Senior leader with overall responsibility for the quality and delivery of remote education: Mr S Gillan Head

In times of upheaval, national crises and personal challenges for all of us, it is vital that your child is still receiving the very best of educational care possible. Our duty to Thurlbear families ensures that learning continues irrespective of lockdown or self-isolation constraints, so Thurlbear Church of England VA Primary School has developed the following plan. This offers remote learning opportunities, whilst also acknowledging that some households may have limited access to devices and would require hard-copies of work and resources. The plan complies with the expectations and principles outlined in the DFE document Guidance for Full Opening of Schools.

Software and online platforms

Teachers will set appropriate work in-line with our current curriculum. This work is placed online through google-classroom and a suggested timetable is created weekly for parents to follow. This resource also enables us to set individual work for children as necessary and catered to their needs.

The allotted hours as recommended by the government are set:

Key stage 1: 3 hours a day

Key stage 2: 4 hours a day

The work set will be supplemented by a range of resources provided by White Rose Maths Hub, Oak Academy and Literacy Hub letters and sounds programmes, but these will not be the only means of provision. Again, teachers will provide links and resources relevant to their class and need.

White Rose Maths resources will be used as they match our current maths curriculum model. Children are very used to seeing these resources and using them in class. This is a consistent approach through the school. Oak Academy has also been selected to support remote learning for a number of reasons: The Oak Academy lessons are in-line with our teaching ethos – they encourage the use of retrieval, explicit teaching with high quality modelling, and the use of deliberate practice; the online lessons are free to all and offer a recorded taught session so that the children can access physical teaching from a teacher and then access work relating to that lesson within the same website; there are also hundreds of lessons specifically aimed at children with SEND (Special Education Need and Disability) and requiring additional support. We will also supplement these sessions with class teacher input where a need is identified.

‘Maths Shed’, ‘Spelling Shed’, ‘TT Rockstar’s and ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds videos’ are all online resources that will be utilised to support the acquisition and retention of basic core skills. Again, teachers will clearly highlight these in both planning and delivery online.

Children will remain in contact with their class teacher through Google Classroom, via Classdojo and through structured on-line Google meetings to share successes and communicate regularly as well as to monitor work that has been set and offer support and praise for tasks completed. On-line Google Classroom sessions will take place daily, with each class, to support the school in offering an opportunity for the children to communicate with their class teacher through live video providing a taught session. This will be used so that children can receive further support or encouragement after accessing the resources or to discuss work that has been set.

Classdojo is an online system used as a secure form of communication between school and home, which has already proved invaluable. Teachers and parents will be able to message one another to share information and offer support. This will also enable work the children have carried out to be uploaded and feedback to be given. This platform offers the chance for teachers to celebrate children’s work and any feedback given to the children will also form the basis for assessment purposes.

In preparation for home-learning, parents and children received logins and passwords for the following platforms:

Spelling Shed, TT Rockstars, Maths Shed and Google Classroom

Worship, Active and wellbeing is important to us.

Our sports coach will do a live session every week with each year group via google classroom and also provide a recorded session weekly to every class. There will also be opportunities for recorded worships, as this is key to our Church School ethos. As always, if you have any concerns, queries or questions regarding mental wellbeing, the first port of call is the class teacher, supported by the Head teacher.

Engagement / Safeguarding / SEND

If a child is entitled to benefit-related FSM, we will ensure food parcels are made available through BAM catering company and then put arrangements in place to collect. If any child is vulnerable in any way, Mr Gillan or a member of the Safeguarding Team will ensure that appropriate agencies are notified and arrange for regular ‘safe and well’ checks via a phone call from the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). Where children would normally receive additional support from SEND agencies, the SENDCO (Special Education Need and Disability Coordinator) Mrs Burke, will make arrangements for those to continue via zoom as long as the agencies engage. The SENDCO will share appropriate resources with teachers who will disseminate accordingly. Those not engaging with home learning will receive a phone call from Mr Gillan, Mrs Lucas, Mrs Burke or the class teacher to discuss the obstacles and the support needed by the family.