Remote Learning Offer
During these unprecedented times of Covid 19, we need to re-imagine our teaching and learning at SAPA to ensure we offer a ‘blended learning’ offer for our children.
We aim to find a balance that promotes the best experience for children if they need to work from home due to self-isolation or school closure.
Routine and consistency play a vital part in ensuring our children at SAPA continue to learn effectively away from their normal surroundings.
In the event of Lockdown or class 'bubble' closure, we will provide a timetable for EYFS, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two which defines times and our curriculum offer for remote learning. We will make sure key learning sessions are included such as:
Phonics/spellings
Maths Meetings (recall and retrieval of already learnt mathematical concepts)
Mathematics
Writing opportunities
At least 25 minutes of reading each day
How do our children learn at home?
In the event of a partial closure and where a whole class is remote learning, each teacher will ensure that at least one to two sessions per day will be live or recorded. This will mean that children will need to login to Google Classroom to see their teacher introduce a lesson, set assignments and read books virtually, giving learners valuable interaction with both their teacher and class members.
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, Spanish and PE are recorded to be accessed remotely. Our English and Maths follow our normal curriculum and assignments will be set on Google Classroom which are differentiated to cater for the abilities of all of our children. We expect our KS1 children to do at least 3 hours of remote learning at home and for KS2, 4 hours.
Google Classroom
To extend our remote curriculum offer more widely we use Google Classrooms which provides teachers with the interaction with their class either on a whole class or individual level. All of our pupils have logins to access their own Google classroom. Teachers set assignments for pupils catering for all abilities and needs. Google Classroom is an online classroom environment, and as such it offers users the ability to interact through comments. Parent guides can be found below but if a parent/carer has any questions or difficulties they can call the school office for advice:
Tel: 01708 263248 or email: office@sapa-tkat.org
Learning Packs
We recognise that not all families will be able to support their child's remote learning digitally therefore for some children we create Learning Packs which consist of the weekly Learning Plan and all of the paper resources needed to learn from home each week. These are collected from the school office on a Monday morning from 9.30am and we ask they are returned the following Monday when they then collect the next pack. These will be marked by the class teacher as soon as possible (teachers are on a school rota therefore this can depend on their day in school). This will provide feedback for our children who are not accessing digital remote learning.
Engagement and Feedback
Teachers closely monitor the assignments uploaded from Google Classroom each day and respond to individual children through remote feedback. Children can respond to teacher feedback by direct messaging them through their online classroom or by talking to them directly in LIVE sessions such as registration, Maths Meetings or Story time at the end of the day.
School register
On a daily basis, class teachers update our school register to inform the school office which children are accessing the online LIVE registration sessions. If teachers or members of the Senior Leadership Team are concerned whether a child is unable to engage with remote learning for whatever reason, a phone call home will be made to ensure all of our pupils are being able to learn at home and are safe. Advice will be given to parents and carers if remote learning is becoming too difficult and if the school feels a child is vulnerable they will be invited to join the Keyworker/vulnerable group attending school each day.
Reading at home
Reception and Year 1 children can collect phonics based reading books from school and can access Oxford Owl e-library from home. All pupils from Year 2 upwards have access to Accelerated Reader which is our online reading platform and way we monitor children's reading progress through online quizzes and Star tests. Our children are familiar with how it works as we have been using it since September 2020. Please find below a useful user guide for parents to access Accelerated Reader at home.
Children with SEND
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 through regular phone calls, differentiated assignments on Google Classroom and extra resources sent home in Learning Packs. Our SENCo works closely with the pupils, parents and teachers to ensure all of our children receive high quality remote learning. All our children with an EHCP are entitled to a place in the Keyworker group attending school during Lockdown.