Remote Education Provision: information for parents and carers
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to students and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education.
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.
The type of support, resources and learning will be determined and explained in the initial contact which will be dependent on the department that your child/ young person is in. Due to the age range and diversity of SEND needs that Severndale caters for, the offer of distance learning and support reflects the needs of the cohort and also considers the specific needs of the family to enable maximum daily engagement and support for the children and young people whilst at home.
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some aspects of learning. For example, where the focus of learning requires specialist equipment, expertise, or resources, such as floor space during a physical development session to practice physiotherapist plans. We will work with families and partner specialists to find mutually acceptable alternative solutions.
We understand that the time taken to complete remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will be individual for each student based on their engagement, how much support they require and differing home situations. As per remote education guidance, your child or young person will be provided with an equivalent amount of work that they would be accessing in school with allowances for individual circumstances. We understand that most of our students will require support from you/ other family members, therefore we accept that any activities, timetable or remote learning plan may not follow suggested timeframes, or set times of the day as your child/ young person may require behavioural, physical, or medical support as well as educational. We will aim to provide a variety of work which can be accessed throughout the day to be manageable within your own home environments.
Some of our remote learning plans will suggest the use of:
- online resources such as BBC Bitesize
- YouTube videos such as content from our own Severndale YouTube where there are approximately 200 videos made by our staff, specifically for our students - https://www.youtube.com/c/SeverndaleYouTube/videos
- Specialist lessons available on the Oak National Academy website – 6 of our teachers presented, with support from a team of Severndale staff, produced a series of high quality lessons for this platform - https://classroom.thenational.academy/specialist
- There is an expectation for all students to engage in a daily wellbeing Teams or Zoom meetings with school staff. This may be with the class group, or individually. If for any reason Zoom sessions cannot be accessed, WhatsApp video calls or doorstep visits to the child/ young person’s home will be undertaken at least once a week by a Designated Safeguarding Lead, Education Welfare Officer, or a member of the Learning Community Trust welfare team.
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:
If your child/ young person does not have access to appropriate equipment such as a tablet or a laptop, or sufficient online access, please make contact with your child’s class teacher or phase leader.
- We will issue or lend laptops or tablets to students to those who need these.
- Students and their families can access any printed materials needed if they do not have online access – please call or email your child/ young person’s teacher or phase lead
- Students can submit work to their teachers if they do not have online access – this should be agreed with your child/ young person’s teacher. This can be shared via regular communication and then sent in on your child’s return to school.
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach students remotely:
Some examples of remote teaching approaches:
- live teaching (online Teams or Zoom sessions)
- recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
- printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets)
- textbooks and reading books students have taken/ been sent home
- commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences
- long-term project work
- Support Plans as instructed by other professionals such as Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy (OT)
- Expectations for students’ engagement with remote education – we understand and accept that it may be extremely challenging for your child/ young person to follow a timetable while at home due to their specific SEND needs, however we expect that any challenges and progress made are readily shared in the daily wellbeing Teams or Zoom meetings so that the teacher can work with parent carers to further personalise the approaches used to develop and maximise engagement.
- Expectations of parental support - setting routines to support your child’s education, encourage positive sleep patterns, ensure that your child/ young person is always appropriately supervised, and that your child/ young person is well supported and has access to suggested learning activities in line with shared weekly plans from your child’s teacher.
Please do not hesitate to contact Ceri Cusack at ceri.cusack@lct.education if you have any specific questions relating to our remote education offer or would like to provide any feedback.
If you have any safeguarding concerns at any time during remote education or otherwise please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead at michelle.hill@lct.education