In this section
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.
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?
Remote learning work will be available on each individual class Teams area.
Your child can access this work immediately on the day they have been sent home, they need to log into Microsoft 365, open Teams, and go to their class. We recommend they follow their usual school timetable of subjects.
If a whole year group or the whole school are learning remotely, live online lessons will be delivered via Teams (during usual lesson times), beginning on the first full day pupils are learning remotely at home. Lessons will be delivered by your child’s usual class teacher and will include a mix of live online taught lessons, and lessons where the teacher is available to support with work that pupils have been directed to complete independently.
If your child is learning remotely due to full or partial school closure and is ill or unable to access a live online lesson, they can access the supplementary work on our school website which is aligned with the curriculum and timetable. They need to click on their year group, select the subject, and then select the current week.
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 have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects.
In PE, year 7, 8 and 9 pupils are unable to participate in team games or swimming, and so will be completing subject-knowledge based projects and individual fitness activities instead.
In photography, the work required by year 10 and 11 pupils has been amended to ensure pupils can complete it using technology available at home. This will still cover and meet course requirements.
In drama, because year 10 and 11 pupils cannot complete scripted group work or group devised performances, pupils are covering the topics that can be studied remotely, such as live theatre review and scripted monologues.
In science, no pupils can complete practical experiments at home, so these areas are being taught via video demonstration to all year groups.
In music, the orchestra project has been suspended for pupils in years 7, 8 and 9, who will instead learn about musical heritage which looks at different styles of music, such as baroque, classical, romantic and modern music.
All other subjects follow the curriculum which was planned to be delivered in school.
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:
| Key Stage | Number of Teaching Hours |
| Key Stage 3 and 4 (Years 7-11) | 6 |
| Key Stage 5 (Years 12 and 13) | 6 |
Accessing Remote Education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
- All live online lessons and instructions for work to be completed are accessed via Microsoft Teams.
At the start of every lesson, following their usual in-school timetable, pupils need to:
log in to Microsoft 365.
Open Teams
Go to the correct subject class.
- Read the posts to find out how to access the lesson (there will usually be a link to click)
If pupils can’t find the class for a subject, they can join it by clicking ‘join class’ in the top right, and adding the code listed on our Remote Learning webpage: http://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/remote-learning/(codes can be accessed by clicking on their year group, selecting the subject, and going to the current week).
Other platforms we use are:
All pupils complete some of their maths work using Mathswatch.
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:
Please contact your child’s Year Leader or Remote Learning Co-ordinator via the ClassCharts app or by emailing info@southmoormat.co.uk if you require support with technology to access remote learning.
Your child’s Year Leader can also liaise with teachers to provide paper-based work in the interim, which can then be submitted to teachers by posting to the school or by handing in at the main reception once per week.
How will my child be taught remotely?
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
- Most of the learning will be via live, interactive teaching (in online lessons).
- Some lessons in a few subjects will also utilise recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons and video/audio recordings made by teachers). These will be introduced by the ‘live’ teacher, but by having recordings they can then be available for pupils to see later should they need them to support with their work.
- Independent work will be introduced by the teacher in the live lesson, and completed via:
- Online worksheets, PowerPoints, and quizzes etc in Google Classroom
- Textbooks and reading books pupils already have at home.
- Mathswatch
- MyGCSE Science
- Some subjects will require written work to be photographed and submitted either on Microsoft Teams or ClassCharts (instructions will be given in the live online lessons, and available on Microsoft Teams).
- Printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets) are available for those without access to online learning.
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 online lessons, as they would in school.
- Pupils should follow online learning protocols, by having their camera off and microphone muted when joining lessons (in some lessons teachers will allow pupils to unmute and speak but only at certain points in the lesson).
- Pupils will be expected to contribute to lessons via the chat function, or by unmuting if asked.
- If pupils need some extra help, they can communicate with their teacher in a live online lesson via the chat function, or after the lesson by putting a comment on Microsoft Teams.
- You can support your child by ensuring:
- They have a space to work in at home.
- They take a break from lessons during the usual school break time and lunch time (away from the screen).
- Supporting with the school routine, and ensuring your child is online and ready to learn at 8:45am.
- If your child does not have online access, we recommend that you support them to still follow their usual timetable of subjects each day.
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
Teachers keep a record of attendance to all live lessons, and monitor the work submitted online.
Microsoft Teams keeps an automated record of when pupils access the online classrooms and attend a live online lesson.
If pupils are not engaging with remote education, teachers will communicate this to you weekly, via the MyEd app or a text message.
If pupils still fail to engage with remote learning after this, Year Leaders will phone home to speak to you to see how we can support your child with their learning.
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:
Feedback will vary depending on the subject, as teachers will always use the most appropriate method of feedback for their subject.
Pupils will receive some form of feedback from their teacher weekly, which will be either:
- Individual written feedback on a piece of work
- Individual verbal feedback (either attached to a piece of work, or given during a live online lesson)
- Whole class verbal feedback in live online lessons (this is often given after work has been submitted, where most pupils need to make the same improvement, had the same difficulty, or made the same mistake)
In addition to this, many teachers set quizzes which are automatically marked, which give pupils instant feedback. This may be via Microsoft Teams or other online platforms such as Mathswatch or ClassCharts.
Live online lessons are taught interactively, so pupils will also receive verbal feedback on any contributions they make in the chat during live online lessons.
Additional Support for Pupils with Additional 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 are supported to reach their full potential.
All SEND pupils have been offered laptops, and paper-based work is available if required (contact your child’s Year Leader to request this).
Teachers are continuing to deliver quality first teaching to support and challenge all students.
In order to support SEND children further in their live online lessons, teachers are:
Ensuring captions are switched on, so that what the teacher says is written as a caption on the screen;
carefully selecting work, to ensure reading ages are appropriate; giving clear instructions and repeating them.
Some lessons will have a video recording, or a pre-recorded lesson available after the lesson, so pupils can go back and watch again if needed.
We appreciate that additional support may be needed, and so members of the learning support team will contact home via phone call at least once, and often twice per week, to ensure that students and carers are supported at home and to see if there is anything else we can do to support your child with accessing remote education.
We offer detailed information on our website for any pupil who needs mental health support: https://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/mental-health-advice-support/
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?
Teachers will be teaching pupils remaining in school, so those who are self-isolating will not be able to attend live online lessons.
The Remote Learning work to be completed each lesson can be found on the school’s website: https://www.southmoorschool.co.uk/remote-learning/Your child should click on their year group, select the subject, and then select the current week. We recommend that pupils follow their usual school timetable of subjects.
Work can be submitted via Microsoft Teams or ClassCharts.
All remote learning work matches the curriculum that is followed in school, apart from a few changes to a minority of subjects for some year groups (detail given on page 2).
