Remote Learning
Since the Coronavirus Covid-19 global pandemic, education has had to adapt to keep pupils safe. This means all schools are required to provide remote education enabling pupils to continue to learn from home in the event they are not able to attend the school site. At Lime Academy Forest Approach we will provide remote learning which reflects our pupils’ characteristics, is high-quality, and aligns as closely as possible with in-school provision.
When pupils are absent from school, this might be due to a pupil, class, group, or a small number of pupils needing to self-isolate, or if there is a local or national lockdown requiring all pupils to remain at home, parents/carers will be expected to support their children accessing remote education provision provided by the school, to prevent the loss of learning time. If you need any help in supporting your child to access remote learning, please contact your child’s Class Teacher or the Family Support Team.
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
Pupils will access their remote learning via Google Classrooms or Evidence for Learning. Parents/carers will be guided by their child’s class teacher.
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.
If your child does not have a laptop or cannot access a laptop (or another suitable device) connected to the internet at home the school will endeavour to issue a school device for use at home. Please contact your child’s class teacher in the first instance to alert them.
If for any reason electronic remote learning is not appropriate for your family, please contact your child’s class teacher who will endeavour to provide alternative resources.
What will my child be taught at home?
A student’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.
We aim to teach broadly the same curriculum remotely for most pupils as we do in school, wherever possible and appropriate. However, some adaptations may be necessary in some subjects, for example, PE lessons are replaced by pre-recorded workouts suitable for home. Other lessons may be adapted to require only household items that are easily available such as art, sensory stories, etc.
How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?
We expect that remote education, including both remote teaching and independent work, will generally require students to engage for the following number of hours each day: primary school-aged pupils should spend between 2 to 3 hours; secondary school-aged students and sixth form pupils not working towards formal qualifications are expected to engage for approximately 3 hours; and secondary school-aged students working towards formal qualifications should spend between 3 to 5 hours daily. We understand that each student may engage differently, and these learning hours include completing tasks set by teachers—not only written assignments, but also practical activities such as science experiments and messy play exploration.
How will my child be taught remotely?
A range of approaches will be used to teach pupils remotely:
Some examples of remote teaching approaches:
- Live teaching (online lessons)
- Recorded teaching (e.g. video/audio recordings made by teachers, other recorded lessons)
- Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences (such as IXL, BKSB, BBC, Oak National Academy, etc.)
- Printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets) where appropriate
What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents/carers and carers should provide at home?
- Please support your child to access the remote learning lessons
- If your child is unable to participate at a particular time or on a particular day, please don’t give up and try again another time
- We do not expect you to put any pressure on your child to participate, just encourage
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
- Teachers will hold regular lessons as they would during the school day, to check on students’ engagement with remote education and their general well-being. They will also monitor assignments and tasks set. If they have not been able to engage with your child, they will contact you to check how things are
- If you have any concerns, you can access the teacher via the office email and/or by calling the school
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 pupil work is as follows:
- We encourage you to take photographs of your child’s remote learning achievements and make them available to the class teacher on Evidence for Learning
- Some lessons might have an assignment for you to complete with your child at home. Feedback will automatically be sent back to the class teacher on Google Classroom
- Some digital platforms provide automatic feedback
- Other tasks can be emailed to the class teacher via the office email for feedback.
Extra Support and Specialists provision
We recognise that some pupils 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.
If additional support is needed the parent/carer or carer may contact the school for a private meeting to discuss what further support can be offered.
Our Speech and Language Therapist and both of the Occupation Therapists are available to support students and parents remotely, providing training and resources. Please enquire with your class teacher for more information.
