Remote education provision: information for parents 

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

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

• The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

A pupil’s first day or two of being educated remotely might look different from our standard approach, while we take all 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 pupils being sent home?

Resources to be used by pupils will be placed in google classroom and show my homework, lessons can also take place using google meet. Different departments may also make use of various online activities such as senica, hegarty maths etc

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, (please give examples of the kinds of changes you make to the planned curriculum when teaching remotely)

• 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 pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:

Key Stage 3, 4 and 5

Students should follow their normal timetable which will be full for Years 7 to 11 and will be representative of their normal timetable for Year 12 and 13.The learning will be a mixture of live lessons and the completion of independent study and completion of meaningful tasks.

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

SFX quill make use of the following:Google Online Education suiteGoogle ClassroomGoogle Meet (Live Lessons)Google Docs/Sheets/Slides/TasksSenecaHegarty MathsShow My HomeworkKahoot

• 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:

SFX has been provided with chromebooks that can be made available to students who have no computers use at home – please contact your child’s head of year in relation to thisPaper copies of work can be arranged by contacting the school’s reception and can be collected and work returned by hand

• How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Some examples of remote teaching approaches:live teaching (online lessons) – 50% of the students timetables may take this formatrecorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets) – upon demandtextbooks and reading books pupils have at homecommercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences

• 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?

It is expected that students will follow their timetable that has been sent home, they will need to check their google classrooms for each subject as per their timetable (this will indicate if the lesson is ‘live’ or resource and task based.Students should be up, dressed and ready to work and should not be engaging with live lessons whilst lying in bed for example.Parents will support, when possible, their child’s learning and can contact subject teachers if they have any questions (email is best for this)

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

Students will be expected to engage with all work and if this appears not to be the case parents will be contacted.Live lessons will have a register takenWork set for resource and task learning will have submission dates and if these are missed, again, parents will be contacted

• 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. 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:

Students’ work will be submitted and, when appropriate, teaching staff will offer feedback. This can take a variety of formats including:Verbal feedback during live lessonWritten feedback through comments or feedback in google classroomAutomatic points through online quizzes etcPast papers/assessments marked and feedback given including, at times, question level analysis

• Additional support for pupils with particular 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 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:

Regular home/school contactStudents can also attend school if they are classified as Key Workers and or vulnerable SENDCO is contactable by email

• 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 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? 

Students who are self isolating will be given the same opportunities as described throughout this document with the exception of live lessons as if their teacher is in school teaching the normal timetabled lessons allocated to them they can not live stream also so the main engagement method will be thorough google classroom.