Remote Learning Policy

Larches High School Remote and Blended Teaching and Learning Policy

Introduction and Scope

‘Remote Learning’ refers to the provision of work, teacher support, assessment and feedback from teachers to pupils in the event that normal lessons are unable to be delivered ‘face-to face’ as normal.

‘Blended learning’ refers to a combination of face to face and online lesson delivery.

Situations where this policy may apply include:

A pupil who is absent from school for 3 or more days for a pre-agreed reasons
Pupil exclusion of more than five days
Pupils unable to attend school due to a period of advised self-isolation but who otherwise remain well
An extended period of school closure
This policy does not apply in situations such as:
A student who absents themselves from school without prior authorisation from the school, with or without parental permission, e.g. a family holiday taken in term time
A parental decision to absent their child as a precaution against an outbreak of infectious disease but contrary to official medical advice from Public Health England, the UK Government or the World Health Organisation.

Individual Remote Learning

This section of this policy applies in situations where school remains open and working as normal, but an individual student is unable to attend lessons as normal for a period of 3 or more days but is otherwise well and able to work, e.g. a period of advised self-isolation or an absence that has been authorised by the school in advance. In these cases, the school will provide the following, coordinated in the first instance by the pupil’s Form Tutor.

Form tutors will request that subject teachers provide a suitable task or tasks and will share these with parents via an appropriate means e.g. email / post
If an absence of this sort continues for more than one week, additional work should be requested and provided on a weekly basis until the pupil is able to return to school

A Period of School Closure

Larches High School is committed to providing continuity of education for its pupils in the event of an extended school closure. While such situations are inevitably highly varied in their causes, we will endeavour to provide continued learning for our pupils during any period of closure in the following ways:

The provision of relevant and appropriate written work / tasks for each subject area
Regular, live instruction from staff, with the ability for pupils to ask questions of their teachers in real time
The opportunity for pupils to have their work assessed by their teachers and receive feedback on it.

Any provision of remote learning to achieve these three aims assumes that pupils and staff have access to the internet at home. Parents / carers should contact the school at the earliest opportunity if internet or Teams access is an issue. However, we cannot assume that everyone has access to printing facilities, so any work set and submitted for assessment will be entirely electronically set and distributed.

Work will be set, submitted for assessment and assessed through the following online platform:

Microsoft Teams – this is a collaborative platform which allows for real-time communication and sharing of resources between teachers and their classes. Every member of the Larches High School community has been set up on Teams and pre-registered to each of their classes. Guidance as to how to access this and the pupils own email address is available on the school website.

Short-Term Closure (up to five working days)

Subject areas will set tasks via Microsoft Teams. Tasks will be set for each year group in each subject, and will be designed to last an equivalent amount of time as that subject’s lessons during one calendar week. Teachers will be available daily to support pupils with their work as per the normal school timetable. Pupils and parents will be notified of this by email.

Longer-Term Closure (longer than 5 working days)

Larches High School will move to a model by which subject areas will set work for classes via Teams on a regular basis, supported by ‘live’ contact. The school reserves the right to vary the methods described below in the light of developing situations surrounding the reasons behind any closure.

For all years individual tasks will be set for classes alongside the ‘live’ contact and it is expected that pupils will work on these tasks during the week in which they are set.

During this time, teachers are expected to have an online presence via Microsoft Teams at the time they would normally have a lesson with that year group and to be available for pupils to ask questions in real time. Pupils are encouraged to take part in the live sessions that are available if they are well enough to do so.

Assessment and Feedback The work that is set will, as far as is possible, include one piece of work in each subject each week which is to be submitted for teacher assessment and feedback.

Expectations of Pupils

Assuming they are well enough to work, students are expected to:

Complete all work set for them and submit work which is requested for feedback promptly
Check emails regularly and read and respond to communication from the school
Where pupils experience problems with IT systems they should contact school
Pupils are expected to uphold the same standards of conduct and behaviour during live online lessons as they would be expected to in school. This includes but is not limited to:
- Ensuring appropriate language is used in Teams comments or emails, and that any comment is on-topic and relevant to the task in hand.
- Ensuring full engagement with the tasks in hand, including submission of any required work by the deadline that has been set.
- Ensuring that clothing is appropriate, following the same guidance as a normal non uniform day

Expectations of Staff

Assuming they are well enough to work, staff are expected to:

Ensure that work is set and made available on Microsoft Teams at the start of each week to cover the calendar week ahead, and that sufficient resources are made available to pupils via electronic means to allow them to carry out this work at home.
To be familiar with the use of Microsoft Teams, and to be available online through Teams at the times they would usually have lessons to engage in live delivery and support with their classes
To deliver “live” lessons as per their teaching timetable
To set, assess and return work to pupils promptly by electronic means.

Pastoral and Safeguarding Support

Larches High School is committed to providing high quality pastoral and safeguarding support, and this will continue during any period of school closure or remote learning.

Any online contact between pupils and staff must only take place through official school channels, which are:

Larches High School email address only. No personal email addresses must be used by either staff or pupils
Microsoft Teams chat or Live lesson delivery (through Larches High School email address only)
Contact between pupils and staff through personal telephones or personal email accounts, or any other third-party messaging software or video conferencing software (e.g. WhatsApp, Skype etc.), is strictly prohibited

All pupils will be allocated a key worker who will make weekly calls to ‘check in’ with the family. All contact with families will be logged on the school behaviour watch system copying the Head teacher in.

All the normal channels of communication regarding pastoral or safeguarding will remain open and contact details are on the school website.

During any period of school closure, the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy still applies, as does the Staff Code of Conduct and the IT Acceptable Use agreement