This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to parents or carers about what to expect from remote education at Valley End where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts or classes to remain at home. This information also details what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating.

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. Each year group follows their normal curriculum whether they are learning remotely or at home. The same curriculum-based learning objectives are learnt by both those pupils in school and by those learning remotely.

At Valley End we expect our pupils to spend approximately 3 hours a day (as per Government guidelines) engaging with their remote learning. However, we understand that family logistics can make engagement difficult and that young pupils need a substantial amount of input from parents or carers. This can be very challenging and so we fully appreciate that pupils need to work flexibly over each day. Teachers will track the engagement levels of pupils and will then follow-up, through a supportive phone call or email, should there be any concerns.

We recognise that some pupils may not have suitable online access at home. We therefore take the time to work with families to offer them alternative support, such as individual supportive phone calls or the provision of extra resources or information about teaching points and ideas. In the past, we have also used some of additional funding to provide families with online access at home.

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely when whole classes or year groups are at home: –

• Weekly ‘Parent friendly’ planning and resources with learning activities, support and objectives.
• Class emails for parents and pupils to communicate and connect with the class teacher. This also allows the teacher to assess and then give feedback to pupils. Children’s work and communication submitted through the class email system allows the teachers to track pupil engagement, progress and understanding and then follow up and feedback as appropriate. However, please understand that remote pupil assessment and feedback is not as substantial and detailed as assessment and feedback during face-to-face teaching.
• Regular digital curriculum-based teaching sessions with pupils’ class teachers and/or year group teachers and support staff using TEAMs and pre-recorded videos. 
• Reading books for parents to safely collect and return via the outside of the school. 

In addition to the above, we remotely support vulnerable pupils and those pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities through a tailored and individualised approach. This approach includes: –

• Individual teaching phone and TEAMs calls based on the child’s needs.
• Provision of extra resources and practical support to enhance the pupil’s learning opportunities.
• Direct contact with the school’s Inclusiion Lead via a dedicated email address.

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate, but the majority of their peer group remains in school, the remote education that is provided differs slightly from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school. Self-isolating pupils are therefore provided with the following: –

• Interactive resources with learning activities, support and objectives that follow the same curriculum content as those children in school.
• Email and phone call support for parents and pupils to communicate and connect with the class teacher.
• Reading books for parents to safely collect and return via the outside of the school. 

At Valley End, we have tailored our remote learning to, what we believe, in our professional opinion, is suitable for each year group. In other words, the home learning in each group will be different and will be based around the needs of the children and the teachers’ curriculum planning.