Remote Education: Information for Parents and Carers
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils, parents and carers about what to expect from remote education if the school was to close, for example if snow prevented staff being able to come in to school.
The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home?
Kings Hill School will ensure that where pupils are educated remotely, the curriculum will be, as far and appropriately as possible, the same as if they were in school. Our staff have worked hard, and will continue to do so, to plan and adapt lessons to ensure the school curriculum can be accessed whilst learners are out of school.
Your child will receive daily teaching slides for their English and maths lessons. The slides will talk through the learning of that session with modelled examples and time for children to practise. Following the slides, there will be an activity for the children to complete to practise the skills taught in the input. The children can complete these activities on screen and send it back to the class teacher through TEAMs or if it easier for you to take a picture of your child’s work and post it on TEAMs then that is fine.
The lessons for the afternoon sessions will be presentations for your child to work through and will include science, RE, PE, art, music, geography or history, PHSE and computing.
What should my child expect from immediate remote education?
If a whole class is unable to come in to school because of school closure, the teacher prepared presentations will be available from the first day of closure. The presentation will lay out the key knowledge and learning for the lesson and will be followed by an activity for the children to practise their skills.
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 infant pupils broadly 3 hours each day and junior pupils 4 hours each day.
A typical day could look like this:
9.15am-10.15am: Maths slides followed by activity
10.15am-10.45am: Break time/physical activity
10.45am -11.45am: English slides followed by activity
11.45am-12.15pm: Guided reading/reading time/phonics time
12.15pm -1.15pm: Lunchtime/physical activity
1.15pm – 3.00pm: Afternoon presentation which will include a mixture of science, RE, PE, art, music, geography or history , PSHE or computing
Accessing Remote Education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
We are delivering all our remote learning through Microsoft Teams and all children have a username and password. If your child has lost their details, please email their class teacher. If you are experiencing technical difficulties accessing MS Teams then please email support@kings-hill.kent.sch.uk
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 do expect all children to engage fully with their remote learning by working through the teaching slides and completing work to the best of their ability. For the younger children, we recommend that a parent talks through the slides with their child so that they can pause and discuss the questions asked. Older children should be able to access the learning independently.
We do however ask parents to support the remote learning by:
- Ensuring that your child has access to a device to access MS Teams
- Supporting your child to log in to MS Teams and access their work daily
- Ensuring that your child has a suitable work space at home
- Encouraging your child to maintain resilience and good independent work habits and routines
- Ensuring your child to contact their class teacher through Teams if they are concerned about their work or need extra support
- Ensuring your child follows the usual school expectation and that they have read and understood the Acceptable Use Policy for remote learning
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 that all children engage in their remote learning. We monitor the engagement of children daily noting the work which teachers receive from children and engagement in Teams chats with their class teacher. If the closure is on-going and there is a concern that a child is not engaging, then the class teacher will try to contact the child through Teams chat. If there is no response, the class teacher will email the parents to offer support with the remote learning. If there is no response from this, then a member of SLT will telephone the family to offer support to access the remote learning.
How will you assess my child's work and progress?
Feedback can take many forms for children whilst remote learning.
Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:
- Individual feedback to children that have posted work on Teams page or individual Teams chat page with their class teacher
- Self- assess work with answers the teachers post at the end of the day
Additional support for Pupils with Particular Needs
How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support form 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:
- Ensure that staff plan suitable work based on the needs of the learners in the class, as they do in school.
- Use teaching slides to allow pupils to work through a lesson at their own pace and at a suitable time, and enabling teachers to emphasis subject specific vocabulary and key information.
- Resources designed for lessons will be adapted and differentiated where appropriate, as they are in school.
- The Head of Inclusion will ‘check-in’ with pupils with special educational needs to monitor progress and identify any additional support required.
- Parents and Carers are welcome to contact the Head of Inclusion, Mrs L. Andrews at l.andrews@kings-hill.kent.sch.uk
Resources to Support Remote Education
Writing
Maths
Primary Maths Dictionary for Children and Parents
This is an excellent resource which is a guide to the mathematical terms used at primary school and what they mean.
Physical Activity and Wellbeing
Cosmic Yoga: https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga. These are a series of children yoga quests which are excellent for physical activity and relaxation. Our children will be familiar with this as we use this a lot in school!
Joe Wicks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz0go1pTda8 . Joe Wicks has a variety of short workout videos – you can even relive some of the PE with Joe sessions from the first lockdown
Super Movers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers Enhance your wellbeing with catchy songs and easy- to-follow dance routines which help children actively learn.
Kent School Games: https://www.kentschoolgames.com/stayhomestayactive/personal-challenge Kent Sport have produced a bank of guidance and resources to help young people stay active and set personal challenges during school closures
