de Vere Primary School

Will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

Yes - We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. These are the learning objectives already planned for each year group as part of our usual curriculum. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, we may need to alter the focus in practical subjects due to the equipment and materials required.

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. This includes the lessons set by the teachers daily and the daily practice expected in reading, Spelling Shed and Times Table Rockstars.

Accessing remote education

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

If your child is in Reception log in to Tapestry at tapestryjournal.com

If your child is in year 1-6 a ping will be sent with the links to all the information you need.  You will also need to access DB Primary. The link for this is at the bottom right of our school website home page.

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:

• We have been allocated a small number of laptops and these are lent to families following discussions with families.
• If devices are loaned from the school, parents complete a loan agreement and adhere to this whilst the device is on loan.
• Parents are supported with accessing increased data if necessary. If parents have any difficulties, then please call the office and we can sign post to appropriate support. 
• Paper work packs are provided for some families and these can be returned weekly for feedback.

How will my child be taught if absent and waiting for a PCR test?

If children are absent from school due to the requirement for a PCR test to be taken, then the child’s class teacher will provide the following according to age. If the child is well, this is expected to be completed so that your child is able to keep up with the lessons in school.

Reception- Phonics, maths and theme-based challenges set on Tapestry.

Years Key stage 1 and 2- A school Ping will be sent providing  explanations and links to 2 days of learning aligned to the work the class are completing in school for English, maths, spelling, and a foundation lesson

How will my child be taught remotely if a significant percentage of the class is isolating or the class is closed?

Should an outbreak occur and Public Health England advise to close the class or school, we use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

Some examples of our remote teaching approaches:

• Reception children have daily practice activities and a weekly menu of theme-based activities to select from which match the theme being taught in class. Videos uploaded by the teachers support specific teaching points e.g. phonics
• Year 1 – 6 children have 4 lessons per day, 1 x English, 1 x maths and 2 x topic. These are taught in a variety of ways as described below.
• 2 live lessons teaching (e.g. video/audio recordings made by teachers, Oak National Academy lessons, White Rose maths videos)
• Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
• Worksheets and written activities uploaded to be completed at home and then uploaded on to DB primary
• Printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
• A phone-call from members of the school team to support any individual issues if required.

Engagement and feedback

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

• We hope that pupils will engage with each day’s work and upload their work to DB primary in their work folder or complete the paper work pack
• We hope that parents will support their children by helping them navigate to the work, complete the work and upload the work, if necessary.
• We hope that parents will establish routines for the day, if possible.
• We know that remote learning can be really challenging for parents who are working from home and/or caring for other children. Please support your child to complete as much as possible in your circumstance.

If at any time during remote learning parents/carers need support or have any questions about learning from home, we ask that they contact the class teacher in the first instance for further support. This can be done by emailing or phoning the school office.

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

• Teachers and LSAs will check Tapestry or DB Primary daily to monitor each child’s engagement with the work set
• If we observe that children have not engaged with their remote learning, we will make contact with the families, to see if there other ways in which we as a school can support, whether with further resources or advice/ideas.

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

Feedback can take many forms and our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

• When giving feedback face to face to children within the classroom we use a variety of methods.  In a similar way, this will take many forms, while learning remotely. Feedback may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children.
• When learning remotely, we will use a variety of feedback methods.  These may include teachers making comments on a child’s piece of work via our DB Primary or Tapestry platforms and the comments facility.   Teachers may upload answers to for example, maths work so that children can self-mark at home.
• When giving feedback, we may not comment on every single piece of work but on those where teachers can support children in the next steps and/or feel additional encouragement is needed.

Additional support for pupils with particular needs

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:

• For those parents with children who have additional needs, we will work together to support you in giving ideas and activities that you can use to support your child’s learning at home.  Regular phone calls will be made to all parents of pupils on the SEND register to offer support
• Some pupils with SEND will be provided with individualised work packs