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The DfE (Department for Education) have asked all schools that where a class, group of pupils, or individual pupils need to self-isolate due to COVID-19, or there are local or national restrictions requiring pupils to remain at home, schools are expected to provide immediate access to remote education.
As a school, we have decided to start using ‘Microsoft Teams’ to access learning whilst at home. It will be used every week for home learning (Assignments) and messages. Microsoft Teams will also be used to support any child that has to remain at home while self-isolating. If your child is self-isolating you will be contacted by the school to inform you that daily home learning will be in your child’s Microsoft Teams Class, ready for them to access. This is our first step on our journey towards ‘Blended Learning’ – teaching children in the class and at home, if needed.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a free Microsoft App/site that aims to simplify creating, distributing and assessing learning in a paperless way. Teachers can use Microsoft Teams to send announcements to entire classes, share resources, lesson notes, inputs, diagrams, and home learning. Children can use it to access work covered in class in school, at home or on the go and complete home learning. Parents can use some of the features of Microsoft Teams to help engage with and support children in their home learning. It is a free resource that can be accessed from any device connected to the internet – laptops, desktop computers, tablets or mobile phones. If you do not have the technology for this, please contact the school office.
Microsoft Teams has a number of different uses and benefits:
In each class Team are links to their regular useful websites, i.e. Studyzone, Accelerated Reader, Spelling Shed, and more. This is to make it easier for the children so that they can access school links all from one place, Microsoft Teams.
As the weeks progress, more will be uploaded to Teams. Children will be shown in class what their ‘Team’ looks like, so please waste no time by logging in with your child’s unique username and password. This will be in your child’s Home Learning Journal (Years 1-6), or have been passed to parents in Nursery & Reception. It will be under the O365/Teams label and each child’s log-in ends with @hillsideps.co.uk. If you do not have your child’s login details for Teams, please contact their teacher.
We are still in the process of trialling certain aspects and training staff on this new way of teaching. Eventually, our aims are that there will be lesson inputs and resources for the children to continue their learning, is required to self-isolate, in line with the rest of the class at school. This may be a live or pre-recorded lesson. The lesson inputs will be a recording of the teacher’s voice and screen from the board that is shared with the children in the class. The children at home will not be able to see the teacher or any of the other children at school. Staff have been trained appropriately in safeguarding and GDPR to ensure the safety of all children.
We appreciate that this is a new way of teaching and learning for everyone, the teachers have been busy learning and practising different aspects of this in preparation for this new way of teaching. We anticipate that there may be aspects of this that will require adapting as we all become more proficient in ‘Blended learning’. We thank you in advance for your patience with this as we work together to support your children’s learning.
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if 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.
Below are a set of FAQs about our Remote Learning Offer. Click on the title or + sign for the information.
Each child from Years 1-6 have been given a set of CGP books for them to work in for Reading, Grammar and Maths. Teachers will set pages for completion via the Class Channels on Microsoft Teams.
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, depending on resources needed and group work will be taken in to consideration.
Morning & Afternoon Live Registers are carried out in all year groups (Nursery to Year 6). These are scheduled in the Year group or Class Channel on Microsoft Teams.
In Early Years and Phase 1 (Years 1, 2 & 3), pre-recorded lessons are uploaded to the Year group Lessons Channel on Microsoft Teams. Any worksheets will also be uploaded to this platform in the Files section. Teachers will be available for children or parents to video call them with any questions or worries during the independent work. All children are expected to come back together for a Live plenary where work is marked together.
In Phase 2 (Years 4, 5 & 6), live lessons are scheduled in the Year group Lessons Channel on Microsoft Teams. Any worksheets will also be uploaded to this platform in the Files section. Often inputs last around 20 minutes, followed by an independent task where children are asked to turn off their cameras. Finally, the children will re-join the same meeting for the final 10 minutes in a plenary, where answers are shared and discussed.
At the end of the day, a live story time is often scheduled for all year groups in the Class Channel on Microsoft Teams.
We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:
KS1 (Years 1-2): 3 hours of learning
KS2 (Years 3-6): 4 hours of learning
Microsoft Teams is used throughout the school. Their log-in details are in their Home Learning Journals for those in Years 1-6. EYFS log-in details will have been given to parents in hand.
We ask families to let school know if they do not have access to online, remote learning. Please email admin@hillside.wokingham.sch.uk to inform us.
We are able to lend laptops during the isolation period. When requested, these can be collected from the school office, once set up.
We are unable to issue routers or other internet connection devices.
If digital learning isn’t possible, school can provide printed copies of work for collection from the school office. CGP books may also be used.
Pupils can submit work to their teachers by dropping it off in the box outside the school office.
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
We expect pupils to engage with Microsoft Teams to either view pre-recorded lessons or attend live lessons.
All live lessons are expected to be attended.
We expect pupils to be ready for learning during the same school hours. Pupils should be appropriately dressed ie not in pyjamas; and have the correct materials with them, pen or pencil and paper/worksheet.
Each live lesson, your child’s attendance is logged. For pre-recorded lessons, at the end of each day, Teams will be checked to see whether your child has logged in and viewed the resources needed.
Where engagement is a concern, school will call parents to inform them that their child has not been engaging in any learning.
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:
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:
In EYFS, lessons and links will be used to support the children. Work will be posted in the Year Group Lessons Channel and Files section.
In Phase 1 (Years 1, 2 & 3), lessons will be pre-recorded by the teachers where children can watch the lesson from the Files section in the Year Group Lessons Channel. Any work will also be uploaded here.
In Phase 2 (Years 4, 5 & 6), lessons will be live where children will join the lessons taught in school. Any work needed will be uploaded to the Files section in the Year Group Lessons Channel.
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