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?
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Remote learning work is listed on the school’s website: https://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/remote-learning/ Your child can access this work immediately on the day they have been sent home, they need to click on their year group, select the subject, and then select the current week. We recommend they follow their usual school timetable of subjects. If a whole year group or the whole school are learning remotely, live online lessons will be delivered via Google Classroom (during usual lesson times), beginning on the first full day pupils are learning remotely at home. Lessons will be delivered by your child’s usual class teacher and will include a mix of live online taught lessons, and lessons where the teacher is available to support with work that pupils have been directed to complete independently. If your child is learning remotely due to full or partial school closure and is ill or unable to access a live online lesson, they can access the supplementary work on our school website which is aligned with the curriculum and timetable. They need to click on their year group, select the subject, and then select the current week.
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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?
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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.
All other subjects follow the curriculum which was planned to be delivered in school.
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Remote Teaching and Study Time 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 | Number of Teaching Hours |
| Key Stage 3 and 4 (Years 7-11) | 6 |
| Key Stage 5 (Years 12 and 13) | 6 |
Accessing Remote Education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
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All live online lessons and instructions for work to be completed are accessed via Google Classroom: https://classroom.google.com/ At the start of every lesson, following their usual in-school timetable, pupils need to:
If pupils can’t find the class for a subject, they can join it by clicking ‘join class’ in the top right, and adding the code listed on our Remote Learning webpage: http://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/remote-learning/ (codes can be accessed by clicking on their year group, selecting the subject, and going to the current week). Other platforms we use are:Satchel: One Some subjects require work to be submitted via Satchel: One, including Maths. MyGCSE Science https://www.my-gcsescience.com/login/ All year 9, 10 and 11 pupils complete some of their science work on MyGCSE Science. Mathswatch https://vle.mathswatch.co.uk/vle All pupils complete some of their maths work using Mathswatch. If your child requires a login for any platform, please send a message via the MyEd app, or email info@southmoormat.co.uk and mark if FAO: Year 7: Miss McFaul Year 8: Miss Lowes Year 9: Miss Dunn Year 10: Mrs Ratcliffe Year 11: Miss Machowiecka
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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:
Laptops and TabletsThe Department for Education (DfE) is providing laptops and tablets to schools to help children and families access remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19). They are also helping disadvantaged children who need an internet connection to get internet access. For more information about who can get laptops and tablets, and how device allocations have been decided, see this document https://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Laptops.pdf Parents, carers, and pupils cannot apply for digital devices or internet access through this scheme themselves. Please contact your child’s Year Leader or Remote Learning Co-ordinator via the MyEd app or by emailing info@southmoormat.co.uk if you require support with technology to access remote learning. Year Leaders:Year 7 – Mr Charlton Year 8 – Mrs Roddam Year 9 – Mr Smith Year 10 – Miss Morrison Year 11 – Miss Cain (Acting) Remote Learning Co-ordinatorsYear 7 – Miss McFaul Year 8 – Miss Lowes Year 9 – Miss Dunn Year 10 – Mrs Ratcliff Year 11 – Miss Machowiecka Your child’s Year Leader can also liaise with teachers to provide paper-based work in the interim, which can then be submitted to teachers by posting to the school or by handing in at the main reception once per week.
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How will my child be taught remotely?
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
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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?
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How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
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Teachers keep a record of attendance to all live lessons, and monitor the work submitted online. Google classroom keeps an automated record of when pupils access the online classrooms and attend a live online lesson. If pupils are not engaging with remote education, teachers will communicate this to you weekly, via the MyEd app or a text message. If pupils still fail to engage with remote learning after this, Year Leaders will phone home to speak to you to see how we can support your child with their 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. 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:
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Feedback will vary depending on the subject, as teachers will always use the most appropriate method of feedback for their subject. Pupils will receive some form of feedback from their teacher weekly, which will be either:
In addition to this, many teachers set quizzes which are automatically marked, which give pupils instant feedback. This may be via Google Classroom or other online platforms such as Mathswatch or MyGCSE Science. Live online lessons are taught interactively, so pupils will also receive verbal feedback on any contributions they make in the chat during live online lessons.
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Additional Support for Pupils with Additional 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:
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All students are supported to reach their full potential. All SEND pupils have been offered laptops, and paper-based work is available if required (contact your child’s Year Leader to request this). Teachers are continuing to deliver quality first teaching to support and challenge all students. In order to support SEND children further in their live online lessons, teachers are: Ensuring captions are switched on, so that what the teacher says is written as a caption on the screen; carefully selecting work, to ensure reading ages are appropriate; giving clear instructions and repeating them. Some lessons will have a video recording, or a pre-recorded lesson available after the lesson, so pupils can go back and watch again if needed. We appreciate that additional support may be needed, and so members of the learning support team will contact home via phone call at least once, and often twice per week, to ensure that students and carers are supported at home and to see if there is anything else we can do to support your child with accessing remote education. All SEND, LAC and EHCP have been offered 1:1 tuition in English and Maths – one 30 min session per week per subject. We offer detailed information on our website for any pupil who needs mental health support: https://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/mental-health-advice-support/
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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?
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Teachers will be teaching pupils remaining in school, so those who are self-isolating will not be able to attend live online lessons. The Remote Learning work to be completed each lesson can be found on the school’s website: https://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/remote-learning/ Your child should click on their year group, select the subject, and then select the current week. We recommend that pupils follow their usual school timetable of subjects. Work can be submitted via Google Classroom or Satchel: One. All remote learning work matches the curriculum that is followed in school, apart from a few changes to a minority of subjects for some year groups (detail given on page 2).
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