On this page you will find information about the school's approach to blended/ remote learning that the children complete at home during a Covid lockdown.

To find work set for your child during a lockdown, follow the remote/blended learning link on their class web page.

At the bottom of this page you will also find some 'how to' clips that detail how your child should send work completed at home back to their teacher in school for feedback.

Remote and blended learning – FAQs from parents.

Remote and blended learning work must be provided to pupils who have to stay at home because they are isolating or because of partial/ full school closure. The idea of this is that schoolwork is completed off the school site but feedback on the work and help to complete the work are still available and provided by staff who work in the school.

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?

You will be contacted by the school to inform you of where on the school website your child can find work specifically planned for them to complete.

You will be given staff contact details to utilise and report any difficulties you are having accessing this work.

You will be told how your child can share their work with their class teacher so that feedback on their efforts can be given to them.

Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

Broadly speaking – yes. This way we can control the pace at which the whole class move through their learning sequence- so that all the children are at the same stage and can resume learning together once they are united again in the classroom.

We will aim to teach the same curriculum remotely as the one we offer in school, however we may need to make some adaptations for some subjects being undertaken at home. For example, we know you are unlikely to have the scientific, art, PE or music equipment that we have in school so we will adapt these experiences for you child at home.

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

The government have stated that 3 hours of learning from home should be completed by Key Stage 1 children and 4 hours for Key Stage 2.

If you wish your child to do more than the work being set for them each day you can also provide them with opportunities to:

• Read to an adult every day and answer questions about their book
• Practice their year group spellings – found on the literacy page of the school website
• Complete the puzzles available on the maths subject page of the school website
• Practice their times tables on Rockstar
• Memorise the key facts on their termly knowledge organiser  - found on the school website too.

There are also a wide variety of websites covering all subjects in the curriculum that your child can complete work on as well– see the links on the individual subject pages of the school website.

How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?

Children should go to the children tab on the homepage of the school website. They should open up the class pages option and then click on the name of their own class. At the top of their class homepage there will be a link that when clicked on will take them to their own class remote learning page. This page will contain information about what tasks your child should complete each day.

Work for each day will be posted on the class remote learning page by 9.00am

What if my child doesn’t understand the remote learning work?

The class remote learning page will give details of a scheduled hour when a live email tutorial will be taking place about the work that day. This tutorial time will give yourself and your child the chance to contact one of the adults who works in their class to ask any questions that you/ they may have about their set work.

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you support them to do remote education?

The school has a small number of laptops which can be made available to loan out to children who are isolating or, who due to partial closure, are not permitted to work in school.

Please contact Mrs Keen by calling the school office or via email (keenp001@mastacademy.co.uk) if you think your child would benefit from borrowing one of these computers.

If your child is unable to gain any internet access at home we will provide hard copies of lesson materials upon request. Contact the school office if this is the case and they will advise on how we can get these materials to you

How will my child be taught remotely – what form will the work take?

The work posted up by teachers each day will be in the form of powerpoint presentations – the same ones being used by the teachers in class. The ppt may contain links to films, soundclips or websites.

Instructions for completing each task are contained on the ppt slides.

What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

We expect all children to complete their work remotely every day. This is essential so that your child does not fall behind in their learning.

They may lack motivation so it is vital as parent that you make your expectations for 3 hours of learning a day clear. Depending on the age of your child you may need to: set them a timetable to provide them with a routine. Give them a set space in which to do their work away from other distractions such as other people, the TV or radio. Inform them that you will be checking up on them during their work time and tell them that you will want to view their work before they share it with the school.

How will you check my child’s work? How do they send their work in?

Children should send their completed work back to school either using Teams, Tapestry or the class Seesaw platform which the children have all had lessons on using in class. They can also send it via an email to one of the staff listed on their class remote learning home page as a last resort.

All completed work should be sent into school by 3.00pm each day.

Teachers will check your child’s submitted work once all the children in the school building have gone home. When they do this they will send feedback on to your child.

Will I be informed if there are concerns?

If your child has not been sending their work in, or staff are concerned about the quality of the work they are sending in, they will email you in the first instance to communicate this. If staff do not receive an emailed response from you to acknowledge their contact, they will telephone you next time.

Records will be kept of which work children have and have not done.

Records will be kept about the quality of the work that each child has done.

Records will also be kept of when staff have contacted parents and notes of parental discussions will be made.

How will you work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?

We know that some pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), may not be able to access remote education without support from adults at home. We understand the difficulties this may place on families, and we will work with parents and carers individually to support those pupils through personalised, differentiated work

Each class page has a link for parents to access specific learning resources pertaining to their child’s individual needs.

If parents have any concerns about their child accessing the work provided they should contact their class teacher via email first or seek further advice from the school SENDCO Mrs Forghani – forgk002@mastacademy.co.uk

If my child is not in school because they are the only child in their class to be self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

Teachers will contact you to inform you of how work can be accessed by your child. Usually this is still done via their class remote learning homepage. Staff will also inform you during this dialogue of how your child should return their work to school, access daily tutorial help and how they will inform you if they have concerns about your child’s remote learning.

What if my child is unhappy at home because they are missing their teacher?

We know how important it is for our children to have contact with others. That is why when teachers post up work on your child's class page each day they will also post up a film for your child to watch of their own class staff.

In these films the staff will either be reading a story, a section of a long story or they will be sending the class a little message from themselves.

The staff are missing their children as much as the children are missing the staff. Encourage your child during tutorial time each day to send their teacher a message about the film - I am sure they would appreciate that!

If you need any further advice or information about our approach to remote/ blended learning please contact your child’s teacher.