Remote Learning Policy

Duck Street, Cerne Abbas, Dorset, DT2 7LA
‘The Small School with the Big Heart.’
Tel: 01300 341319         e-mail:office@cerneabbas.dorset.sch.uk         Website: www.cerneabbas.dorset.sch.uk
 

Cerne Abbas CE VC First School

Remote Learning Policy 

Our vision is to be the best we can be.

We are committed to nurturing every child to thrive in a safe and engaging environment based on our Christian values of  Peace, Trust, Friendship, Joy, Courage and Forgiveness. We strive to develop happy and confident learners ready to face the challenges of their next steps.

1. Aims

This remote learning policy for staff aims to:

•  Ensure consistency in the approach to remote learning for pupils who aren’t in school due to unexpected absences or physical/mental health reasons which may prevent a pupil attending school.

•  Set out expectations for all members of the school community with regard to remote learning
•  Provide appropriate guidelines for data protection

2. Roles and responsibilities

 Teachers

When providing remote learning, teachers must be available between 9am and 3.15pm. 

If they’re unable to work for any reason during this time, for example due to sickness or caring for a dependent, they should report this using the normal absence procedure. 

When providing remote learning, teachers are responsible for:

Setting work 

• You will provide work for your class, this includes both the children in school and the children learning from home.
• Early Years and Key stage 1 teachers will provide learning that will keep the children engaged for 3 hours a day and Key Stage 2 learning for 4 hours a day,  whilst the child is at home.
• The work will be set by 9am in the morning of the day the children are to complete it.
• Abbey class teacher will upload the learning to Class Dojo, and Trendle, Giants and Ducklings teachers will upload learning to Tapestry.
• If you are not teaching in school, to ensure consistency across the year please liaise with the adult covering your class at least the day before the learning is to be delivered. This includes ensuring the adult knows where to access any learning resources. Ensure there is a variety of learning to include all pupils and to make sure pupils with limited access to devices can still complete the work

Providing feedback on work 

• Completed work can be uploaded to Class Dojo or Tapestry
• Teachers must comment on the children’s learning
• Feedback on completed work must be done on the same day or the day after. If it is a weekend, then feedback should be on the following Monday.

Keeping in touch with pupils who aren’t in school and their parents

• At least once a week teachers should contact the parents/carers to ensure all children are engaging with the learning. If a child does not engage, then the teacher should phone the family to ensure everything is OK within the week and before the next catch up session.
• Emails or any correspondence should be answered by the end of the next working day. There is no expectation that emails are answered over the weekend.
• Any complaints or concerns should be addressed by the class teacher. If they cannot be resolved, then the Head Teacher should be informed. Any safeguarding issues should be reported on My Concern and the DSL / Deputy DSL informed.

Attending virtual meetings with staff, parents and pupils :

• Please be appropriately dressed
• The meeting needs to take place in an area with no background noise and there should be  nothing inappropriate in the background.
• If the meeting takes place in school, then ensure the other children in the class are involved or are being supervised by another member of staff.

Please also read Appendix 1

 Teaching assistants

When assisting with remote learning, teaching assistants must be available during their working hours.

If they are unable to work for any reason during this time, for example due to sickness or caring for a dependent, they should report this using the normal absence procedure. They will be guided by the class teacher and follow the same guidelines as the teachers.

Head Teacher

Alongside any teaching responsibilities, senior leaders are responsible for:

Monitoring the effectiveness of remote learning through regular meetings with teachers reviewing work set or reaching out for feedback from pupils and parents. These meetings will include safeguarding and data protection considerations.

Reporting on a regular basis to the governing body.

Pupils and parents

Staff can expect parents with children learning remotely to:

Make the school aware if their child is sick or otherwise cannot complete work
Seek help from the school if they need it 
Be respectful when making any complaints or concerns known to staff

Governing board

The governing board is responsible for:

Monitoring the school’s approach to providing remote learning to ensure education remains as high quality as possible
Ensuring that staff are confident that remote learning systems are appropriately secure, for both data protection and safeguarding reasons

Data protection

 Processing personal data

Staff members may need to collect and/or share personal data such as email addresses as part of the remote learning system. As long as this processing is necessary for the school’s official functions, individuals will not need to give permission for this to happen.

However, staff are reminded to collect and/or share as little personal data as possible online.

Keeping devices secure

All staff members will take appropriate steps to ensure their devices remain secure. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Keeping the device password-protected.
• Ensuring the hard drive is encrypted – this means if the device is lost or stolen, no one can access the files stored on the hard drive by attaching it to a new device
• Making sure the device locks if left inactive for a period of time
• Not sharing the device among family or friends
• Installing antivirus and anti-spyware software
• Keeping operating systems up to date – always install the latest updates

Links with other policies

This policy is linked to our:

• Behaviour policy
• Relationships policy
• Child protection policy and coronavirus addendum to our child protection policy
• Data protection policy and privacy notices
• Home-school agreement
• E-safety and internet acceptable use policy

APPENDIX 1

Advice for Live learning sessions

 Considering school closures and the need to provide distance learning for pupils please read the information below:

If using live links to pupils at home

Within School

• All live lessons must be carried out using school equipment only
• Ensure a clear timetable of each online session is completed, detailing:

1. Each pupil and the teacher they interacted with,

2. The content of the live lesson

3. The time it started and finished

4. Details of the parent/carer spoken to

5. Where in the home the child was when receiving the learning lesson

6. Any issues that arose during this session

•  The room used to deliver these learning sessions should be accessible, i.e. the teacher should be able to be heard and seen.
•  The senior Leadership team should ensure online lessons are appropriate by;

1. Being aware of the content

2. Dropping into the classes throughout the day (unannounced)

3. Viewing a cross section of recordings

4. Gain feedback from the Parent/ career and child after each live link

 Pupils at Home

The pupils parent/Carer should be spoken to at the start of each live lesson to confirm the following:

•  The child is in a public area of the house
•  The child should be appropriately dressed
• The child is not alone in a bedroom, if this is not the case the child must be asked to move to another part of the home

or

if the parent is staying with their child they can remain where they are for the duration of the live lesson.