The remote curriculum: what is taught to children at home

A child’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 children being sent home?

It is imperative that all children access our online provision. This is through GOOGLE CLASSROOM, which is accessible via the academy website, or by clicking classroom.google.com. It is a learning platform specifically designed for children. This is the main online learning platform used during academy closure. The platform works as a secure website whereby children have access to communication tools such as streams, forums and Meets for live sessions and interaction.

Each child is given access to their class and year group rooms. Lessons and activities can be set through these rooms.                

A daily timetable is a displayed, which details the expected lessons for the day. Please see example (to the left):

There are twice daily registrations that take place via Meet. These sessions will be led by your child’s Class Teacher and Support Staff. Registrations are staggered according to year group, to enable maximum engagement – particularly for families with multiple children. At each session, a register is taken to review online activity/engagement/ child and family wellbeing.

For those children who may not have immediate access, or have an additional need (e.g. EAL), age-appropriate learning packs will be supplied. These can be collected from the school office between 9:30am-2:30pm.

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?

Our remote learning plan has been made with our children and their families in mind. Children receive meaningful and ambitious activities each day in different subjects.

We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in-school wherever possible and appropriate. Thus meaning, remote tasks are as challenging as tasks set in-school and the level of work is pitched correctly. Teachers set a variety of learning activities/tasks in line with the National Curriculum following year group long & medium-term plans; however, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, Music & Computing.

Currently, Music is taught through Oak National Academy. This is an online classroom made by teachers,[TM1]  for teachers. With nearly 10,000 lessons and resources covering a wide range of subjects, from Early Years Foundation Stage to KS4. Specialist lessons cover a wide range of learning areas and therapies, with one-hour length lessons. These are delivered by a teacher, with a pre-recorded video as well as quizzes, worksheets and creative activities.

Computing is a technical subject, with many families not having access to the appropriate software required for these lessons. Therefore, some elements of these lessons will not be explicitly taught; however, children will be taught through digital platforms in order to develop their ICT skills.

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

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

Accessing remote education

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

Our main digital platform for remote learning is Google Classroom for registrations or any live lessons/interventions that take place.  We have a dedicated Google site for EYFS. We also use Google Classroom in the EYFS to collect the range of experience our children in Nursery and Reception are having at home.  Parents/carers are able to upload photos and videos of their child’s learning at home.  These home observations build into the Learning Journey of each child and support teachers in the EYFS to understand each child’s learning and development.

In addition, we use a wide range of online resources to support teaching and learning, including:

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

• Every household in our academy has access to at least 1 tablet or laptop and internet access for remote learning. All children are able to access remote learning every day. A tracking spreadsheet keeps a record of all loaned devices including laptops, iPads and dongles.
• For any children who require printed resources (e.g., those with a specific learning need), these can be provided by your child’s class teacher.
• Additional resources such as exercise books, calculators and stationery can be given to support learning from home.
• Children in our Nursery have been provided with a craft pack to support their learning at home.
• If your child is struggling to submit work online (for any reason), then this can be delivered to the school office and submitted to the year group teacher on duty in-school.

For any child(ren) that does not have adequate support learning from home, they can be invited to attend school under a specific category. This would need to be agreed with the Mr Hamidi (Executive Headteacher) or Mrs Jadeja (Deputy Headteacher).

If additional support or devices are required, please speak to your child’s class teacher or email the school office at office@welldonpark.harrow.sch.uk.

This information is regularly communicated in our academy newsletter and text messages.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach children remotely:

• Google Meet Registrations & drop-ins
• Mostly pre-recorded lessons, with some live session (where appropriate). Teachers record videos themselves, as well as use some commercially available websites to support teaching and learning (e.g. White Rose Maths, Oak National Academy, YouTube – Joe Wicks) enabling families to revisit especially where a flipped-learning approach is used
• Printed workbooks/sheets and resources (where necessary)
• Tailored provision and interventions are offered to those children who require additional support in order to achieve set learning objectives

Reading is taught through daily Phonics lessons in Reception, up to Y2. We follow the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme. RWI Phonics teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step. In KS2, Reading is taught through Success For All (SFA) where 3 English lessons a week focus on specific reading skills. The Wings (SFA) curriculum provides a wide variety of genres and supports in developing key literacy skills such as deduction, summarising, prediction and questioning.

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?

At The Welldon Park Academy, we recognise it is our statutory duty to provide an education for your child. We have made reasonable adjustments to all our remote learning provision and resources to suit a child’s individual needs. Therefore, we expect that your child should engage with their learning daily – as they would if they were physically in school.

Your child’s Google Classroom stream sets out the learning for each day, so all lessons and resources are easily accessible. Your child is encouraged to take regular breaks from on-screen learning, through brain breaks, physical exercise, daily break and lunchtime.

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

The effectiveness of remote teaching is determined by many of the same factors as determine the effectiveness of live classroom teaching. With this in mind, we expect daily interaction with your child to ascertain how well they are engaging with curriculum content.

An engagement/wellbeing register is taken at the twice daily registrations to monitor your child’s engagement. If no contact has been evidenced, then we will telephone you to follow-up. We will also send a text message directly; and if we still do not have a response, we will conduct a home visit. In addition, to help your child further engage in their learning (if there is a low level of engagement), we may offer 1:1 sessions with their Class Teacher or Teaching Assistant.

If your child is unwell, then you need to follow normal absence recording procedures; telephoning the school office from 8am (each day) explaining your child’s illness/situation. Any COVID related absence, must be reported to the academy – including new onset of symptoms, change or update in family circumstances and/or test results.

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

The Department for Education (DfE) have set out their expectations for monitoring remote learning engagement. As an academy, it is our responsibility to “gauge how well children are progressing through the curriculum using questions and other suitable tasks, and provide feedback, at least weekly, using digitally facilitated or whole-class feedback where appropriate.”

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 a child’s work is as follows:

• Your child will receive feedback daily in one curriculum subject; this will either be individually or via the whole-class
• Feedback can be provided via a quiz, written comment, voice note, video or other method (as deemed appropriate by the teacher)

Additional support for children 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 children, for example some children 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 children in the following ways:

• Teachers are aware of what children with SEND in their class(es) need for remote learning
• Physical resources (work packs) have been sent home to those that require it. In addition, resources for children to access online 1:1 sessions have been sent.
• The SENDCO, Mrs Harkin or year group Teaching Assistants is/are in contact with all children with SEND (or their parents/carers) at least twice a week to support their learning.
• Support is provided to families who require access to accessibility features on some online resources.

Early Years

Younger children in particular may need support in accessing online materials and staying focused with their remote learning. We ask that you help them as much as you can. For our younger primary-aged children, such as those in Nursery or Reception (Early Phase), we use  Google Classroom for teaching and learning. Learning and development is centered around 7 key areas of learning, which are:

• The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, developme… | Early years foundation stage, Eyfs curriculum, Communication and language eyfs

• Personal, social and emotional development
• Communication and language
• Physical development
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the world
• Expressive arts and design

Children in Nursery participate in a daily Google Meet registration; Reception children participate in twice daily Google Meet registrations.

If you require additional support, please email Miss Bloomfield our EYFS Leader via lbloomfield.310@lgflmail.org

Remote education for self-isolating children

Where individual children 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 children 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?

Online learning will still be available via our online platform Google Classroom. We have tried to ensure our in-school and at home learning approach is seamless, to ensure a smooth transition between the two. This ensures those children at home still receive a planned and well-sequenced curriculum, including providing feedback.

The Welldon Park Academy staff will endeavor to make contact with your child at least once during the time of isolation. This is to follow-up on any scheduled tests, pending test results and/or access to (blended) home learning.