During a period of school closure staff, at Houghton Conquest Lower School, are committed to providing education and support to our children using remote learning.
All learning will be conducted using Google Classroom. This will allow staff to keep in daily contact in a professional and confidential manner with their class.
We realise that the circumstances that cause our school to close will affect families in a number of ways. In our planning and expectations, we are aware of the need for flexibility from all sides:
Should remote learning need to be set for a class, the work for the day in Literacy, Maths and other subjects will be posted on Google Classrooms each morning of closure.
Each day, children will log on and find their activities for the day. Information will contain:
Teachers may use written explanations, pre-recorded videos and video clips to help children understand what it is they have to do. They may also post links to video lessons to follow. Although teachers may not be undertaking live lessons, there will be opportunities for them to interact live with their class through class meets, PSHE lessons and story times, etc; links for these will be posted accordingly.
Most activities can be completed online and teachers will be able to see the work via Google Classroom. Sometimes a task might ask pupils to carry out an experiment or practical task e.g. growing seeds, organising tins and packets according to weight, or drawing or making a model. These tasks can be photographed and uploaded onto Google Classroom for the teacher to see. Teachers will post questions in the session boxes for your child to interact with; this will help us know if your child has engaged with their learning.
In Foundation the majority of learning takes place through play.
For our pre-school children they will be set activities by their key worker that match their individual needs.
The expectation of lessons will be:
Content for Maths – The Power Maths scheme is followed across school and resources will be posted that link to the same sequence of lessons being used in school. Pre-recorded teaching videos will be used to support the lesson content. In the event of a partial or full closure, or a child self-isolating, the teacher will inform parents which lessons the class are working on in school so that the home learning videos and resources can be used.
Content for Phonics – Teachers will upload links to activities, pre-recorded videos and resources based on whichever spelling patterns and sounds are being studied.
Content for Literacy – In the event of a full or partial closure, teachers will provide guidance about the Literacy focus for each day. This will include details about shared reading activities, GPS (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling) and writing. Teachers will post a daily pre-recorded teaching video to support the children’s learning.
Please see our Remote Learning Plan listed above, for a suggested timetable for your child’s age group.
Government guidance on the amount of remote education provided is as follows (minimum of):
Ideally work should be submitted daily when it is completed as teachers will be able to respond to this in a more timely manner and offer support should it be necessary. However, we understand that with home pressures, this may not always be possible.
Please make sure that your child only sends completed work. To help inform our teachers as to whether your child is engaging, please respond to the questions that are posted, within the children’s classwork, on Google Classroom.
It is important that children engage with the remote education provided so that they don’t fall behind with their learning; 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 amongst other things.
Communication is essential and we would ask that if there are circumstances that mean a child cannot engage at least partially with the remote education that their parent speaks to the teacher.
Teachers will be able to monitor children’s engagement in activities and their understanding. They will be able to determine whether a child is engaging sufficiently, (e.g. Are they logging on every day? Are they viewing the files teachers upload?) Is the work submitted completed to the best of that child’s ability and uploaded on time? If we have concerns about levels of engagement, then we will make contact with parents so that we can work together to find a means of providing remote education that enables quality learning to take place.
Passwords have been shared, if you are having difficulty in accessing the platform please contact your class teacher.
Every effort will be made by staff to ensure that work is set promptly on appropriate platforms but school cannot guarantee that the chosen platforms will work on all devices. Should accessing work be an issue, parents should contact school promptly and alternative solutions will be made available (e.g. paper copies of work, loan of iPads etc.). These will be discussed on case-by-case basis.
The Government have provided guidance for parents to help support children’s remote education during coronavirus
Houghton Conquest Remote Learning Guidance
Remote Education Learning Plan – Full Closure