If your child’s class or year group has to move to remote learning, your child’s lessons will be set on Google Classroom. Details for all your child’s lessons for that day will be posted on Google Classroom by 8am. In addition to this, the work will also be set on Classcharts. This is predominantly so parents can track and support their children with this remote learning. Pupils will be expected to access the work via Google Classrooms. 

What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?

If the order to switch to remote learning was given with very short notice (i.e. the day before), you may find that your child’s lessons are a little different for some subjects. This will be temporary as teachers plan and prepare for the remote provision. However, there will still be details on Google Classroom and Classcharts.

Following the first few days of remote education, will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?

Students will be set work from all the subjects that they would normally study in the school day. We will teach the same meaningful and ambitious curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. Pupils will be following their normal timetables and lessons will be posted to match and correspond with these. 

However, there will be some adaptations in some practical subjects (for example, Science, PE, hospitality and technology and Drama or Music) where specialist equipment would be needed, or it would not be safe for the child to complete the task independently. In these cases, theory work or a safe alternative will be set instead.   

How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?

We expect that remote education (including task instruction and independent work) will take pupils broadly approximately 5 hours a day. Teachers will be setting remote lessons which are planned and configured to be suitable for home learning and pupils should spend an hour each on these. 

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

Your child will access Google Classrooms for each of their subjects through their school email address. Pupils in KS3 have had ICT lessons in the autumn term to help them fully grasp how this system works. Pupils in KS4 have had form time sessions dedicated to managing and using Google Classroom accounts. 

If your child needs a reminder of their login details for their school email address or cannot access their Google Classroom, please contact your child’s form tutor or Mr Sayce.

Live lessons will be set on Google Classrooms and will take place via Google Meet. Meet links will be shared on Google Classroom assignments, Classcharts and the Classroom stream in advance of the lesson. 

Teachers will clearly indicate which independent work needs to be submitted for marking and feedback. Your child should submit this work through Google Classroom. It is essential that for each lesson the ‘Exit Quiz’ is completed and submitted. These are specifically, appropriate quizzes that will take the place of the usual plenary. These serve a dual purpose as they allow teachers to assess the extent of learning that has taken place and to potentially address misconceptions or mistakes in future lessons. Furthermore, they allow us an opportunity to track who is following their timetabled remote lessons and to follow up on any concerns. 

Work set remotely will also be duplicated via Classcharts. This is mainly so that parents can support and monitor what it is that their child is working on. We do expect pupils to access the work via Classrooms. 

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. We take the following approaches to support those pupils to access remote education:

• We can issue or lend laptops or tablets to pupils where necessary. Please contact the school office or Mr Sayce if you wish to be placed on a waiting list for a laptop or tablet. We will work to ensure that every pupil where required has access to a device to work from. Since March 2020 we have distributed over 65 laptops/devices in addition to ICT equipment provided to students who qualify for support with this. 
• If your child has an Xbox or PlayStation at home, then they can access Google Classroom and all their remote learning applications through this device. They will just require a keyboard (the controller can be used as a mouse). Please contact us at the school if you require further information on how to use a games console to access remote learning.
• We can issue or lend devices that enable an internet connection (for example, routers or Wi-Fi boosters), if you already have a device but no internet. Please contact us at the school if you wish to be placed on a waiting list for a router or Wi-Fi Booster.
• We can issue Vodafone data sim cards to support you to use internet access at home, either through your mobile device directly or using this a hotspot for a laptop/tablet. 
• If you meet certain criteria, we can apply to have your mobile data limit increased (until July 2021). This increased data limit can then be used as a ‘Wi-Fi hotspot’ for your child’s device. Please contact us at the school if you wish to be considered for this government scheme.
• Lessons will be configured so that they do not necessarily require pupils to print out material at home. However, if your child needs some specific printed material, then please contact us at the school and we will provide this printed work for you.
• If you are unable to submit your child’s work digitally through Google Classroom, please contact us at school and we will show you how to do this. If you do not have the technology available to submit work digitally, then please post or deliver the completed work to school. We will then ensure that it is passed to the relevant teachers for marking and feedback.
• We have sent out via email to all parents detailed instructions on how to use Google Classrooms, specifically on how to submit work and attach it to the relevant lessons. Furthermore, instructional videos on how to do this are available on your child’s year group Google Classroom. Please communicate with your child’s tutor or Mr Sayce if you require any assistance on how to do this. 
• Instructional videos and presentations on how to access, complete and submit work are on the school website alongside information and videos on how to participate in live lessons. 

How will my child be taught remotely?

The lessons we will provide at Acle Academy will ensure that we consistently have the same quality of remote provision across all subjects. we aim to deliver a meaningful, ambitious curriculum for every child in every subject.

We will be offering a blended approach to our remote learning provision. This will incorporate a pre-determined number of ‘live’ lessons for pupils in KS3 (approximately 25%) and KS4 (approximately 40%). A full breakdown of this allocation and schedule of live lessons can be found in the subsequent ‘live lessons’ section. 

We strongly believe that the approach we have taken with pre-recorded lessons and exit quizzes is the best pedagogical approach to remote teaching. We are confident in the quality of the remote provision being delivered by our teaching staff and feel that when accessed; pupils are getting a very good diet of lessons. We recognise that live lessons will still be problematic for some students in terms of shared access to computers or connectivity issues. However, we will ensure that the teacher delivery session within the lesson is recorded and shared on Google Classrooms as usual. We feel that this blended approach to remote provision will help students to engage with their learning meaningfully but also develop important independent learning skills. Alternatively, some teachers might prefer to pre-record a Loom video and share this for those pupils who cannot access live lessons.

Students can expect to see a pre-recorded Loom video or personalised introduction to every lesson; a main task and some form of assessment or exit quiz for the significant majority of their lessons. These exit quizzes in most cases will take the form of a Google Forms Quiz but can also make use of subject specific online resources such as Mathswatch which enable staff to monitor engagement and track progress. 

We recognise that a teacher explanation of the learning is vitally important to help with remote learning, therefore we are asking all colleagues to present the learning in this way. You child can watch, pause, or re-visit the Loom video at any point. 
To help us monitor engagement and understanding, teachers are issuing exit quizzes which will test students’ learning from the lesson. This replicates the same process we would use in lessons where we would ask questions to ensure that students have understood the content and to help us prepare for the next lesson. It also means that we can help monitor who is engaging or who is struggling with the work. 

Your child can contact their teacher directly at any time in the school day via Google Classroom messages and the teacher will respond directly to your child as soon as possible. 
Depending on the lesson being set and the pupils receiving this lesson it might also be suitable to set additional, independent study work and to issue challenging extension work or signpost pupils to more resources if they want to extend their studies further. As such, teachers might also make use of high-quality external providers such as Oak National Academy.

Live lessons:

We recognise that live sessions bring both advantages and disadvantages; therefore, they will represent a minority of total learning hours per week. Live lessons will account for roughly 25% of KS3 total learning hours and 38% KS4 total learning hours. 

Live lessons will take place via Google Meet and the online invitation will be posted in Google Classrooms/Classcharts and the Classroom stream on the day of the lesson. Live lessons will take place during the normal teaching timetable to ensure that there are no clashes. Live lessons will be scheduled for an hour but will run for 50 minutes to allow ease of joining and preparation for the next lesson.  
We have not dictated to teachers which specific timetabled lessons need to be ‘live’ but we have taken steps to ensure pupils are aware in advance. Teachers will post details of which lessons will be live for that week on the Monday morning before 9am. This will allow pupils to plan out their week and ensure they are aware and prepared for their live lessons. We also expect pupils to attend live morning registration sessions each day. This is another opportunity to check that pupils are prepared and organised for the day ahead. 
We do expect all pupils to attend live lessons where possible and if there are any issues which prohibit your child from attending please let us know and we will work with parents/carers to address these concerns. Additionally, with all the learning materials, including recorded/pre-recorded instructions still being uploaded to Google Classrooms, non-attendance at the live lessons does not preclude the completion of the work set by teachers. 

Further specific details about the live lessons can be found in the Loom introduction video, which will be posted in each Year group Google Classroom, form tutor classrooms and can be accessed at: https://www.wensumtrust.org.uk/acleacademy/learning/remote-education (bottom of the page) or directly via https://www.loom.com/share/cc51627fe47c431f8ed5d9b2d38f210a. A pupil friendly guide to using Google Meet can also be found on the remote learning page of the Acle Academy website under the tab ‘Guide to Google Meet- Students’

It is important to remember that both the live lessons and live registration can be accessed via a mobile device or tablet as well as a laptop or a desktop computer. 
Please see the live lesson allocation and student and parent protocols attached below for further information about live lessons at Acle Academy. 

Live lessons- Lesson timings
Form time check-in = 8:50am-9:00am
Period 1= 9:05am-10:05am
Period 2= 10:05am-11:05am
Break= 11:05am-11:30am
Period 3= 11:30am-12:30pm
Form time activities/lunch break- 12.30-12.50 pm (although these activities can be completed at any time)
Period 4= 1:30pm-2:30pm
Period 5= 2:30pm-3:30pm.

Morning registration live sessions

To help enable pupils to develop consistent routines and to find motivation to begin working every morning, we hold ‘live’ registration sessions each morning at 8:50am with pupils’ form tutors. Students log into their form group Classrooms and will log into a Google Meet session at 8:50am every school morning and will see their tutor for 5-10 minutes to register and check that they are up and ready to learn for the day ahead. If all is well and students are set for the day ahead then they will then leave the Google Meet and proceed with their timetabled lessons for the day. We aim for these sessions to provide an opportunity for students to ask specific questions about the learning they have been set for the day ahead or possibly discuss any concerns they might have. Pupils can find the Google Meet link within their Google Classroom for their tutor group (or they can ask their tutor for the code). 

Pupil and Parent protocol for joining ‘live streamed’ Google meetings

Students will need to regularly check Class charts and Google classrooms: this is where your teachers will post joining instructions for live meetings.  Meeting links will be posted close to the agreed date/time of each meeting. Additionally, pupils will be informed of which lessons will be going live in advance of this to give them time to prepare. 
Please be aware that the active delivery session of every meeting will be recorded and later shared via Google classroom. You are expected to attend all online lessons where possible, and registers will be taken. Please let your tutor or teacher know if you are unable to attend a lesson.

Student rules:
To safeguard the student and staff taking part in the live lessons it is important that you adhere to the following set of instructions when connecting to live streamed meetings. Failure to do so will result in your removal from the meeting.

• Do not share joining instructions for Acle Academy google meetings with anyone.
• Ensure you’re in a suitable quiet place and tell people who you live with that you’ll be in an online registration/lesson.
• Ensure that your name, as shown in Google meet, is your full name as registered with Acle Academy. Teachers will use this to decide whether to ‘admit’ you from the Waiting room.
• Once admitted into the lesson from the waiting room, please activate your video to enable your teacher to do a second identity check. Your teacher may then ask you to turn off your video.
• Dress appropriately for each meeting.
• Adhere to the Behaviour briefing which we will repeat at the start of each meeting. Any behaviour concerns will be addressed by the school following our behaviour policy
• Your microphone will be muted within the meeting. To get the teacher’s attention, use the ‘raise hand’ feature.
• The ‘Chat’ feature should be used only to ask questions about the learning- not for general chat or comments not related to the work.
• You need to be in the lesson no later than 5 minutes before the published start time; lessons will be locked once students are admitted. (If you encounter a problem, please send the teacher concerned a direct email).
• The recording of still images, filmed images or audio of staff or other pupils without permission, and the distribution of such images, is strictly forbidden.

Parent protocol:

• We appreciate that you may wish to monitor your child’s use of Google meets, however we ask you to follow our proposal for Parents:
• Parents are asked not to actively participate in sessions (e.g. through the use of audio).

At Acle Academy, we have chosen to implement a blended approach and do not believe that a completely ‘live’ schedule of lessons are the best option for our pupils for several reasons:

• Learning with a teacher in a classroom and the live streaming of lessons are very different – particularly if this was all day. There is no evidence that suggests that live lessons carry any benefit over pre-recorded lessons, or written content.
• Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a laptop per child, or a laptop at all. If a pupil is having to share a device with another family member, they may not have access at the time of the lesson.
• With many people encouraged to work from home, it is difficult for some pupils to join in with live lessons without disturbing other family members also trying to work from home.
• Student feedback suggests that students appreciate the ability to follow the structure of their timetable but to take breaks when they wish. Live lessons would not allow this. The feedback we collated via our remote learning parental and pupil surveys in the summer of 2020 strongly indicated that our learners and the community as a whole favoured the use of pre-recorded lessons with the use of a variety of activities and well planned out quizzes.

Ofsted and the Department for Education has recently published research about effective provision in remote education. If you would like to read more, please visit the below link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/whats-working-well-in-remote-education/whats-working-well-in-remote-education 

What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

We expect your child to engage with all their timetabled lessons on each school day. This does not necessarily have to be at the time the lesson would be if they were in school, but it can help to keep as regular a routine as possible.

We also expect your child to submit all work requested by their teacher. Work should be submitted through Google Classroom (please contact us at the school if your child needs support with how to do this). We have provided guides on how to do this and they will be available on the website alongside a video demonstrating how to do this. 

You can monitor your child’s engagement with their remote learning through ClassCharts. The easiest way to do this is to download the app to your phone. If any parents or carer has lost their log in details for ClassCharts, please email the school or your child’s tutor and we will be able to tell you the password. Regularly viewing ClassCharts will allow you to keep up to date with how your child is progressing, monitor any house points gained and monitor any missed assignments.

Your child will be given positive house points for their continued engagement with remote learning and in addition to completing the exit quizzes to a high standard. We will also be continuing to issue Star of the Week nominations for pupils who demonstrate fantastic independent learning skills or those who go above and beyond in their home learning. We will continue to share the achievements of our school community via our Acle Academy Facebook page.
 
In the event of non-engagement with the remote learning provided we have taken a carefully thought-out stepped approach to best support the learning of our students. 

At all times, the mental and physical well-being of our students is at the forefront of our considerations. As such, we have coupled this policy with a collegiate approach to ensuring we understand the individual circumstances of all our students. 
We will be sure to take into account any academic, well-being or illness circumstances before taking any action in relation to issuing points of ClassCharts or calling home to discuss non-engagement.

Our approach to following up on non-engagement is at all stages a supportive approach and not in anyway punitive. The ClassCharts marks are to help you identify where your child is having issues and for us to monitor levels of engagement and to identify who might need additional support, not to punish pupils.

• If a pupil has not engaged with a subject on 2 consecutive occasions (engagement to be determined through completion of Exit Quiz or at a teacher’s professional discretion). Class teachers will add a neutral point on Classcharts which will notify parents/guardians.
• If a pupil still has not engaged after a further 2 lessons following the Classcharts point, then their Class teacher will call home and discuss with parent. A further point will be added to Classcharts.
• Staff will discuss engagement of pupils regularly at their weekly faculty meetings. Teachers will seek support of their Head of Faculty to put in place next steps for pupils who are not engaging with their remote learning. 
• If a pupil still has not engaged with their remote learning despite the intervention support provided by their class teacher and their Head of Faculty then this will be referred up to a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Mr Sayce will take a lead on this and will work with parents/carers to develop a ‘remote learning intervention report’ to support pupils with the assistance of the Engage or Inspire teams. 

There are several things you can do to help your child to engage with their remote learning:

• Ensure they can access their school email account, and the Google Classroom for each of their subjects, on the device they will be using. Remember this can be an Xbox or PlayStation – it does not have to be a laptop. A link to how this can be completed is provided on this page
• Make a place available for your child to work, with the resources they may need easily accessible (e.g. a pen, paper, any textbooks or folders from school).
• Set a routine for the day that includes a consistent start time in the morning, regular breaks and set your expectations at home.
• Help students ‘own’ their learning- No one expects parents to be full-time teachers or to be educational experts. Provide support and encouragement and expect your children to do their part. Struggling with learning is allowed and encouraged. Do not help too much. Becoming independent takes lots of practice.
• Encourage physical activity and exercise

Begin and end the day by checking-in and discussing the work completed. 

In the morning, you might ask:

• What classes/subjects do you have today?
•  Do you have any assessments?
•  What resources do you need?
•  What can I do to help?

At the end of the day’s lessons you might ask:

• How far did you get in your learning tasks today?
• What did you discover? What was hard?
• What could we do to make tomorrow better?

Stay in touch- We will be calling weekly to check-in that remote learning is going well and how each pupil is managing under the circumstances but please do feel free to contact us if support is needed.

Please see the below guide to supporting your child with online learning which is also linked to this page. 

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

Teachers will use the Google Classroom to check whether your child has completed the tasks set and submitted the work.

Teachers will then use ClassCharts to record your child’s engagement with remote learning (please see ‘expectations for my child’s engagement’, above for an explanation of the ClassCharts marks). This will be a regular occurrence and teachers will be acting upon engagement after ever two lessons, per subject.

In addition, your child’s tutor will contact you and your child once a week, to discuss your child’s wellbeing and how they are getting on with remote learning. This is an opportunity to discuss any concerns you (or we) have. 

As per the above, stepped engagement policy, you might also receive a call from your child’s teachers in relation to the work they are completing for a set subject. Again, this will be supportive in nature and we aim to help every child with completing work independently at home. 

Where parents or carers have concerns about their child’s provision, or ability to access this, we would ask you to contact the school through your child’s form tutor so that we can address this and put support in place.

How will you assess my child’s work and progress?

Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean written comments for individual pupils. For example, your child may also receive whole-class verbal feedback delivered during their teacher’s Loom video, or a Google quiz marked automatically. These are also valid and effective methods of feedback. Additionally, many teachers are now trialling voice software feedback to personalise and deliver bespoke feedback on exam tasks and to provide advice on effective next learning steps. 

Your child will receive a form of feedback from their teacher on regular occasions, although this may be less frequent in subjects with fewer lessons per fortnight. Not every piece of work will receive feedback from the teacher, just as we would not provide feedback on every piece of work completed during a normal classroom lesson.

Please note that if your child submits work late, this work may not be marked. We appreciate the challenges many families are facing with remote learning, but we do need to balance this with the need for teachers to move on and focus on current learning.

Teachers will be monitoring pupils’ progress and adjusting the lesson content and pace appropriately, just as they would in a normal classroom environment.

Assessments will continue to follow our curriculum models and we will be looking at opportunities to embed effective formative assessment throughout the lessons provided via the Exit quizzes and other quizzing methods. Furthermore, we will ensure we can still provide pupils with effective summative assessment throughout their time completing remote learning at home. There will be regular opportunities for KS4 pupils to embed their exam skills and this will follow normal curriculum procedures. 

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. Staff will be setting differentiated learning to help meet the needs of SEND students, including where appropriate key word lists. 

Our Inspire team colleagues are continuing to support remote learning. If your child has SEND support in class, a member of the Inspire team will be in contact with you to support your child. We have allocated TAs to support pupils and they will be making frequent contact with both parents and pupils to support learning. This will take place on a scheduled basis through a mixture of calls and Google Meet sessions and will be tailored to support the needs of learners. We will continue to stay in close contact with any family requiring specific help due to SEND plans and offer additional advice and support.

We understand that digitally provided remote learning will not always be suitable for all pupils, no matter how differentiated the work might be. We will therefore be provided paper -based work packs for pupils who require these for a specific need. These will align with our normally taught curriculum but will be specifically tailored to suit the needs of the learner who requires them. Please contact Mr Sayce, Miss Frary (SENDCO) or your child’s form tutor if you needs this support. 

Every young person with SEND is different so here are some very general suggestions that may help:
 

• Agree a timetable or plan for the day.  Talk openly about what feels manageable. Plan the breaks and the nice things you can do when the work is done. 
• Have a well organised and calm, quiet space to work in that is away from distraction wherever possible.  
• Tackle one task at a time and help your child by breaking down the instructions as much as possible. Speak slowly and give them take up time (this is where knowing your young person best can help). For more complex pieces of work -it may be helpful to write a really simple TASK LIST down. You may need to suggest timings or agree them together. Again -visuals can really help. Some students find countdown clocks/ apps useful, but they can make other students anxious. 
• Work out a way in which you will check they understand. Give them plenty of processing time. Some students will be confident to say that they find it hard.  Others may need constant checking. Again, keep it visual, thumbs up/ down etc but encourage them to have a good go at the task before they ask for help.  This is something we encourage a lot in school with up to thirty students in the class so they will be used to it!
• Praise them when they make a good attempt at the work
• Make use of any brothers and sisters (especially older siblings) to give support and advice
  
  It is the responsibility of every teacher to meet the needs of SEND students as best as they can during this difficult period – just as it would be were the school open as usual.  If you have a question about the work provided, please contact the subject teacher first. However, a member of the Inspire team will be in contact regularly should you need further support. Please feel free to contact Miss Frary if you think your child needs more support with their remote learning provision. 

Where individual pupils need to self-isolate, but the majority of their peer group remains in school, remote education will be provided for every possible timetabled lesson on a year group specific Google Drive. 

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?
 

1. System for isolating pupils whereby most of the year group continue to attend - Pupils will be given clear instructions on how to complete work from home and this will be communicated through Mrs Bryant at which point any access issues will be identified. Clear instructions on what is expected will be provided by Mr Sayce alongside a pre-recorded video which outlines what pupils must do when self-isolating at home. Each self-isolating pupil will be given access to an online learning drive with up-to-date teacher resources, Loom introductions on how to use these resources and instructions on how to communicate with teachers. Additional links and signposting to Oak National Academy will also be provided for further challenging resources if required. 
2. System for pupils who have no access to online provision - When an individual pupil has to self-isolate, we check our records and print off any resources which are needed. Each subject has contributed resources at every year group level for those who need work packs. This is all saved in a centralised drive and accessed by the office and printed when needed. It is then sent out to pupils/parents within 24hrs of us being notified of the absence. Additionally, as outlined in previous sections we have worked to distribute laptops and devices to all pupils who require them. 
3. Provision for bubble closure - In the event of a full/partial closure of a year group bubble. We have moved to a clear system whereby the normal class teacher will set fully resourced online lessons via both Classcharts (parents can see) and Google Classrooms (for pupils’ submission of work). Expectations have been made clear to pupils through emails to parents, notices on Google classrooms and calls home. Guides on how to complete and submit work have been sent home and videos recorded to demonstrate how to do this. Where pupils do not have access to remote provision, we will provide work packs or loan laptops to be used at home.