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.
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.
What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?
Where students are sent home from school, they will either be directed to the self-isolation work identified on the school website or they will receive a work pack with materials for English, Maths and Science. Students will be expected to work through this work independently whilst remote teaching is organised.
Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects should the curriculum not be appropriate for online learning.
Remote teaching and study time each day
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 in Key Stages 3 and 4:
Students will receive five forty-five minute lessons each day. In addition to this, we expect students to spend a further 10 minutes at the start of the day preparing for their learning (checking Teams and their school emails). The online teaching hours will be supplemented by independent learning tasks.
Accessing remote education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
All live lessons will be delivered using Teams and all students can log into Teams using their academy login information (used to access emails). Teams can be accessed either through the website or using the Teams App which can be downloaded to most devices. We expect students to access their emails every day and additional work may be set using Satchel One (SMHW). Students may be asked to use subject-specific sites by their teachers which include ActiveLearn, BBC bitesize, Doddle, Quizlet, Hegarty Maths, Office 365, Scratch, Seneca and YouTube.
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:
All lessons can be accessed from a laptop, mobile or tablet and our approach is that all students will have this live access.
Where students have no device, we are able to lend laptops to students. In order to make a request, please email office@westbourne.attrust.org.uk.
Where internet access is an issue, we are able to issue dongles and sim cards with limitless mobile data to support students getting online. Students and their parents or carers can also apply for additional data. Details can be found on our website News page here: https://www.westbourne.attrust.org.uk/increase-mobile-data-allowances/
How will my child be taught remotely?
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
Each day, students will receive five live lessons of 45 minutes on MS Teams which will be scheduled in line with student’s timetables. Teachers will deliver live content for at least half of the weekly online learning schedule. For the rest of the lesson time, there is the option to:
- Direct the students to work independently. Where this is the case, the teacher will remain on Teams to deal with any issues during the course of the lesson.
- Use other online lesson resources such as Oak Academy lessons in order to supplement teacher instruction.
- Use subject specific websites or tools such as Hegarty Maths.
Engagement and feedback
What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?
Pupils are expected to attend all live lessons. We recommend that students spend 10 minutes preparing for their day by accessing Teams and checking emails at 8.40. We recommend that students maintain their routines of getting up and getting dressed, that they find a place they can work from and that they take appropriate breaks as identified.
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
All teachers will complete registers for each lesson to check attendance across the academy. In the weekly pastoral phone calls that are made to all students, this information will be shared with parents and carers.
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. 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:
As students will be taught live, there will be opportunities for verbal feedback to be given. In addition to this, each department has established how they will give feedback. Students will be required to submit work in accordance with their teacher’s instructions. Assessments will be conducted following the same timeline as set out in department’s assessment calendars and fed back in a timely manner.
Additional support for pupils with particular needs
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 in the following ways:
All students with an EHC plan and all vulnerable students will be invited to access their learning from within the academy and we will encourage them to take up this offer. In this way, we will be able to offer support to students and to encourage their participation in live lessons.
Where students do not attend, students with an EHC plan are called on a daily basis. Vulnerable students will be called either daily or weekly.
Remote education for self-isolating pupils
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.
If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?
Where students are self-isolating as individuals, they will be directed to a document which provides the work they will be expected to complete. This work will have been put together by their class teachers and is independent work that students can complete. The work is created each half term and is aligned to the curriculum of each subject. Where a bubble or year group is self-isolating, live lessons will be provided.
