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Castor Church of England Primary School

Home Learning

'Remote education' is the term used to identify provision that is put in place by the school to ensure that children's education continues, with the children and their teacher in different locations.

During periods of whole school or bubble closure, or individual cases of self-isolation, remote learning will be provided to ensure we are still offering high quality education for all of our children. This will be a through a combination of digital remote education and paper based learning, and will be accessible to all.

Please see the link at the bottom of this page for our latest home learning update (2.2.21).

COVID-19 Home learning (Remote)

  • There may be children working from home in all year groups at any given point, either through individual or bubble isolation. Work information will continue to be sent home by 8:45am. This will match the learning that will be taking place within school as closely as possible, and will be of equivalent length to what the children receive in school.
  • In the event of a whole bubble or school closure, daily ‘tutorials’ will be held by the class teacher for the children to attend through Microsoft Teams. These tutorials, and the accompanying work, will be in place on the first day of each closure period.  The tutorials will explain the work that is set and how it should be completed, before giving the children a period of time to complete the work. These will be for 15-20 minutes at approximately 9am, 11am and 1pm, although timings are flexible according to the age of the children and the tasks that have been set. Children will be able to take photos of their learning and email this to their teacher so they can monitor progress and adjust subsequent learning. It will not be feasible or possible for staff to print work out, mark it and then scan back in and return to the children. However, all work will be acknowledged daily with supportive feedback, and constructive feedback and next steps will be given where appropriate.
  • The children will follow a timetable that is as close to their school timetable as possible.  As an absolute minimum, this will be at least 3 hours per day in KS1 and 4 hours per day in KS2. We expect our younger children in Reception to be engaging in school work for between 2-3 hours per day, but appreciate this is relevant to their level of development. These timings incorporate both the live tutorials and the time taken to complete the subsequent activities.
  • The children will have at least an hour of English and Maths every day, and these will be scheduled around the daily tutorials on Microsoft Teams, with the curriculum content taught ‘live’. For children in Reception, a range of activities will be provided each week, to extend their daily tutorials, which will incorporate all aspects of the Early Years Curriculum. In addition, time will be set aside for daily practise of arithmetic, times table, spellings and reading, as well as a daily Phonics lesson in Reception and Year 1. Each day, the children will also have a subject from the wider curriculum (e.g. Science, Geography, RE), and these may be completed as discrete lessons or through the completion of a ‘project’. Use will be made of the resources released by the government to support with a child’s education at home (The Oak National Academy and BBC resources), where appropriate.
  • The work that is set for children will be pitched at a level that will challenge them as they would be in the classroom, but will not rely solely on the support of an adult at home. This will take into account the needs of all learners, including those with SEND. Additional groups, including 1:1 sessions, will occur for some children, including those with an EHCP, to ensure that additional targets remain a focus. These sessions will be planned to complement the timings of their class’ learning, and will be in addition to the core offer. We will be working closely with parents to ensure that their child's individual needs are met as as closely as possible as they would be in school.
  • The curriculum followed and the progression in key skills in individual subjects will be built upon as it would be in school e.g. in Maths, children will learn to round to the nearest multiple of 10, before rounding to the nearest whole number and then the  nearest 1 decimal place. This will be reflected in the work that is set for the children. Whole school learning schemes that are followed will continue to be followed with the children working from home e.g. Busy Ant Maths.
  • In order to support your child’s learning, we ask that you please encourage them to engage in the tutorials, where possible, and participate in the activities.  Through our class emails and Microsoft Teams, we monitor daily pupil engagement in home learning. If engagement becomes a concern (ie your child is not engaging daily), then we will contact parents and discuss strategies to support both children and their families.  
  • If children are unable to access virtual learning due to a lack of internet access or available devices then please contact your child’s class teacher by email. We will seek to address internet access issues or lend a laptop or tablet to allow children to engage with the daily tutorials. These devices will be set up to safely access the internet and you will be asked to sign a loan agreement. 
  • If printed copies of activities are required, in place of virtual learning, please contact your class teacher so arrangements can be made for work to be safely collected from the school office. In turn, children can return completed work to the school office for the class teacher’s attention, which will be collected by them when they are next scheduled to be in school.
  • The whole school community (children, parents, staff and governors) will be invited to attend a daily act of Collective Worship at 10am on Microsoft Teams. This will follow the same format and schedule as we normally would in school.

In keeping our Home Learning provision under review, we have taken consideration of the government publication on 'What's working well in remote education' - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/whats-working-well-in-remote-education/whats-working-well-in-remote-education.

There are lots of really useful websites available that can support home learning.  We have listed some below as a starting point and will be adding to the list as regularly as possible.

 

Sumdog - Opportunity to practise maths skills playing engaging games.  Use the school log in which has been provided to your child.

My Maths - Lessons and homework tasks on a range of maths topic areas.  Like Sumdog, use the school log in which has been provided to your child.

Top Marks games - Games to support learning across a lot of different areas of the curriculum.

Twinkl - Lots of resources for all aspects of the curriculum.  Use the parents code shared by school to access these resources. 

Woodlands Junior School - Lots of English and maths games.

Times Tables Rock Stars and Numbots - Use the school log in details which will be shared with you via email

Phonics Play - website to support the learning of phonics.  Use the displayed code on the website to gain access to the site.

PE with Joe Wicks Body Coach - a daily chance to be active for children and their families.

Lego Challenge - 30 days of activities to do with your box of Lego!  

Tynker - have a go at coding.  You'll need to create a free parent account to access the site. 

TTS Home Learning Booklets - a range of activities for children in EYFS, KS1 and KS2.  Download relevant book for your child.  Beebot and Bluebot apps are also downloaded from this link.  Control a Beebot or Bluebot on screen and learn the basic of how to control robots.

STEM activities for Home Learning - Science and Technology activities across the primary age range.

White Rose Maths - home learning activities for lots of maths concepts.

The World of David Walliams - lots of fun activities linked to David's children's books to enjoy here.

Oxford Owls - create a free log in and access e-books for children across the primary age range.

CEOP have created some home learning activities to support children's online safety at home.  It would be wise to look carefully at the activities first so you are ready for any questions that arise from them.

Nosy Crow have published a book for children to help them understand more about the Coronavirus and what is happening now.  It explains in simple terms what the virus is, what effects it has on people and how to stay safe. 

The National Literacy Trust have a family zone with ideas for reading and writing across the age ranges. 

The Peterborough Reads initiative has a Facebook page which is updated regularly and shares ideas, resources and activities to support children's language development while schools are closed.

This Faith at Home website from the Church of England has ideas to support families discussing faith and to help develop practices at home.

The Oak National Academy has been set up by the Department of Education to provide videoed lessons for families and schools.  There are lots of different lessons for different age groups of children covering a wide range of subjects.