The coronavirus is an unprecedented challenge for our school system and the traditional approach to delivering education. The impact of the pandemic has necessitated many pupils being out of school, and this will continue to be the case for some pupils, in line with government guidance in place to tackle the virus. 

The Coronavirus Act 2020 Provision of Remote Education (England) makes clear that schools have a legal duty to provide remote education for our children who are unable to attend due to coronavirus (COVID-19). The Direction requires that where a class, group of pupils, or individual pupils need to self-isolate, or there are local or national restrictions requiring pupils to remain at home, schools are expected to provide immediate access to remote education.

At Hiltingbury Infant School we are committed to ensuring all children have the same opportunities which is achieved by delivering the same curriculum, regardless of whether children are in school or learning remotely. Our teachers will follow the school's curriculum mapping and will use the knowledge and skills within it to plan all provision. By adopting this approach, we can ensure children's learning, development, progress and the acquisition of knowledge and skills are not interrupted by not being in school, and that the impact of national and local restrictions do not obstruct children from making progress.

Please read our Remote Learning Plan Policy which can be found at the bottom of this page. This document has been produced to outline our approach for pupils and/or staff who are not attending school, as a result of government guidance. Alongside this, we have summarised how our remote learning will be delivered for each year group which can be seen by clicking your child's year group above. 

Remote Learning Policy

• Remote Learning Plan Policy.pdf

Engagement and Feedback:

It is expected that children and parents will:

• Complete the learning set by the class teacher each day
• Engage fully in remote learning; complete learning tasks, seek support if required, alert school staff of home learning cannot be completed, request paper copies of learning if there is limited or no access to technology. 
• Let the school know if you need support in delivering remote learning; e.g. you need technology.
• Communicate respectfully with other class members and school staff
• Ensure the Internet and other platforms are used responsibly and safely
• Attend our weekly assemblies
• Attend group sessions with the class teacher

As a school, we recognise that everyone's experience of 'lockdown' will be different and understand that as parents you are having to balance work, parenting, schooling and the emotional wellbeing of your family. You are all doing a fantastic job in meeting the school's expectations. As a school we have adopted a blended approach to provide flexibility to our families in establishing home learning routines that suit their individual circumstances. Parents and carers should choose from the range of remote learning provided to ensure that children are engaging remotely in equivalent length to the core teaching they would receive in school, which is on average three hours a day, with less for younger children (EYFS).  We have put together a suggested remote learning timetable to provide some support on how you could structure a typical week. Please feel free to use this or create your own that suits the needs of your family. You may find it useful to schedule in your child's weekly Zoom session with their teacher. 

Children should complete learning that is assigned to them. We ask that parents/carers support their child in understanding the learning intentions; offering guidance and explanations of how to complete the learning tasks and submit their work. It is important that teachers can establish your child's level of understanding so that future learning is accurately pitched and your child is appropriately supported. Please do provide your child's teacher with information such as the level of support they received. 

Suggested Home Learning Timetable

• Home Learning Timetable.pdf

Additional support for children with particular needs:

We strongly encourage you to send your child to school if they have particular needs. After the announcement of school closures, our SENCO and class teachers have worked closely to call families and offer places to children who have an EHCP or are vulnerable. We recognise that some pupils may not be able to access remote learning without support from adults at home. We acknowledge the difficulties this may place on families when trying to juggle parenting, working, schooling and the emotional wellbeing of your whole family. We will work with parents and carers to support children by:

• Providing bespoke 1:1 tuition for children
• Providing learning activities to develop speech and language skills
• Providing emotional literacy support
• Providing learning videos for maths and literacy including phonics
• Setting tasks to develop long term objectives on EHCPs
• Providing additional learning packs with resources to support specific needs
• Ensuring weekly check in sessions for parents/children
• Providing a wellbeing paper pack - created by our SENCO

Our SENCO, Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and class teachers are always available to provide support. Please do contact us if you are finding things difficult or need further advice, support and/or guidance. 

FAQ: Remote Learning

How will my child access remote learning?

For children in Reception, Tapestry will be used to share learning videos, tasks and record children's learning. Teachers will use Tapestry to assess and respond to work uploaded by pupils. For children in Key Stage 1; Seesaw will be used to share learning. Teachers and other support staff will read and respond to pupils work. In addition to these platforms; each year group will also produce a weekly planner of activities for reading, writing and maths as well as the foundation subjects. Each year group will also be producing a two week 'paper pack' with age appropriate reading, writing and maths activities which can be collected from the reception area.

We have limited/no use of technology, what can we do?

We have sent out communications asking parents/carers to contact us should they not have access to technology so that we can arrange this as a school. We have also provided printed packs of learning to ensure that families who are trying to support siblings and share devices alongside working from home themselves have access to learning. For those families who are unable to upload work for teachers to assess, we have advised them to return the paper pack which can then be marked by the class teacher. If you are in need of technology or further paper materials for your child then please do contact the school office. We have been contacted by Chandlers Ford Help Group to advise that they can support in providing schools with laptops for children who need them, so please do contact us if you need a device.  

How will my child be taught remotely? 

Our teaching and learning principles will underpin all aspects of remote provision. Primarily, we will ensure that children have the opportunity to learn new knowledge and apply that as a skill. We will use what we know about effective pedagogy to ensure our delivery of remote learning is effective. As a school, we have adopted a blended approach in response to our 'parental remote learning questionnaire', utilising a combination of learning videos, instructional guides, stimuli (such as videos, images, poems, texts and stories), weekly learning planners and printed learning packs to teach your child. These materials will support your child in understanding the concept and how to approach the learning task that has been set. Through lessons and feedback, teachers will provide opportunities discussion about your child's learning. We recognise that every child has personalised needs and adapt what is provided for children following feedback and assessment. 

How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns? 

It is expected that all children will complete work of an equivalent length to the core teaching they would receive in school (three hours a day) and submit it to the teacher for the learning to be marked and responded to. Feedback will be provided as soon as possible to replicate what children would receive in school. Feedback will review the children's learning, provide feedback on children's learning, address any misconceptions and provide next steps in learning based on the progress children are making. All feedback will be available for parents/carers to read and review. This will be shared via the private comment sections on Tapestry and Seesaw. Parents may also share comments, concerns, worries and progress with teachers through the same function and this is encouraged. Teachers will alert the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher to concerns they have about children who are not engaging with remote learning and attending weekly group Zoom sessions including assemblies. At this point, calls will be made to check in with parents, and support and guidance will be offered to families. 

How will you assess my child's work and progress?

The school's assessment policy will support teachers in using assessment to plan and deliver a remote provision. For remote learning, we will ensure that:

• Remote learning begins with an assessment of what children know, understand and can do
• Assessment happens daily, in response to feedback from children, and informs all future learning
• Teachers will identify when children need to learn something new, practise previously taught concepts or apply learning, as a result of assessment. 
• Children will have opportunities to respond to feedback from their teachers; addressing misconceptions or errors. 
• Children will be appropriately challenged through our remote learning.

Feedback will be provided in many forms. We encourage parents and children to use the voice notes, video and screen recording features of Seesaw and Tapestry and will respond to children using these features. Feedback to children will be relevant and focused on the learning intentions; supporting them to recognise where they have been successful and what they need to improve. 

How will you support me to keep my child motivated?

We acknowledge from the parental questionnaire that motivation was a common theme for some families during previous school closures. With this in mind, we are delivering assemblies with a theme and a challenge for the children to do throughout the week and share with their peers during our celebration assembly on Friday. Throughout the week, children will also have a weekly group Zoom chat with their teacher and a small group of their peers. We are also continuing our 'Learners of the Week' linked to our Hiltingbury Heroes and will continue to choose a home and school learner each week. If you require any further support or advice on keeping your child motivated at home, then please do call us.