Skip to content ↓

Remote Education

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and families about what to expect from remote education where national and local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

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

The Remote Curriculum: What is taught to students at home

A student's first day or two of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach, while we take the necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of remote teaching.

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

Initially, remote education will take place with teachers providing work either electronically through Class Dojo or through physical work packs being delivered to your home.

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, practical activities such as PE will be pre-recorded and accessible to use when convenient, rather than as a whole group.

Remote Teaching & Study Time Each Day

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

As with our normal PfA curriculum, work expectations are personalised when 'face-to-face' to accommodate for SEND needs. This is something that will not be altered remotely as personalisation is at the heart of our curriculum delivery. We will continue to provide a remote curriculum offer that is broad and balanced. The remote curriculum offer may consist of a blend of online learning, physical activities and sensory activities depending upon the learning needs of the individual. In addition to core curriculum learning, each teacher will provide one whole class enrichment session per week, if appropriate, for the period of home learning.

The class teacher, supported by the phase leader, will assess the volume of the above offer to be sent home for each child based on the individual child’s needs, capacity for learning and learning stamina. The teaching team will set work expectations within these boundaries while still providing the stretch and challenge to support good student progress.

Daventry Hill School has no desire to put undue pressure on parents by providing overly onerous work demands on their children that may lead to a negative impact on the wellbeing of any incumbent.

Accessing Remote Education

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

Remote education will be provided in a variety of ways. The best platform will be decided based on a number of criteria (the focus of the learning and most effective medium, student preference, feedback from families etc).

The mediums used to deliver are Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Class Dojo and Email. Teaching staff will also provide links to any other online learning tools that we are using, such as CBeebies, Oak Academy or BBC Bitesize.

Teachers will continue to assess work throughout Evidence for Learning platform.

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:

  • Delivery of physical work packs to your home
  • Loans of laptops for those that do not have the technology to access online platforms, if possible

*If families need access to technology (including Internet access), please contact your class teacher to discuss your situation.*

We will issue technology using a priority system. Priority cases will be:

  • Those that have NO access to technology at home
  • Students in exam/accreditation year groups
  • Those who are receiving 1:1 pastoral intervention and not being able to access it will be detrimental to their wellbeing.
  • Those who have limited access to technology due to siblings also accessing remote learning

Completed work can be submitted to the class teacher through a variety of agreed methods. These may include:

  • Microsoft Teams
  • Class Dojo
  • Email
How will my child be taught remotely?

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

This will include

  • Live teaching (online lessons)
  • Recorded teaching (e.g. audio recordings made by teachers, Oak National Academy lessons, video etc).
  • Printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
  • Textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
  • Commercially available websites, supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
  • PfA activities to complete at home include life skills such as cooking, washing, hoovering, self-care
  • Pre-recorded fitness activities
  • Group sessions online for pupils to interact with each other
  • Learning outside the classroom activities
  • Specific activities to meet individual pupil needs, ie TACPAC, sensory programmes, physiotherapy

Engagement & Feedback

What are your expectations for my child's engagement and the support that we can/should provide at home?

We expect students to engage in remote education, live sessions where possible and to access pre-recorded sessions if not. We recognise that some parents may be homeschooling more than one child and may not have access to technology for all of their children at the same time, so pre-recording enables students to access lessons at a time that is convenient for the parent.

For some of our students, live or pre-recorded sessions are not appropriate, so resources will be sent home for them to work on. Teachers will check in with pupils at least at a pre-agreed frequency to monitor completion of work and activities.

Parents will be asked to submit work via one of the methods outlined above. Teachers will support parents to set up regular routines and access learning.

How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work, and how will I be informed of any concerns?

Teachers take a register of attendance and engagement for any scheduled live sessions and contact parents if there are any absences. They also check in with parents at least weekly to monitor levels of engagement and support if there are any difficulties.

Where engagement is a concern, teachers will initially talk to parents to identify any barriers to learning. If the child or parent is struggling at home, the teacher will initially offer practical solutions, such as providing schedules, incentives or adaptions to learning.

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. Our approach to feedback on student work is as follows:

  • For live lessons, feedback will be similar to that received in class, such as live marking, positive feedback, peer-to-peer communication and student’s verbal responses.
  • Packs sent home will be collected weekly, assessed and new resources sent out. Families have been asked to record how much support was in place for their child when work was completed.
  • Families are also asked to post photos via Class Dojo to evidence what curriculum activities their children have been completing at home.

Teachers then use all this information to assess understanding and record on the Evidence for Learning school assessment platform.

Additional Support to Meet Particular SEND Needs

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

We recognise that some students, due to their SEND needs or developmental stage, 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 our students.

Daventry Hill School will provide a remote education system that will meet the identified needs in the EHC Plans as far as is reasonably practicable. This may include:

Sensory — TACPAC bags are sent home with access to music with instructions. Staff members will record sensology sessions that parents can then use in the home; we will send sensory profile packs home where appropriate to support them.

SALT — our SALT Assistant and class staff will deliver support sessions through Zoom. The school will also be providing virtual training to parents, so they can continue with the SALT package.

Physiotherapy — our physical therapy assistant will offer virtual training to parents to allow programmes to be completed in the home.

Social and Emotional — our pastoral team will provide activities, based on Boxall profiles that can be completed at home

Remote Education for Self-Isolating Students

Where individual pupils 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 pupils 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?

If a child is not attending due to self-isolation, work will be provided in the same way as above, as is reasonably practical. Students will be able to link in remotely to lessons if practically possible, as well as pre-recorded sessions being available. Packs of work will be also be sent out to the home which mirrors the work being completed in school. Feedback will be given during live lessons and after work is received in school either verbally or via Class Dojo.