Blended / Home learning

Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to learners and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if local/national restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home. In the event of a local outbreak, the PHE health protection team or local authority may advise a school to fully or partially close temporarily to help control transmission. 

Calthorpe Academy has an established contingency plan for this eventuality. This may involve a return to remaining open only for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers and providing remote education for all other learners, or it may involve remote education for certain year groups for a period of time. 

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

The remote curriculum: what is taught to learners at home

A learner’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.

At Calthorpe Academy, our ultimate aim is to try and follow the intended curriculum for learners working from home. This will be complemented by tasks that promote their physical and wellbeing. Our strategy is to provide personal learning packs and where applicable this will be supported by online face to face sessions or pre-recorded sessions.
Our remote education offer ensures that learners continue to engage in learning, including skill maintenance and developing home and community-based skills. Where applicable, these learning opportunities will require adult support.

The class teacher or their line manager will make contact to support families in implementing the tasks set. We will work with parents and carers to agree an ambitious yet pragmatic approach to supporting children and young people with complex needs to access appropriate remote learning and support, where they are not able to be in school.

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

All learners will have access to work from the day after being sent home whether in the case of individual bubbles isolating or a wider lockdown situation.

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 broadly aim to teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, in PE lessons, learners may be set a series of challenges to develop their personal fitness and for art, this will be linked to our enrichment curriculum and focus on promoting learners wellbeing.

Therefore, learning from home will focus on developing learners’ knowledge, skills and mental wealth and tasks will be set within the following areas:

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

Learning at home will broadly follow the number of hours each day: 

• EYFS: 2-3 hours a day
• Key Stage 1: 3 hours a day
• Key Stage 2: 4 hours a day
• Key Stage 3 & 4: 5 hours a day
• Key Stage 5: 5 hours a day

 These hours include skills maintenance, home and community-based learning and tasks linked to promoting learners physical and mental wellbeing.

Accessing remote education 

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

Remote learning tasks and accompanying resources will be provided by the school. The class teacher or their line manager will make contact with families/the learner on a regular basis over a telephone call or via Microsoft Teams. This contact will provide clear explanations and support with the implementation of learning tasks and ascertain feedback in order to plan for the next steps in learning.  Where utilised, learners will be provided individual logins to access online platforms such as Mathletics and Headsprout.

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

• All paper-based tasks are printed and posted to learners. On some occasions, these packs are sent electronically
• We will provide a device for any family who does not have a device, with priority going to disadvantaged learners. Wherever possible we aim to provide one device per child
• For learners, without internet access, we will support them using the DfE schemes to receive additional mobile internet access or wireless internet

How will my child be taught remotely?

We utilise the following approaches to teach learners remotely. Approaches are personalised to reflect individual need: 

Some examples of remote teaching approaches include:

• printed paper resources produced by teachers
• textbooks and reading books that are provided by the school
• live teaching (online lessons)
• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences

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 expect parents/carers to support their child to engage with daily activities as much as possible.
• In addition to school-based contacts, we encourage parents/carers to contact the school and ask for a call back from either their class teacher or line manager, if they require further advice and guidance or want more work for their children

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

• Evidence of completion of work sent via the following email addresses (see below) or in-person when the learner returns to school
• Feedback to be provided via https://bit.ly/3kik7Hh
• Your class teacher will also assess progress and provide feedback via regular telephone calls or contact made via Microsoft Teams
• Instant feedback will be provided during face to face interactions

Remote education for self – isolating

Where individual learners 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 learners 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?

Learners who are self-isolating will access all work via paper-based content. They will receive feedback on the work completed. Attempts to include live elements/interaction will be made where possible.

Remote Learning Policy

Remote Learning and Safeguarding Annexe