Home Learning

Queens Road Academy Remote Learning

Frequently Asked Questions

The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

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 pupils broadly the following number of hours each day: (NB: All children are different; please contact the class teacher if work set takes much longer or shorter)

Accessing remote education

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

We primarily use Google Classroom as a way to manage work between school and home. This is supplemented with a range of other online resources:

Espresso – A digital content environment that provides games, quizzes and activities linked to the National curriculum

Learning Village – A resource that supports pupils to develop English and is provisioned to specific users

Time Tables Rockstars – Helps our learners rehearse the basics in mathematics

Bug Club – Is a way that we can keep our pupils provided with reading and phonics based activities

QRA uses a system called Wonde to provide a way to get to the online resources via a QR code. This means we can help keep pupils information safe, by reducing the number of passwords.

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 or that this may not be the best way for some pupils to learn at home. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

• Queens Road Academy does not assume all pupils have an appropriate device. If your child has difficulty due through not having a device that connects to the internet to be able to complete work, then please get in touch. We will try our very best to help you.
• Queens Road Academy has a number of laptops and data cards for home use, which we can loan pupils to use to support learning
• Contact our main school office 01226 737010 or let us know through our routine ‘Safe and well’ calls if you would like help with resources.
• If there are special situations that prevent the use of technology being used in the home; please contact us, so that we can organise an alternative.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Some of the ways we provide remote learning are:

• Setting work for children to complete and submit electronically, using Google Classroom either featuring direct video instruction or clear written instruction.
• live teaching (online lessons). We like to check in with the children and hear their voices, so each day there will be an element of ‘live’ learning. This may take the form of a registration time, a discussion point or a full lesson.
• Many classes held online include recorded video. These are comprised of the class teacher talking over slides to demonstrate. We find the benefit of this method is that children can replay teaching or watch it when scheduled around their day.
• Online interactive content. Sometimes using Wonde as a way of signposting to digital resources. Some of the resources are linked to quizzes or activities that are multichoice. The benefit of this is that often these provide instant feedback enabling your child to know how well they did. Examples of this are Espresso, TT Rock Stars and some activities in Google Classroom itself.
• Reading books are sometimes provided through Bug Club and enable the class teacher to set reading activities and see what books your child has read.
• Linked resources to White Rose Mathematics as a key way we structure progression in this subject
• long-term project work and/or internet research activities
• We also set tasks to complete away from any screen device. We view this as important for pupil wellbeing.

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?

• It is a fact that online learning is not a simple swap from school classroom learning. Encourage breaks and movement for your child throughout the day, as this helps overall focus. It is why we have ‘play-time’ breaks in a normal school day.
• Routines to work can be really helpful. The class teachers will keep daily prompts to help in this. Adjust the schedule as needed to remove frustrations, this is why we try to record more lessons, than simply provide all live lessons. It is normal that for some lessons your child may flow through the learning activity easier than others. Encourage your child to engage with the teacher if they are finding it tricky.
• For the safety of our pupils, please do not attempt to access our Google Classrooms using personal e-mail addresses. All pupils have access through their SMAT account. The regular monitoring of the quantity and quality of remote learning tasks will take place by our school curriculum leaders. If parents/carers have any questions or comments about the quantity or quality of work which is set, please directly contact school through the school email address and we will respond appropriately. Please do not use social media to address your concerns.
• We have collective responsibility, as school and home, to ensure that our children know how to stay safe online. School will support this through the use of the Google ‘Interland’ and other initiatives. We ask parents to contribute by discussing the importance of safety online with their children and closely monitoring their activity online.
• For further support and information, please visit our school website for useful resources. If you have any concerns or worries around child safety, please contact the school’s Safeguarding Officers.

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

• We use software to monitor pupil engagement with work. If we find that your child’s learning is not as expected, the class teacher may at first inform your child through the Google Classroom. If this is not responded to, then we may ask what help we can provide through a weekly phone call to you.

• Each time your child completes remote learning activities, tell them ‘well done’ for their effort. We will try to do the same. Google classroom provides an overview to the teacher to let them see which activities children have completed.
• If you are concerned about your child’s engagement in remote learning, email the school queensroad@smat.org.uk and the admin team will forward to the appropriate class teacher to respond.

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:

• Work which is turned in on Google Classrooms electronically, will be marked by the class teacher, in a timely and helpful manner. Where appropriate, feedback will be given using the ‘comments’ tool and returned to pupils so they can read and respond.
• We also use a tool called ‘Mote’ to provide audio feedback
• Some times we provide feedback to whole classes, groups or individuals, but your child should get some feedback on work submitted each week.

Additional support for pupils 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 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:

• Profiles’ are available for SEND pupils and advice can be sought from the Special needs Coordinator (SENDCO). A profile sets out how school and families can work together on agreed targets.
• The SENDCO will maintain contact with pupils with specific needs vulnerabilities and those children requiring special support, by phone or email.
• In addition to Google classroom some pupils will have pre-arranged time to be supported by school trained staff on profile targets. For some children this will be supported by an on-line resource called ‘Learning Village’.
• For our very youngest learners, (Nursey and Reception) work will be provisioned in a way that passes activity ideas to home. There is not an expectation that children know how to use a computer. We ask parents to support their child in sending back pictures of their work. ‘

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?

• Assuming that your child is healthy and well enough to work, learners will be expected to participate as fully as possible in the remote learning process. Learners/Parents will also be expected to read and respond to communication from the school, on a regular basis. If parents/carers find difficulty accessing remote learning due to lack of internet/devices, they should make the class teacher aware as soon as possible, through a phone call and solutions can be discussed. If parents have concerns about workload, these should be directed to pupils’ teachers via email (Queensroad@smat.org.uk ). Teachers will work on the assumption that learners will not have the necessary equipment that they would usually have in school and will make no presumption of a learner’s ability to print at home, so will set tasks which do not require printing. For pupil wellbeing, activities set will be a balance of screen and non-screen-based tasks.
• In the situation where your child is isolating and the class teacher has the majority of pupils in school being taught by them, work will be provided as soon as reasonably practicable. This situation may also result in pupil work responses/feedback being provided by support staff. Please be aware that St. Mary’s Academy Trust proactively supports the work-life balance of staff and as such we encourage staff to respond to emails within working hours. Emails received after 4.00pm may not be read before the start of the next working day.