Remote Education Provision

Remote education provision: information for parents

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education if local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.
For details of what to expect where individual students are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.

The remote curriculum: what is taught to students at home

A student’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 students being sent home?

All students in KS3 and KS4 have subject booklets for each unit of the curriculum they are currently studying. Lessons are individually numbered in these booklets and students will continue working through the next lesson in their booklet in the next timetabled slot for this lesson. Teachers aim to be able to move to live lessons via Teams immediately, but where there is a delay caused by staff absence, work will be set via Show My Homework, continuing to follow the normal school timetable.

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. For example, some aspects of PE, music, science, DT and art that may need resources which students won’t have at home will be adapted to be accessible for all.

Remote teaching and study time each day

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

We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take students broadly the following number of hours each day:

Secondary school-aged students not working towards formal qualifications this year.	This will take approximately 5 hours per day.
Secondary school-aged students working towards formal qualifications this year.	This will involve approximately 5 hours of remote lesson content per day plus some additional time for self-study.

Accessing remote education

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

All remote learning will be set on Satchel:One and Microsoft Teams. Students access both of these using their single sign in user names and passwords for their school accounts.

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 students may not have suitable online access at home. We take the following approaches to support those students to access remote education:

We have already issued a survey asking parents / carers to identify if their child has access to suitable technology at home which would allow them to access remote learning. We have a record of all students whose parents / carers have identified that they would need support with technology and have distributed devices to support them.
Parents / carers should email admin@nobel.herts.sch.uk or phone the school to request assistance
Printed materials have been distributed to all students through remote learning packs. When in school, we ask that students take home all of their learning resources and exercise books on a daily basis so that should a student discover they need to self-isolate, they have all the resources they need at home with them.

How will my child be taught remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach students remotely:

live teaching (online lessons via Microsoft Teams)
recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by our own staff)
assignment based online work set by our staff
paper packs produced by our staff (e.g. workbooks, worksheets) if applicable
commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences

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?

As far as possible, all students must be available on-line to take part in each lesson/carry out learning activities set by their teachers. They should do this for each lesson at the time that the lesson appears on their timetable. If your child is unwell and will be unavailable for live lessons please telephone the school absence line in the usual way.
We understand that this may be more challenging for students if there are limited devices in the household or additional demands on broadband. In this case, we would ask students to ensure they have listened to recordings of the live lessons and completed their work within 48 hours.

Students must remain Ready, Respectful and Safe when online.
Ready
You must:

Open your school emails and check on Satchel:one every morning.
Accept the invitation to the lesson, so you receive reminders and have the link easily accessible.
Be on time to all live lessons, making sure that you are logged into MS Teams with your school email.
Mute both your camera and microphone at the start of your lesson and wait for the lesson to begin.
Have all the necessary equipment with you, including any work you have completely previously.
Submit all work set during the lesson as directed by your teacher.

Respectful
You must

Only unmute yourself and turn your camera on, when directed to do so by a teacher.
Do not take a screen shot or make any recordings, unless specifically directed to by your teacher.
Do not disrupt the lesson in any way.
Respond to all questions that your teacher asks through your microphone.
Do not have other screens on – your focus should be solely on MS Teams.
If you cannot attend a live lesson, your parent or carer needs to contact the school.

Safe

Make sure you are appropriately dressed for all online lessons.
Sit at a desk or table, to make sure that you do not hurt your back and that your work is of a good standard.
Make sure that there is nothing personal on view and blur background (via three dots and apply background effects) when you are asked by your teacher to turn your camera on.
You will only be invited to lessons through your school email and school Teams account, so not accept any Zoom links or email links from anybody other than a member of staff.
Do not share any invites you have had to live lessons with anyone not in your class

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

The form tutor or class teacher will take a register at the start of each live lesson or form time session and follow up any unauthorised absences with the student and parents via email.
Students will demonstrate their engagement through:
- contributing answers in the group chat or by microphone when asked to do so
- Submitting tasks via Teams or Satchel:One when requested
- Completing the relevant quizzes on Satchel:One
Non-engagement with work will also result in contact being made by the school.

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 student work is as follows:

Teachers will provide feedback opportunities in the majority of lessons, such as: response to queries online, comments on work, whole class feedback, self-marking quizzes or providing answers for students to self-mark their own work. Teachers may also identify for students work that they must submit in order to receive individual feedback on.

Additional support for students with particular 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 students, for example some students 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 students in the following ways:

During periods of remote learning, The Nobel School remains open to children of critical workers, vulnerable students and/or those with an EHCP. Pastoral teams and SEND team are available to support remote learning.Vulnerable students and students that have an EHCP will receive weekly contact to support student wellbeing.

Differentiated work/timetables will be put in place where appropriate to maintain student engagement in education. All students and parents are able to follow normal school procedure and contact teacher and/or form tutor with concerns or if in need of extra support.

EHCP annual reviews will be held either via the phone or an appropriate group call service, which may include video call option such as zoom or Teams. Should the parent prefer, an extension may be applied to the annual review date. The SENDCo will advise how to make these arrangements. Additional or emergency reviews will be available should significant adjustments to an EHCP be required prior to the return to school.

At Nobel we recognise the importance of supporting our students with SEND during periods of remote education by:

Taking a student-centred approach- looking at the individual needs of the child and their home environment.

Replicating school support as much as possible- We send home any physical resources that support the student in school, such as visual timetable strips, ergonomic pens, pencil grips, reading pens and tangles and laptops. All students follow the pattern of the normal school day.

Offering additional support parents of students with SEND – Regular calls home are made to identified students of SEND and students with an EHCP are invited into mini school and have weekly calls.

Delivering universal resources- Subject workbooks are issued to each student which clearly lay out resources for each lesson with key vocabulary, sentence starters and key information.

Remote education for self-isolating students

Where individual students 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 students 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?

All students must keep their subject curriculum booklets with them, they must not be left in school. These booklets provide the key resources for our lessons and are essential equipment for students that are self-isolating.
A daily email will be sent to all teaching staff with details of which students are self-isolating and when they are expected to return. Teachers will then know who they need to set work for.
There may be a 24 hour time lag between teachers receiving notification of a student self-isolating and the first work being set.
The class teacher has responsibility to set work for a student in their class who is self-isolating via email or by uploading resources for the student to access on Teams or Satchel:One.
Work set should follow the curriculum as it is laid out so that when students return to school there are no gaps in their knowledge and they are able to pick up the learning with the rest of the class.
In order to provide clear explanations of new content class teachers can choose to:
- Invite self-isolating students to join the class lesson via Teams to listen in to explanations – this may only require them to be online for a short time but will enable the teacher to provide explanation just once to the whole class. In this case their attendance will be audio only, not visual.
- Provide a pre-recorded explanation via PowerPoint to the student.
Self-isolating students will continue to access homework via Satchel:one.
Class teachers should clearly identify to students which elements of the work completed they are expected to submit for feedback via Teams. The class teacher should provide this feedback at least once in a two week period of self-isolation.
In addition students will receive feedback from self-marking quizzes and the use of exemplar answers as part of their lessons or homework.