King’s Hill Primary School
Remote Education Provision: Information for Parents
Dear Parents/Carers,
In the event of any form of isolation and loss of learning caused by Coronavirus, the need for your child to engage in remote home education is now compulsory, as is the expectation that our school makes this provision available and accessible.
If your child has to isolate it is because either they have Covid-19 symptoms themselves, members of your household have Covid-19 symptoms or because our school has had to close a class or the school under the instruction of DfE and Public Health England.
However, if your child is too ill then they should not be expected to engage in remote home education until they are feeling better. This information will need to be communicated to school via the school office.
Home learning is to be completed using Google Classroom. Your child has been provided with log in details, which have been sent home.
Purple Mash is another educational platform that the pupils at King’s hill have experience of using. Work may be set on Google Classroom or Purple Mash. Through the Purple Mash platform children can access and explore a wide range of additional cross-curricular educational activities/websites.
What to expect from Google Classroom
If your child has to isolate, they will have access to generic work on line for the first day or so. This will afford teachers a short time to prepare their remote learning resources. If access to Google Classroom is an issue, additional paper based resources will be made available.
Google Classroom is a web-based platform that allows teachers to communicate with pupils digitally. Google Classroom allows teachers and pupils to share comments, files and weblinks, create and complete tasks, as well as give and receive feedback.
All children at King’s Hill have been issued a Google username and password, and these have been sent home with each child. If you have lost your child’s username and password, please contact school.
What can my child do with Google Classroom at home?
Google Classroom allows teachers to share announcements, instructions, documents and other files, weblinks, and even digital tasks with pupils. Children can also comment in order to ask/answer questions. Here’s a quick guide on how to access these:
If you have any problems with using Google Classroom at home, please visit the Google Classroom support page
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school, wherever possible and appropriate. We have had to make some adaptations in some subjects so that children can access the learning and undertake tasks/activities more readily. We have done this by including Purple Mash online resources and links to useful websites.
Different areas of the curriculum will be planned for your child to access daily (see your child’s timetable) so that they do not miss out on the objectives for their year groups. Where possible, these activities will be directly linked to what your child would have been taught in school at that time and will make specific reference to new teaching content as well as consolidating previous learning too.
Your child will be provided with tasks/activities in reading, spellings, English, maths and other subjects. There may be a day or so where your child will have generic work to do. This will keep your child going educationally whilst their teachers start to upload more relevant activities and guidance on Google Classroom for the rest of your child’s isolation period.
We are following the guidance provided for Key Stage 1 and 2 so dependent upon age, your child will be engaged in a range of activities daily which could take between 3 – 5 hours. Please refer to your child’s timetable for more detailed information. Children in Early years are also provided with a timetable to follow and it is expected that they too would engage in daily learning between 1 – 3 hours.
We use Google Classroom and Purple Mash as the online tools/digital platforms that your child can access.
We are aware of families in this situation and have set up a system whereby you should be able to loan one of the school Chromebooks that we have for this purpose. You must contact the school/class teacher and we will review each case. We also provide paper based activity packs along with resources/ equipment so that your child can continue with their learning.
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
Please note the balance of approaches used by teachers in different phases will be in accordance with what we feel is appropriate for the age of the child.
Your child will need to access and upload their completed activities before or on the due date, which will be made clear for each task/activity. If they want to start a task and come back to it later that day, activities can be saved as a draft if being completed directly on the platform. Alternatively, your child can work on paper and photograph it, to upload their learning for that day. This can be through Class Dojo.
There will be a mixture of online and offline activities planned as per timetable as we understand that computer/devices may need to be shared within the family. Children should only click on the ‘turned in’ button to indicate they are finished when they are ready to share their completed learning with their teacher.
Feedback will come in many forms including written/typed comments, acknowledgement of learning, staff audio-recorded feedback and more. Your child may receive additional challenges to think about if they have found something easy or they may get another similar activity if they need the extra practice of the skill.
Children do not need to respond to feedback from their teachers, however, they may well need to act on the advice given in their future learning, just as they would do in school. If your child does not understand their task, they can contact the teacher via Google classroom to let them know and the teacher will respond when they are able to do so.
Teachers will not be responding to parental communication via Google Classroom.
Any queries, will be responded to via the normal channels of emailing the school or through Class Dojo.
If the whole class or school are absent from school due to an outbreak or lockdown, teachers may have more time to respond. However, if only one or two children in a class are absent at a time, teachers will give feedback which may be less regular due to their teaching commitments.
We would recommend creating an area for your child to work on their remote education. We would encourage a set start and finish time that works for you and your family setting. The regular time to move, exercise and have a break will be beneficial for your child’s home learning experience. Having login details for Google Classroom to hand will also make this process easier for your child.
Check-in on what your child has achieved on a regular basis throughout the day – only upload work, when you are both happy that the task is completed fully.
If your child doesn’t finish all of the tasks set on the day please encourage them to upload what they have achieved so we can ascertain their level of understanding/effort.
Your child can ‘turn in’/submit their work online into Google Classroom. Your child can attach one or more files to their work. They can also upload their work through Purple Mash and Class Dojo.
Your child’s teachers will be setting learning appropriate to your child’s ability, age and stage in the year. They will be able to monitor if your child is engaging. Teachers will be providing materials to support and extend your child’s learning which should allow all children to participate in and make progress so they do not have lots to catch up on when they come back to school.
There may be different levels of activities, additional support videos and other resources to support your child’s understanding. However, if your child is really struggling with any aspect of remote learning, be it completing tasks or gaining access to devices, then please contact their Class Teacher/school via the office.
If a child does not engage with the remote education provided, the Class Teacher will contact parents to establish obstacles and provide support as required. If disengagement continues, the Senior Leadership Team will contact the family to discuss the matter further.
Not if your child does not feel well – let them get better before settling them down to remote education tasks. Just let the school/teacher know via the school office.
Remote education is for the COVID self-isolation period only. if your child is unwell however, they need to get well before heading back to school as normal.
Remote education for self-isolating pupils – If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?
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Self-isolating pupils |
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On-going support |
Using Google Classroom, the class teacher will upload activities and worksheets and may sign post to other appropriate websites and resources. The teacher will decide what materials are most appropriate for the individual child. The parents will be notified of remote learning provision and expectations.
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Safeguarding/SEND |
If a child is vulnerable in any way, a Designated Safeguarding Team member will ensure that the appropriate agencies are notified and arrange for regular safe and well checks via a phone call. If children are entitled to benefit-related Free School Meals (FSM), food made available. If a child does not engage, the class teacher to call the parents to discuss obstacles and support.
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Self-isolating class/year group |
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On-going support |
Senior staff will send an email to parents to explain the reason for self-isolation and to inform them of remote learning expectations. Using Google Classroom, the class teacher will upload activities and worksheets and relevant links. These will include daily: English/Maths activities Tasks in other curriculum areas/activities to do through Purple Mash Teachers will be accessible to children through Google Classroom Completed work should be shared through Google Classroom, Class Dojo or Purple Mash Teachers will provide feedback regularly. Children needing extra support may be directed to a Google Meet conducted by a teacher or teaching assistant. In the event of teachers becoming ill, senior leaders will take over the responsibility for the isolating children. When this is the case, daily contact may not be possible, however links to online learning will be shared and engagement would remain compulsory.
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Safeguarding/SEND |
School office to contact parents to let them know. If any child is vulnerable in any way, a Designated Safeguarding Team member will ensure that appropriate agencies are notified and arrange for regular safe and well checks via a phone call. If children are entitled to benefit-related FSM ensure food is made available. If a child does not engage with the work set, the class teacher to call the parents to discuss obstacles and support. Where children normally receive additional support, the teacher will endeavour to provide differentiated work and the TA will support wherever possible, e.g. through feedback, phone calls. When children would normally receive support from SEND agencies, SENCo will make arrangements for those to continue via Google Meets or telephone, as long as the agencies and parents are able to engage.
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