Remote Learning at Brookvale Groby Learning Campus

• Introduction

This document outlines our contingency plans for remote learning, should the need arise for this to be provided in cases where it is not possible, or is contrary to government guidance, for some or all  students to attend school. 

In the rare instances remote education should need to be provided, these plans are underpinned by the moral imperative to safeguard curriculum continuity and ensure that no students fall behind.  

• Our Principles

Our remote learning provision will include:  

• Curriculum continuity: remote education follows the same curriculum sequence as face-to-face  teaching. 
• High quality resources that mirror those used in face-to-face teaching where applicable and  appropriate, are easily accessible and break learning down into small steps. This includes use of  video lessons and narrated powerpoint presentations, as appropriate. 
• Feedback and assessment of learning is regular, in line with normal curriculum expectations.

• Prioritising Attendance

Guidance from the Department for Education states that remote education should not be viewed as an  equal alternative to attendance in school and should only ever be considered as a ‘last resort’. 

It goes on  to specify two categories whereby remote education might be employed: 

1. School closures or restrictions on attendance, where school access for pupils is restricted 
2. Individual cases where a pupil is unable to attend school but is able to learn 

(DfE, 2023)

• The Remote Curriculum 

A student’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.

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

Teachers will set work through the google classrooms.  This work may include worksheets, assessment, quizzes, links to online learning platforms or links to join a ‘live’ lessons

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.

• Remote teaching and study time each day

How long can I expect the work set to take my child each day?

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students broadly the following number of hours each day:

• Accessing remote education

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

We will use google classroom to set all work and deliver ‘live’ lessons

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 students may not have suitable online access at home or may need to share a device. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

Brookvale Groby will provide technical support and advice to aid families accessing online provision.

“How to” guides and specific guidance will be given to support students to successfully access the google classroom and also explore alternative options, eg use of games consoles to access online learning.

Where needed and available, laptops and wifi dongles can be distributed to households.

Parents should contact their child’s year head initially if there are any issues preventing successful online learning

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach students remotely.

Lessons will be structured at normal timetable times through the google classrooms.  Teachers will be available (wherever possible) throughout the timetabled period and will make use of a combination of the following strategies.

• live teaching
• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
• textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
• long-term project work and/or internet research activities (these will only be used where individual live lessons are not appropriate)

1. Engagement and feedback

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

Students are expected to be online for each lesson as per their normal timetable (or watch the recorded lesson at a more convenient time if this isn’t possible).

Students should respond to the teacher through the chat function or any other means used in the lesson (e.g. jamboard)

Students should complete any work set by the teacher and return any required assessment 

The teacher will have a register of students attending the live lessons

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

Attendance for remote learning will be tracked in a variety of ways and will include:

• Attendance to live lessons
• Completion of work set in lessons
• Completed assessments
• Evidence of work being completed at home (e.g. photographs of work)
• Quizzes / questionnaires

Teachers will monitor the engagement and will add information to a centrally held database each week.

Information will be sent to parents at the end of each week if engagement has been excellent or if we are concerned that it has been below expectations 

Some teachers may contact students or parents directly where there are issues with specific work or lessons missed

How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

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, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

Feedback will given using a variety of different methods, including but not limited to:

• Verbal feedback to responses in lessons
• Feedback to work submitted through the google classroom
• Whole class feedback to assessments
• Written feedback to submitted assignments
• Feedback from self-marking online tasks

1. Additional support for students with particular needs

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

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 and carers to support those pupils in the following ways:

SEND provision is organised on a student by student basis. It is hoped that with correct guidance and support all students will be able to  access the work . Where this is not possible, the SEND team will provide appropriate work for each student.

A member of the SEND team is available to take phone calls every school day to support any issues with online learning

The school has made available ‘How to’ guides for parents and student which can be found on the Campus website 

The Hub provision will remain open under all contingency models. Where Hub students are self-isolating, the SEND team will coordinate appropriate work.

In addition to the above, the SEND and pastoral teams provide weekly phone calls or emails to identified students

1. Remote education for self-isolating students

Where individual students need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in the academy, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in the academy.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

Most of the above will apply under these circumstances. Depending on the number of students absent, and the nature of the subjects involved, some subjects may “stream” their lessons home using the above methods, some areas may set independent work covering the same content as that day’s work