Home learning

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education across The Mead Academy Trust when national or local restrictions require individuals, year group bubbles or the whole school to remain at home. This information does not apply to the children of critical workers or vulnerable children when they attend at these times.

We aim for 100% of pupils in our schools to be engaged in their learning regardless of whether they are learning at home, in school part time or attending full time. We employ a range of strategies or ‘ingredients’ to enable children to engage in their learning and to continue their education at this time.

Our approach to…

The remote curriculum

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 or blended teaching and learning.

Blended Learning is the provision for all children to be able to continue their education if they or school staff are unable to come into school as a result of isolation. Our offer supports families to be able to isolate when necessary whilst enabling children to continue their learning.

The same curriculum that is being taught in school will be provided for children at home, wherever possible and appropriate, and many activities will be the same. However, it may be necessary for some activities to be adapted to suit the home environment but the learning will still be planned to meet the same objectives.

Where children have additional needs, we aim to meet their needs with additional resources and an adapted curriculum. This will be bespoke to the children’s individual needs and may not be provided online for these children. Likewise, some children will have additional learning or resources provided online if this meets their individual needs.

In the event of Scenario One described above, children will be provided learning via Seesaw. Class Dojo is currently the preferred platform for providing our Resource Base children with learning. Home learning packs of books and physical resources specific to the age and needs of the child to support learning will be delivered to their home.

In the event of Scenario Three, where a bubble or school is closed, daily learning is provided via our online platforms. This will include an element of live teaching and learning from YR to Y6 and if applicable in Nursery or Resource Base classes. Bespoke learning packs of resources, books etc. will be available for collection from school to support the learning being provided online.

In all scenarios learning will be provided within 24 hours of us notifying families of a closure, or families notifying us of the need to isolate.

Blended learning

Up to four hours a day of learning and activities will be made available, see the table below. This includes remote teaching and learning and independent activities. The majority of learning will be provided and submitted through Seesaw, or through Class Dojo for our Resource Base classes. We will also use elements of Google Classroom including Google Meet.

If children are finding that their learning is taking more or less time than this, then we will work with families to support them in structuring their day and adapting learning where necessary.

Early Years	Less than the 3 hours expected in Key Stage 1
Key Stage 1	Approximately 3 hours of learning activities per day
Key Stage 2	Approximately 4 hours of learning activities per day

Accessing remote learning

The vast majority of blended learning across our schools is provided through Seesaw. This online platform enables us to set learning and to receive completed activities from children. Children accessing our Resource Base provision use Class Dojo in a similar fashion. All children from Nursery to Year Six have access to Seesaw or Class Dojo through an individual login.

These platforms also enable us to use audio and video to explain learning tasks and to respond and provide feedback as live and recorded responses.

All children from YR to Y6 access a 30-minute live session with a teacher or teaching assistant from their year group bubble. These live sessions take place each day via Google Meet.

In upper Key Stage 2, Google Docs is also being used where appropriate to share and collaborate in learning. This tool also supports children who are accessing provision at school and at home to continue their learning in a blended approach.

We recognise that some pupils may not have online access at home. This may be that they do not have reliable internet, a suitable device or access to a device when other family members are working at home.

From school surveys and knowledge from previous remote learning situations, we have a good knowledge of the digital access available at home.

Where there may be a lack of appropriate devices at home, we support families by loaning devices. We have obtained chrome books and iPads from The Department for Education, Wiltshire council, Collaborative Schools Ltd. Where necessary we are also able to loan from our own school stock of devices. Device loans are set to be reviewed at the point of any changes to national and local restrictions or lockdown.

To support families with unreliable or limited internet connection, we have data only SIM cards that we can provide to families. These enable them to use a phone or other SIM enabled device as a Wi-Fi hotspot. They can then connect a tablet, laptop or Chromebook to the internet through this. This is free to the user and can be reliable where there is a good phone signal.

All devices and resources are available for contact free collection from school. Where families are needing to isolate, devices and resources are delivered to homes. If we are unable to support a child to work remotely then we will invite them to attend school.

We use a combination of approaches to teach pupils remotely and to enable blended learning. These are the ingredients which work together to enable successful engagement in remote and blended learning.

Children in YR – Y6 who are learning at home take part in a live 30 minute via Google Meet each day. There is an expectation that children will attend these daily meetings. Teachers and TAs are leading these sessions from in school and will use the usual resources and strategies the children are used to using in school.

We use a range of recorded teaching. This is typically audio or video recordings which are made by our own teachers or teaching assistants. These may explain a task, introduce new concepts or provide feedback to individuals or to the bubble group. We may also use other pre recordings where these are appropriate. Among others, these may include White Rose Maths, Oak National Academy, Cornerstones Maestro Curriculum or Times table Rockstars / Numberblocks.

Resource packs are provided by teachers and teaching assistants to support the activities being set via our online platforms. These packs are bespoke to the individual children but examples of what they may include are: exercise books, stationery, class reading book, other reading books, typical class resources such as word mats, online logins, topic maps, curriculum knowledge organisers.

We may also use some aspects of commercially available websites where appropriate to support the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences. These include interactive resources such as Times Table Rock Stars and Numbots.

Where children need support to access the set curriculum, this will be reviewed on an individual basis and the resources and curriculum provided may be adapted to meet their needs.