have completed onto Seesaw where the teachers will give oral or written feedback. | Seesaw |
If your child’s bubble is isolating and your child’s class teacher is fit and well to work or if there is full lockdown and the whole school has to close, the children at Dean Field Community Primary School can expect the following provision from school.
| What | Details | Where it can be found |
| A timetable of the week | A breakdown of which subjects will be taught on which days | Seesaw
If completing a work pack the timetable will be at the front. |
| A daily timetable | A breakdown of the daily activities, which are age and stage appropriate. This will explain what the children should complete with suggested timings of when they should complete it. | Seesaw |
| Motivational morning video | A motivational message from a member of the year group team. This will involve a rundown of the daily timetable and a mention of the highlights from the day before. | Seesaw |
| Shorter activities | This might be a handwriting sheet, link to online reading books or a morning challenge. | Uploaded with the daily timetable so all resources are easily accessible in the same place. |
| Lessons, at least three a day which follow the class timetable. | A video/ explanation of the learning and learning task, slides, worksheets and links to other relevant websites. | Seesaw |
| Feedback from the teacher | All children are expected to post the work they have completed onto Seesaw or Tapestry where the teachers will give oral or written feedback. | Seesaw |
| Newsletter | School newsletter including message from Mrs Pether and celebrations e.g AR and TTRS leaderboard and Gold Book entries. | Seesaw and website. |
| Zoom weekly activities | Each class will host a weekly zoom meet to read a story or take part in a quiz to encourage engagement and pupil wellbeing. | Zoom links will be sent out via Seesaw |
| Zoom English and Maths lessons | Years 5 and 6 will host zoom lessons across the morning for teachers to give input prior to pupils completing work. | Zoom links will be sent out via Seesaw |
The teachers will ensure that the learning planned and the corresponding resources will replicate, where possible, what the day would be like if a child were still in school. Teachers will use the year groups Medium Term Plans and our curriculums Skills Progression document (these can all be found on the school’s website) to ensure the learning is carefully sequenced and builds on the children’s previous knowledge.
Should you wish to, you can also access The Oak National Academy’s website Online Classroom with nearly 10,000 free video lessons, resources and activities, covering most subjects, from Reception to Year 6. Dean Field also makes use of several online applications such as Reading Plus, Accelerated Reader, Education City, Purple Mash Times Tables Rockstars which will be valuable for the children to access whilst at home. You will be provided with your child’s login details in the event of them isolating.
Whilst it would be our preference for all children to be in school all of the time, the provision we are offering for remote learning is as close to the children being in school as possible. It will still provide children with the knowledge and skills they need to make progress, whilst keeping them engaged and motivated to learn.
Questions and Answers about Dean Field’s Remote Learning
Why is the provision different for children who are isolating whilst their bubble are still in school?
Whilst a child’s bubble are still in school, throughout the day, all teachers will be teaching their classes. The time teachers have to prepare high quality lessons and provide meaningful feedback along with their other duties within the school is finite. Therefore, it will not be possible for teachers to pre-record detailed explanations of the work set in these circumstances.
Is my child expected to do work at home when they are ill?
If your child is ill, they must take the time to rest and recover and are not expected to work from home. However, if a child no longer feels ill, but are still considered contagious (10 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms), parents and carers must phone the admin team to let the school know that teachers can begin posting work to their child’s Seesaw account.
What if I don’t have access to the internet?
Those families who do not have access to the internet can collect the work from school which will be printed at regular intervals and left in the school office for parents to collect. In exceptional circumstances, these resources will be delivered to them by Mrs Stansfield. We will also ensure there is regular phone call feedback, which can be arranged between the parent/ carer and the teacher. Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you think you will need this provision.
How will my child with Special Educational Needs be supported?
All children who have identified special educational needs will have additional personalised support and resources posted onto their personal Seesaw account. Teachers will respond to children on an individual basis and therefore plan appropriately to ensure every child is able to achieve.
Will my child receive a phone call from their teacher whilst they are isolating?
The standard period for isolation is 14 days. As teachers are able to interact with their pupils through Seesaw, staff will not be making telephone calls to children unless there are pre-arranged or exceptional circumstances. However, if a full lockdown occurs and children have to receive remote learning for more than two weeks, wellbeing calls will be arranged.
Why are the teachers not delivering live lessons?
At Dean Field, Safeguarding is of the upmost importance and the senior leadership team feel that the Safeguarding of our children will be put at risk if children have to connect to a live lesson from home with at least 30 other people online at the same time.
In addition, we respect the rights of our staff as well as our children and whilst there is a lack of proven effectiveness and appropriateness for primary school aged children to attend live lessons, we will be posting pre-recorded lessons online.
Live lessons mean that both a device and the children have to be available at a specific time of the day, putting additional pressure and expectations on families who are often juggling working from home whilst trying to support their child. When lessons are pre-recorded, children can have a level of independence to choose which order they would like to undertake their learning.
Live lessons require both a device and a greater internet band width that not all families have access to, creating an inequality of opportunity. For families with more than one child isolating, there would be an even higher demand on the availability of technology at a specific time.
In the classroom, teachers are highly skilled at being responsive to the children’s needs. However, this type of interaction is not possible in the same way online. On the other hand, a pre-recorded lesson can be paused, listened to again or fast forwarded, allowing children additional time and support if needed to complete a task. Staff can also post additional videos and resources for individuals in the same way a child would get personalised support and challenge in class. Whereas, due to the nature of online video communications, a live lesson to 30 children at once would have a more blanket/ passive approach. Seesaw also allows the teaching staff to give instant personal verbal or written feedback to help guide the children with their learning, help them build on their previous knowledge and keep them motivated to keep learning from home.
Why have Dean Field Community Primary School chosen to use Seesaw to provide their remote learning?
From Nursery through to Year 6, we use Seesaw, which is a platform for student engagement used in over 150 countries that can be used on any device through the Seesaw app or online.
One of the most important features of the Seesaw application is its ability to engage student learning by leveraging their digital technology skills. Seesaw is very easy to learn for pupils as young as 5 years old and those without a strong technological background. Using the creative tools, pupils can easily create artefacts such as drawings, photos, videos, notes, etc. or they can add files from their devices.
Seesaw does not require students to have an established e-mail or Google account.
With the built-in audio and video recording features, pupils can easily provide reflections of their work to communicate and collaborate with their teacher.
By using the drawing tools to complete an activity, teachers can lessen the need for printing off worksheets both at home and at school.
In addition to the above Seesaw can be used in the classroom to share a child’s experiences and learning journey with their family, supporting parents and carers to understand more about our curriculum.
We have used Seesaw at Dean Field for nearly three years now and it has transformed pupils’ engagement in homework activities as well as our parental involvement. We found during the school closure period that over 75% of pupils engaged in online learning activities through Seesaw and so for us this is the most effective programme to use for remote learning.
How do I keep my child safe whilst accessing remote learning?
Parents need to make sure that children are supervised whilst using the internet to ensure that they are only accessing content that is appropriate to them. Children have had online safety lessons in school and should be aware of how to keep themselves safe online and what to do if they don’t feel safe (remind them of the SMART rules).
It would be a good idea to ask your child to tell you ways in which they can keep themselves safe while using the internet so that you as a parent can ensure that they understand. It is also important that you consider the amount of time that your child is spending online and sitting at a tablet/computer screen. Make sure that you build in time for breaks so that children are not looking at a screen for long periods of time.