Remote Education Provision

St Mary’s RC Primary School aims to continue to provide an ambitious and broad curriculum in all subjects. Our overarching aims are to keep our core purpose of teaching and learning continuing as effectively as possible, and to maintain a connection between staff, pupils and their families. We have extensive plans for the provision of remote education where needed and to ensure that when children need to be educated at home, for example, due to shielding, self-isolation or if a national lockdown is implemented, that they are given the support they need to continue learning.

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

Please click on the pdf below to read our Remote Learning Policy

Add PDF

Why do we have an online remote learning tool?

On 1st October 2020 the Department for Education (DfE) published a directive under the Coronavirus Act 2020, which states that all state-funded school age children must be provided “immediate access to remote education”. The DfE made clear within the Directive that “schools have a legal duty to provide remote education for state-funded, school-age children unable to attend school due to coronavirus (Covid-19)”. This direction comes into force on 22nd October 2020 and will have effect “until the end of the current school year, unless it is revoked by a further direction”.

Remote learning expectations

Where a class, group or a small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or local restrictions require pupils to remain at home, we have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. We have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision and this can be seen in the ‘Remote teaching and study time each day’ section. This planning is particularly important to support a scenario in which the logistical challenges of remote provision are greatest, for example where large numbers of pupils are required to remain at home.

In developing these contingency plans, we will:

Use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos and that is linked to the school’s curriculum expectations.
Give access to high quality remote education resources
Use Tapestry (exclusively in Early Years) and Google Classroom consistently across school to allow interaction, assessment and feedback.
Provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, stationary and all digital platform passwords. These resources will be given to every child in school and are to be stored safely at home in preparation for any periods of enforced school closure or self-isolation.
Recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support. We will work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum for all pupils.

When teaching pupils remotely, we will:

Set learning so pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
Teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built upon, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject.
Provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by the class teacher in school and provide high-quality curriculum resources and videos from our specialist teachers.
Adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding.
Plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, including daily contact with teachers.

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

On the first day of remote education, troubleshooting will take place to ensure all families have access to Google Classroom and all other digital platforms used by the school (Purple Mash, Spelling Shed, Maths Shed, myON, Big Cat Phonics, Tapestry, Lexia).

A live Google Meet will be scheduled for the end of the first day (2:45pm) to ensure access is available for all. This will enable us to schedule and explain in detail the full timetable of lessons, beginning from day 2.

Support and guidance will be given to our families, and any families having difficulties accessing the online platforms will be supported by the Computing Lead to ensure access is available. Some pupils with Special Educational Needs or those working significantly below age-related expectations may receive additional printed learning materials, tailored to their individual targets.

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 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:

Planned lessons which require specialist equipment and/or materials (i.e. in Science, Music or Design and Technology) may be adapted to suit learners’ at-home accessibility to such resources.
English may be based on short extracts or stories rather than a longer novel or book.
PE via online resources which will focus on keeping fit and active rather than for teaching specific skills.

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

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

Accessing Remote Education

Children will access resources through Google Classroom, Purple Mash, Spelling Shed, Maths Shed, Oxford Owl, Big Cat Phonics, myON, Accelerated Reader and Lexia (they all have individual log in details, which have been shared with parents/carers, to access remotely and in school). No work will be uploaded to the school website.

Google Classroom will be used to deliver live lessons. Again, pupils have their own unique log in details. The Computing Lead will be available to support with any tech issues should they arise. Class teachers can be contacted via the school email or the Google Classroom private message function for any teaching or pastoral support.

There will also be additional links to DfE approved resources, video clips etc.

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:

Pupils who do not have a suitable electronic device will have a device allocated to them to ensure they can access remote learning – a device loan agreement must be signed in this instance. Pupils who have no internet access will be given a paper home learning paper pack until Wi-Fi devices/additional mobile data can be sourced and allocated.
Parents who require printed materials for their child (because they have no internet connection or a suitable device at the time) should contact their child’s class teacher via telephone. This will only be in circumstances where pupils are unable to access online resources. When collecting their pack, they should return the previous pack to school. This will be quarantined for 72 hours before teaching staff can mark and assess. Feedback will be given via telephone where appropriate.

For any further information about remote learning, please contact Mr Miller (Headteacher) or Mrs Ross (Deputy Headteacher). For any queries relating to Goggle Classroom please contact Mrs Roe (Computing Lead).

Please click on the pdf below for a copy of the ‘device loan agreement for pupils’.

Device Loan Agreement For Pupils

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Live teaching on Google Classroom (online lessons)
Recorded teaching (video/audio recordings made by teachers)
Recorded teaching by DfE approved providers e.g. Oak National Academy lessons
In exceptional circumstances printed paper materials will be produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences, for example, WhiteRose Maths
Long-term project work and/or internet research activities

Pupils will use their personalised G-Suite account to complete class work, communicate with their teachers and learn 21st century digital citizenship skills. This account can be accessed by any device you and your child have available for use, be it a laptop, tablet or desktop PC. Their account still remains a school-controlled account, it just means that you have ultimate flexibility in choosing the device that best suits your family circumstances to remotely access the online account. Parents and children should never share the G-Suite account password with another individual, this is explained with other precautions to children when modelling our online safety expectations in e-safety lessons and to parents via our school newsletters to ensure the security of the account and that pupil’s data is handled with the upmost care.

We would like to inform parents/carers that Google Classroom will show the names of the other children in your child’s class when they login. The ICO has said that this is a reasonable and proportionate way for children to access the resources during this current time.

Google’s Privacy Policy for G-Suite can be found here

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

Engagement and Feedback

We expect all pupils to engage in remote learning. In school, we are providing all pupils access to live lessons and online learning.

We expect parents/carers to work in partnership with the school. At home, we expect them to ensure children are ready and able to access learning, set routines, hold high expectations in the quality and quantity of pupils’ work, and to maintain communication with school staff on a regular basis.

We expect the agreed Remote Learning Code of Conduct to be adhered to at all times.

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

It is important the children engage with the remote learning activities to continue their education during periods of self-isolation. However, we do acknowledge that each family’s home circumstances are unique and there may be factors that affect engagement with home learning. These may include parents working from home or limited access to technology among other factors. Communication is essential and we ask that if parents are finding things difficult to get in touch with their child’s class teacher so we can support and put measures in place. Below is how we will ensure your child is engaging with their work:

A register is taken twice daily, mirroring a normal school day. An overview of the morning/ afternoon is briefly discussed and explained here.
School staff will check pupils’ engagement daily and will contact families for any non-attendance. Then, follow up calls will be made to families. Welfare calls are made via telephone after 2 days of non-contact on Google Classroom. If no contact can be established via telephone, a member of the Senior Leadership Team will make a home welfare visit. We have deemed that 2 days is the absolute longest period of time we will accept without contact.
Pupils who are working with printed materials will be contacted throughout the week to check how children are managing and if any support is required.
Teaching assistants assigned to individuals or small groups of pupils will be available for families to offer support and guidance where needed.
If pupils/families have any trouble accessing the resources/require any additional support or guidance, they can contact the school email or Google Classroom private message function to request assistance.
Teachers are online all day, from 8:55am – 4:00pm, break times excepted, to provide further assistance and feedback for children and parents, thus ensuring maximum engagement with the remote learning timetable.

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. St Mary’s utilises a strategic minimal marking policy. Our aim is to make use of the good practice approaches outlined by the EEF toolkit to ensure that children are provided with timely and purposeful feedback that furthers their learning, and that teachers are able to gather feedback and assessments that enable to adjust their teaching both within and across a sequence of lessons. Our approach is applied across all subjects and in every year group. 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 pupil work is as follows:

Verbal feedback from teachers throughout live lessons
Work set on Google Classroom will be marked/have feedback given electronically
Feedback will be communicated with pupils and families through Tapestry, Google Classroom or via telephone

Pupils who access online learning will receive daily feedback. Pupils who have printed learning materials will receive weekly feedback.

How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

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. In partnership with the Miss Hughes (Inclusion Manager & SENDco), we will identify individual pathways for all pupils with SEND. 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:

Pupils may be given paper materials which are designed specifically for their individual targets and needs.
Pupils may access other year group materials to support with their learning and development.
Work may be adapted/additional support given in whole class live teaching where appropriate.
Pupils with SEND will be given access to small group and 1:1 intervention where appropriate.
Oak National Academy specialist content for pupils with SEND covers communication and language, numeracy, creative arts, independent living, occupational, physical and speech and language therapy.
On-going interventions from external providers e.g. Speech or Occupational Therapy plans should have already been shared with home by those therapists and this work can continue at home.

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 may differ from the approach for whole groups.

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

The main difference in this instance is that pupils would not access live teaching, only the resources and activities.

Where possible, PowerPoints, worksheets and teacher planning notes from lessons delivered in school will be made available with relevant follow up tasks.
Where possible, children will be directed to DfE approved programmes e.g. Oak Academy which are in line with the curriculum being taught in school
Parents can contact the class teacher via email or the Google Classroom private message function as required, however please understand that the class teacher will have a full, in class teaching commitment

Pupils isolating should access their year group’s learning though our virtual school platform: Google Classroom. This is the curriculum that would be taught in school to all pupils. For pupils who require specialist provision, arrangements will be agreed in consultation with parents/carers, class teacher and SENDco.

Google Data Protection FAQs

The information below from Google provides answers to common questions about what they can and can’t do with your child’s personal information.

G Suite for Education information for Parents and Guardians

This notice describes the personal information we provide to Google for these accounts and how Google collects, uses, and discloses personal information from pupils in connection with these accounts. Using their G Suite for Education accounts, pupils may access and use the following “Core Services” offered by Google (described at https://gsuite.google.com/terms/user_features.html):

Google provides information about the information it collects, as well as how it uses and discloses the information it collects from G-Suite for Education accounts in its G Suite for Education Privacy Notice. You can read that notice online at https://gsuite.google.com/terms/education_privacy.html You should review this information in its entirety, but below are answers to some common questions.

What personal information does Google collect?

When creating a pupil account, we provide Google with certain personal information about our pupils, including, for example, a name, email address and password. Google may also collect a profile photo added to the G Suite for Education account, although we are clear in advising pupils and their parents that a personal image of themselves should not be used for their profile and that we will actively remove these images if found. This is in line with the school policy of names and photos of pupils not appearing in the same location.

When a pupil uses Google services, Google also collects information based on the use of those services. This includes:

device information, such as the hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number;
log information, including details of how a user used Google services, device event information, and the user's Internet protocol (IP) address;
location information, as determined by various technologies including IP address, GPS, and other sensors;
unique application numbers, such as application version number; and
cookies or similar technologies which are used to collect and store information about a browser or device, such as preferred language and other settings

How does Google use this information?

Does Google use pupil personal information for users in primary schools to target advertising?

Can my child share information with others using the G Suite for Education account?

Will Google disclose my child’s personal information?

Google will not share personal information with companies, organisations and individuals outside of Google unless one of the following circumstances applies:

With parental or guardian consent. Google will share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside of Google when it has parents’ consent which may be obtained through G Suite for Education schools. We would contact parents directly if Google ask for any examples of children's work etc.
With your child’s St Mary’s RC Primary School G Suite for Education accounts, because they are school-managed accounts, give administrators access to information stored in them.
For external processing. Google may provide personal information to affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons in order to outsource processes for Google, these are based on Google’s instructions, for the services you are already subscribed to and in compliance with the G Suite for Education privacy notice and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
For legal reasons. Google will share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside of Google if it has a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:
meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations.
detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.
protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, Google users or the public as required or permitted by law.

Google also shares non-personal information - such as trends about the use of its services - publicly and with its partners.

What oversight do I have as a parent or guardian?

You and your child can visit https://myaccount.google.com while signed in to the G Suite for Education account to view and manage the personal information and settings of the account.

However, you can object to the continued processing of your child’s data i.e. their name and class as well as any school work they complete online by Google. If you wish to do this we ask that the parent/s contact their school office, providing their reasons for their objection. Objections should be based upon the child’s particular situation which the school (with the support of our Data Protection Officer) will assess to establish if there are compelling legal grounds to stop the processing i.e. delete your child’s G-Suite account, which override the interests, rights and freedoms of your child to receive an education.

You can contact your school office as follows:

blackhillstmary@durhamlearning.net

We must though make it absolutely clear that we would never use an online platform that we were not confident was able to process your child’s data securely and safely. Our utmost priority is the education and welfare of your child to enable them to thrive.

We have not taken the decision to proceed with G-Suite lightly and we would ask parents to carefully and thoroughly examine their reasons for refusing the processing of their child’s data.

Removing a child’s G-Suite account will have a considerable detrimental impact on your child’s learning both in class and remotely if the bubble they are within needs to self-isolate for 14 days. They will not be able to complete any online tasks set, join any whole class activities or communicate securely with their class teacher to obtain feedback and support on the work completed. This may also affect your child’s educational experience going forward. As part of this ever-evolving digital world, we will be embracing online learning platforms in order to provide a dynamic education experience which can be accessed from anywhere.

What if I have more questions or would like to read further?

If you have questions about our use of Google’s G Suite for Education accounts or the choices available to you, please contact your school office so that your child’s class teacher can discuss with you how G-Suite will be used with the class and allay any concerns you may have.

If you want to learn more about how Google collects, uses, and discloses personal information to provide services to us, please review the G Suite for Education Privacy Center, the G Suite for Education Privacy Notice, and the Google Privacy Policy.

Downloads

You can download the information on this page by clicking the links below:

Adobe Reader
You may need a product like Adobe Reader (free download) to view our PDF documents on our website.