Remote Education Information for Parents

We are using Microsoft TEAMS for Home Learning from Nursery to Year 6.  All the children have been issued with a username and password. If you are experiencing any difficulties accessing TEAMS, please contact the class teacher  or the school office and we will aim to get back to you as soon as possible. EYFS are also using Tapestry. 

Please take a look at the documents that have been uploaded to support you on how to access access TEAMS, as well as how to access TEAMS through ABox and a Games Console. 

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You have the right to a good quality education

Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to children and parents about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

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.

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

Children will be expected to access their learning via Microsoft Teams from day one, using their login previously provided.  Teachers will provide activities for English, maths, and one other lesson as well as supporting resources via the ‘Assignments’ tab on Teams. For EYFS, work can also be accessed on Tapestry. Children are expected to complete their work either on the editable documents on Teams or on a piece of paper.  Children are expected to ‘turn in’ their completed work on Teams or by scanning, uploading a photograph of their work.  Teachers are expected to provide general feedback to address any necessary misconceptions.

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?

Children will be following a similar curriculum remotely as we do in school, wherever possible and appropriate.  However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects.  For example, science experiments may be carried out by the teacher and recorded as we are aware that not all the required resources may be accessible at home.  Certain topics/concepts that would be most suited to being taught in person with key resources that were planned to be covered during the spring term may be moved to the summer term.

In addition to the school’s core offer, we encourage parents and carers to engage in other enrichment activities such as cooking, sewing and walks with their children where possible.

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

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

Accessing remote education

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

Children will be able to access their online learning predominantly via Microsoft Teams and for EYFS through Tapestry, however they will also be required to access the following online resources as directed by their teachers:

• Times Tables Rock Stars
• White Rose Maths
• BBC Bitesize
• Education City
• Sumdog
• Epic
• Espresso
• Scratch

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 pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

Loan laptops according to priority need.

Please email the school office office@pippins.slough.schuk if you do not have an appropriate device for your child to access their online learning. Your request will be passed to a member of the Senior Leadership Team, who will make a decision based upon priority need and number of devices the school has.

We can request mobile data increases for children, if they meet all three criteria:

• do not have fixed broadband at home,
• cannot afford additional data for their devices
• are experiencing disruption to their face-to-face education Increasing data allowances on mobile phones scheme on certain networks

Children with access to a mobile phone on one of the following networks might be able to benefit:

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

We can also request 4G wireless routers (dongles/mobile WIFI) that provides internet connection.

Children can also access TEAMS through their Xbox and PlayStation.

If your child does not have access to the internet and therefore cannot view their home learning, then they may be eligible to take up a place in school.  Please contact the school office.  Alternatively, if we are unable to provide a place, packs will be made up and sent home.

How will my child be taught remotely?

• We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
• Live sessions on Microsoft Teams; daily registration 8.50 – 9am
• Staff have shared a structured weekly timetable
• Resources uploaded on Microsoft Teams and made available on the school website and on Tapestry
• Recordings uploaded on Tapestry, website and Teams
• 1 to 1 Microsoft live Teams meetings; feedback and support
• Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or concepts including video clips or sequences
• Texts scanned for children to access
• Packs sent home to support teaching and learning
• 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?

We are very keen for children to engage with as much of the learning as possible.  We appreciate, however, that this may be more difficult for younger year groups, so the teachers have taken this into account when planning.

The expectation is for all children across the school, from Nursery to Year 6, to log on daily between 8.50 – 9am for registration.  Children who are unable to log on, can send a message through Teams, or parents can email or call the school if they are having technical difficulties.   All children across the school will follow a structured timetable.

The tasks set should be completed daily; this should be either shown on screen, photographed or uploaded onto Teams or Tapestry.  We urge you as Parents, to encourage your children to engage with the learning as much as you possibly can; it will help to keep them on track.  Parents and carers should not expect to become their children’s teacher. No-one is expecting this of you. You should do what you can to support your child through this extraordinary and potentially stressful time. Whatever you can do is appreciated.

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

Class Teachers will be available to provide feedback and additional guidance via the chat facility in Microsoft Teams throughout the week, during lesson time.

Work will be uploaded for the children to access either on Microsoft Teams or Tapestry and any work completed the class teacher will ask for the children to send their work back through Microsoft Teams or through Tapestry using the different tools that are available.

Class Teachers and the Senior Leadership Team will be monitoring children’s engagement with online learning via Microsoft Teams.  Class teachers and Teaching Assistants will contact those parents whose children do not appear to have accessed their Teams, to check in and offer any necessary support that may be required.

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 via the post tab or quizzes, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

• Viewing live work, commenting there and then
• Viewing all work that has been uploaded by each child
• Providing whole class feedback via the post tab
• Providing individual feedback on at least one piece of work daily through the assignments tab
• Responding to children’s questions through the chat facility during lesson time

Additional support for pupils 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:

• Provide learning to meet their needs and abilities, differentiating accordingly and providing 1:1 support via Teams as appropriate
• Provide an additional resource that may be required to support your child with their learning at home
• Provide any necessary IT support e.g. loan of a device
• Check in regularly with parents and carers

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, 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 school.

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

If a child is tested positive for COVID19, the class and associated members of staff could potentially have to self-isolate, depending on the circumstances, remote learning would be similar to the above, but no live learning.  However, if a family member has to self-isolate, a work pack will be sent home to support the child, until they return to school in 10 days.

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

The class will also be self-isolating for 10 days.  There will be no live learning from the class teacher’s home for safeguarding. Children will need to self-register daily on their class TEAMS platform between 8.50 – 9am, for the Senior Leadership team, the class teacher and the office to check children are on line accessing and working on TEAMS. Work will be set on TEAMS for the children to access. 

What's working well in Remote Education (Ofsted)

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