Grazeley Parochial CE (Aided) Primary School

'Be courageous; Be strong; Do everything in love'

Remote Learning

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.

Remote Learning

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.

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.

The first day or two of remote learning will be tasks and activities to introduce and settle children into the remote learning routine and demonstrate the expectations:

This will include:

  • An introduction/reminder of how to use Google Classroom and access the provision
  • One live lesson on Google Meet
  • Simple introductory tasks.

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:

  • Music: practical instrument lessons are replaced with online specialist music sessions
  • PE: Parents are directed to online resources such as “Berkshire Virtual Games”.
  • Geography fieldwork: this has been adapted to be able to be conducted in families within local areas.

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:

Foundation Stage

Up to 3 hours per day including two 20 minute live lessons

Key Stage 1

 3 hours per day including two 20-30 min live lessons

 Key Stage 2

 4 hours per day including 2 half an hour live lessons

Accessing Remote Education

At Grazeley Primary School we are predominantly using Google Classroom and Google Meet for curriculum delivery and assessment. Foundation Stage children are also using Tapestry to upload their photographs, videos and work where they receive comments from the Foundation Stage staff. The whole school can also access many further online resources via our “e-schools” Learning Platform, for example: Espresso, Purple Mash

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:

  • All parents have been surveyed to find out about IT needs at home and those who need laptops or ipads will have them allocated as quickly as possible. The school will contact all parents who have not responded to the survey in order to assess their IT needs.
  • Once a parent has responded to an email offering a device and accepted responsibility for this, they will be allocated a timeslot to come and collect the device. The device will be brought to the school gate for collection by the Office team.
  • Parents who have limited access to wifi will be supported by the school.  They will initially be offered a free Sim provided by Vodaphone to enable 4G access. If this is unsuccessful then a 4G dongle will be provided.
  • As a school, we will ensure that all pupils have online access so printed materials are not required, except in exceptional circumstances.
  • We will work with individual families case by case to provide the best offer to support IT needs.

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

  • Live lessons – two a day (except for Workout Wednesdays when one live lesson is offered and the afternoon is dedicated to sport and physical activity.)
  • Recorded teaching, for example Oak Academy lessons, video lessons recorded by teachers, powerpoints with audio recording of the teacher
  • Reading books pupils have at home and online reading materials, for example: Oxford Owl, Epic Books
  • Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences, for example: BBC Bitesize, White Rose

Engagement and Feedback

  • All pupils are expected to engage with remote education and parents should contact school via one of the email addresses below if they are experiencing difficulties and we will support individuals on a case by case basis.
  • All pupils are expected to attend live lessons and staff will follow up with individual pupils who are not in attendance.
  • Parents are expected to agree to the Live Lesson Guidance via Parent Pay prior to joining live lessons.
  • Parents are expected to follow this guidance and ensure their children are able to access the live lessons each day.  These are normally at a set time and we have ensured that the lessons do not clash with other year groups in order to support families with more than one child at Grazeley.
  • We recommend that parents who are supporting their children at home utilise the suggested timetables given by staff each day.

Office team:  [email protected]
Family Support Worker: Mrs Donna Crowley  [email protected]
SENCo/Inclusion Lead: Mrs Gemma Didcock [email protected]

Class emails:
Chestnut Class (FS): [email protected]
Hazel Class (Y1):  [email protected]
Willow Class (Y2):  [email protected]
Cedar Class (Y3):  [email protected]
Birch Class (Y4):  [email protected]
Sycamore Class (Y5):  [email protected]
Oak Class (Y6): [email protected]

  • Staff will monitor the engagement of children in live lessons as well as monitor the quantity and quality of work returned on Google Classroom and whether the work is representative of the child’s ability.
  • In Years 5 and 6, the child will be contacted initially by the class teacher to encourage engagement and ensure they are completing work on time.  If there is no improvement seen following this then teachers will call or email parents.
  • In Year 4 and below, teachers will contact parents by phone or email if they are concerned about the level of engagement or the quality of the work completed.
  • In addition to this, all children at home will be allocated an staff member who will conduct a weekly well being call with the parents/family.

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:

  • Teachers or teaching assistants will feedback on work submitted regularly and will comment on the strengths and will suggest areas to improve if applicable. This is done via Google Classroom in Y1-6 and via Tapestry in FS.
  • Children will also receive scores/feedback on quizzes and mini assessments.
  • In KS2 children are able to use Accelerated Reader to self assess their understanding of a book they have recently read.

Additional support for pupils with particular needs

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:

  • Differentiated tasks from the classteacher.
  • A reduced timetable.
  • Online tuition (if appropriate)
  • Support from the SENCo/Inclusion Lead with suggested activities or tasks for the individual

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.

In this situation, a child will be offered all the activities that the class are engaging in with clear instructions but will not be involved in live lessons.