Trowse Primary School

Be Safe, Be Happy, Learn!

Pepperpot Drive, Norwich, Norfolk NR14 8TU

01603622485

office@trowse.norfolk.sch.uk

Home Learning (updated April 2022)

 

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education where there is an exceptional reason for school or part-school closure. We also have a 'Remote Learning' Policy in the 'Policies' area of the website.

 

Why might we need to issue home learning?

Covid testing has now ended for the majority. We won't clearly know how many children have covid. Most children will be off because they are unwell, in which case we will not expect them to be home learning. However, school closures can be for more than Covid.

Reasons could include:

  • Suspected outbreak of infection (which could be covid) requiring a larger scale closure
  • Low staff numbers due to infection outbreak amongst staff (so children can't come to school as we don't have the adults)
  • severe weather (and a resulting lack of ability for staff to get to work) 
  • significant damage to property (e.g, a fire)

 

WHO SHOULD STAY AT HOME?

All children should now be back at school. please refer to the 'Coronovirus' page on this site for advice on when to stay home. 

All absences (Covid related or not) should be reported to school by phoning the school office of logging the absence on Pupil Asset (phone app or computer login)

 

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

Scenario 1- school is open to all pupils. My child is off due to them being unwell

If your child is unwell, they do not need to complete school work. They should rest and get better as soon as possible to come back to school.

Scenario 2- school is open to all pupils. My child is off due to them having suspected covid and are isolating for the advised number of days

If they are unwell with COVID, we do not expect them to have to complete work, but if they are asymptomatic, let the school know you would like work set for them. This will be through Seesaw.

Scenario 3- School closed to year groups or all, (except vulnerable children and children of critical workers) for one of the above reasons

On Day 1 of this scenario, teachers will be preparing ‘home learning plans’. These will be uploaded to Seesaw that day, ready for the majority of pupils to continue their learning at home from day 2. These plans are in line with the curriculum that we would be teaching in school if children were in.

Under this arrangement, it is expected that children of critical workers are NOT in every day, only the days when you are at work and need them to be in school.

 

It is essential that children have continuity in their learning. To this end, children who are in school follow the same home learning plan as children at home. It is important that children who spend some days in and some days out of school do keep up, so they are in the right place ready to move on when they come in.

 

WITH remote education ON SEESAW, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

For the reasons listed above, broadly speaking, 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, PE, art or DT. Writing for example may be of a similar genre, but be a different outcome. 

 

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:

For reception children, exploring their environment and play is their learning! There will be key focussed learning including reading stories, speaking and listening, phonics and number that the teacher will set.

In years 1 & 2 (Key Stage 1) the teacher will set work that should last the child a minimum of 3 hours a day. This does not include the expectation of 20 minutes reading a day as well.

In years 3-6 (Key Stage 2) the teacher will set work that should last the child a minimum of 4 hours a day. This does not include the expectation of 20 minutes reading (or quizzing in Accelerated Reader) a day as well.

 

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

Seesaw is our chosen platform for sharing home learning. Please ensure you have downloaded the pupil app and the family app and you have the log in details. If you can’t seem to make it work, do get in touch with the school.

If your child will not be able to have any access to technology and this will be a barrier to their learning, please contact the school. We have some devices that can be loaned out to families. 

 

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:

If you are struggling with your child not having any access to a suitable device, then please contact the school. We may be able to loan you a laptop or iPad from school from our 'Home Learning Load Devices' There is an agreement to sign for all loan devices. This will allow access to Seesaw to view the home learning plans. It will also have ‘Zoom’ for any live meetings.

If you have a device, but you don’t have a suitable internet connection, again, please contact the school to discuss this. We may be able to talk you though how you can use your phone’s data allowance to link to the device, or can talk through other options. 

If you do not have a suitable device and feel you need printed materials, this can be arranged. Please contact your child’s class teacher via Seesaw, or phone the school, to explain what you require. We will endeavour to provide you with a pack to collect. (Note: during a period of infection control, this is not the preferred solution as it needs multiple people to handle paperwork. This increases the risk of infection. Please use the home learning plan on Seesaw and internet access where possible.)

In terms of submitting work to the teachers, please use Seesaw primarily. The app is simple to use and you can upload work that your teacher will be able to review and provide feedback on. If you cannot do this, paper work can be brought in to school in a named envelope. (Note: we will be quarantining work to 72 hours before reviewing it)

 

What will the learning be?

If school is open as normal, then there will be limited 'live' lessons as the teacher is teaching the class all day. However, should there be a return to a school closure for the majority, then the teachers may have more capacity for live sessions. This will of course depend on the number of Key workers and vulnerable children in school and how many teachers are allocated to teach these groups. 

Teachers plan to teach in a number of different ways, depending on the area in question.

Some examples of remote teaching approaches:

  • Signposting (links) to recorded lessons(e.g. Oak National Academy lessons or video/audio recordings made by teachers, including your child’s teacher)
  • Live teaching (online lessons, using ‘Zoom’ for pastoral support, listening to readers, small group or individual keep-up support or intervention)
  • Quizzes and other assessments (such as quizzes for every reading book or ZPD assessments in Accelerated Reader for KS2 children)
  • Signposting to commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences (e.g. phonics)
  • Printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
  • Textbooks and reading books pupils have at home – sent from school
  • Long-term project work and/or internet research activities.
  •  

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 if your child is at home on a school day, and they are well, then they will engage in home learning. They need to have access to a device such as a desktop computer, a laptop or tablet. They need to be able to log on to ‘Seesaw’ where they will find their learning for the day or week.

They will need to upload their learning to Seesaw so the teacher can see what they have completed and comment- praising and giving feedback. For the two weeks running up to February Half term 2021, on average across the school children uploaded 15 posts a week. This is approximately 3 pieces a day for the teacher to see and comment on. There were more comments by staff than their were posts! Children will often get more than one comment (teacher and TA for example) per piece of work. 

It will help your child significantly if you can help establish routines for your child. For example: learning starts at 9am, break time is at…. We stop for lunch at…. Reading is for 20 minutes after lunch… etc… This could be a visual timetable stuck up on display so everyone is clear on what is needed. We understand sometimes the routine needs to change, but having a starting point always works best.

Home learning will need some support from you, depending on the age of the child. The younger the child, the more support they will need to access their learning, keep them on task and upload work. Older children should be able to be quite independent once underway.

Seesaw is designed to be easy to use and interactive. If your child is having difficulty with something, they can always ask their teacher a question or ask for some support. These messages will be read daily. You can also use the ‘Seesaw Family App’ to message the teacher privately- where the message will not appear on your child’s learning journal.

We expect your child to upload their learning on a daily basis. This is for a number of reasons:

  • We can monitor their engagement with home learning
  • We can intervene and support quickly if it is clear they have found something difficult. 

 

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

Teachers will check Seesaw daily. We will be able to see if new messages from us to you have been read and if work has been uploaded.

If a few days goes by with no uploads and we can see that new messages have not been read, then teachers will notify the Headteacher. We will call home to ask if the family are OK and if there is anything we can do to support the child to access their home learning as we are concerned they will fall behind if there is very little engagement.

If deemed appropriate the class teacher, or pastoral support assistant may also call to see if there is any way we can help.

 

How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

As stated above, children need to submit their work to Seesaw so the teacher can see it. Work with then be reviewed by the teacher and commented on. 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 valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:

Whenever a pupil uploads a key piece of work, recognition will be given by an adult in class. We will see everything submitted. Key pieces of work (such as a piece of writing) may have a more in depth comment made. This might include commenting on what your child has done well and points for the future to reflect on.

 Teachers may extend the learning by sending supplementary questions back via Seesaw. Equally, for children who have found a piece of learning difficult, the teacher can support or direct a Teaching assistant to support in a separate session.

 

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 on an individual basis.

 

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating (but school is open for all as normal), how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

Rather than a weekly ‘Home Learning Plan’, a series of links and activities will be put onto Seesaw as individual elements. These may not be exactly the same lessons as those being taught in school, but will cover the same overall curriculum objectives.

All children will be expected to continue with their learning remotely. The platform by which we share learning is called 'SEESAW'. This is where teachers:

  • upload learning content and links.
  •  children can upload their learning for the teacher to review- in a variety of forms.
  • class staff can feedback to your child about their learning.

CLICK HERE to find out more about downloading Seesaw.

 

Communication

School staff will be contacting families in person for a number of reasons:

  • a general check in, to see how you all are. 
  • to ask about learning if your child does not appear to have engaged, or uploaded much learning to Seesaw
  • to arrange a Zoom meeting. These might be for pastoral reasons, or to support learning directly for individuals of small groups.  

 

Zoom Rules

  • For safeguarding reasons, make sure you have your child's name in Zoom. The teacher may not let you in from the waiting room if they don't recognise the name.
  • Uniform is not required, but during an online session, your child must wear suitable clothing, as should anyone else in the household, when webcams are switched on. Pupils will be asked to leave the online lesson if it is felt that a pupil or family member’s clothing is inappropriate. 
  • All digital devices must be used in an appropriate area of the house- ideally somewhere with enough space to work.
  • Consider what else people can see in the background and whether you want this. The ‘blurring of backgrounds’ can be used, where possible to aid privacy of your home.
  • All language used must be appropriate, including any family members and adults in the background of any household. Inappropriate language used by pupils or heard by members of their family will not be accepted. Pupils will be removed from the lesson.
  • We request that pupils do not eat during online sessions. Having a drink whilst learning and participating is fine.
  • To recreate a suitable learning environment for your child, ensure they can sit at a table for the lesson (where possible).
  • When your child is learning online, please reduce background distractions i.e. television, telephone calls, pets etc.
  • Let your child learn independently – do not sit next to them and coach them. Only offer support if there is a technical issue.
  • If you as a parent have questions about the online learning they will be able to send a message to their child’s class teacher via Seesaw. Do be mindful that teachers may not be able to reply instantly, due to the structure of their day/week.
  • Please be aware that the lesson could be for a class of 30 children not just for your child. It is an open forum; any distractions will disturb not only your child but others too.
  • Teachers will check and acknowledge resulting work that is submitted.