Platt Bridge Community School - Remote Learning Website

The school will continue to use a range of teaching methods to cater for all different learning styles in these scenarios. 

This includes:  

• Pre-recorded Teaching.   
• Live Teaching where appropriate. 
• Videos and recordings of explanations to support pupils and parents at home with concepts 
• High quality models of strategies and skills using a visualizer or whiteboard.
• Steps to Success and other related scaffolds to share with parents
• Links to key online learning resources to support parents and children’s understanding e.g. BBC Bitesize, Oak National Academy.
• Easy access PBCS remote learning platform with access to prior and current resources.
• Personalised pupil log ins to online programmes that tailor provision to your child’s needs including Times Table Rock Stars and Readiwriter.
• Daily feedback and support.

Work provided for pupils will NOT require printing and will be able to be completed with just a pen and paper. 

Parents are responsible for: 

• Ensuring their child is available to learn remotely at the times they would usually be in school (minimum 3 hours per day).
• Ensuring their child has a quiet, focused environment from which to learn from home and clear routines are established for remote learning.
• Providing access to an electronic device from which their child can learn and access appropriate learning materials e.g. pens, paper, pencils.
• Notifying school at the earliest possible convenience if the above resources are not available to the child.
• Reporting technical issues and problems to school as soon as possible.
• Ensuring that work completed is uploaded to the child’s portfolio daily on Class Dojo to allow the teacher to provide feedback and monitor progress.
• Ensure that the pupil works though the work set with maximum effort, engages with all parts of the lesson and that the work is completed to a high standard.
• Speaking to their child’s teacher if at any point they are concerned about the quality of the work produced by the pupil.
• Ensure that the pupil reads their class teacher’s feedback and engages with it appropriately, making corrections or improvements where suggested.
• Reporting any illness or reason for which children are unable to engage with remote learning on the first day of such issue and let school know when the child is well enough to begin to access learning again (via Class Dojo messages or via phone call).
• Ensuring their child uses the equipment and technology loaned by school for remote learning only, as intended. 
• Where live teaching sessions are offered, ensure that pupils follow the live teaching policy and protocols to ensure safeguarding procedures are adhered to.

Remote Learning – Tips and Tricks for Parents and Carers

Establish routines and expectations

It is important to develop good habits from the start. Create a flexible routine and talk about how it’s working overtime. Chunk your days into predictable segments. Help students get up, get dressed and ready to learn for the normal school day. Keep normal bedtime routines, including normal rules for digital devices when used for free time. If you need to, be flexible in response to your needs and your child’s by adjusting daily schedules whilst ensuring that the daily learning is completed that day. 

 Choose a good place to learn

Choose a location in the home that can be dedicated to school-focused activities and remote learning. Make sure it is quiet, free from distractions and has a good internet connection. Make sure an adult monitors online learning. Keep doors open, and practice good digital safety. Our teachers and safeguarding teams will do the same.

 Stay in touch

Teachers will mainly be communicating regularly through Class Dojo and be providing pre-recorded and some live teaching through other online platforms. Make sure your child knows how to get help and support if they need it either by sending the teacher a message directly on Class Dojo or speaking to yourself so you can get in touch with the teacher.

 Help students ‘own’ their learning

No one expects parents to be full-time teachers or to be educational and content matter experts. Provide support and encouragement, and expect your children to do their part. Struggling is allowed and encouraged! Don’t help too much. Becoming independent takes lots of practice. The teaching inputs and tasks provided by the class teacher will ensure that they can access most learning independently as it will provide the appropriate level of challenge. They may need some encouragement and motivation to stay on task but you do not need to do the teaching yourself.

Begin and end the day by checking-in

In the morning, you should make sure your child is able to access the day’s work and has all the materials they may need.

You might ask:

• What are you looking forward to learning today?
• What are you going to do first?
• What can I do to help?

At the end of the day you talk to your child about their day’s learning.

You might ask:
• How did you find your learning today?
• What did you discover and learn? What was hard?
• What could we do to make tomorrow better?

These brief conversations are a great way to ‘check in’ with your child and show them that their learning is important to you. Not all students thrive in distance learning; some struggle with too much independence or lack of structure. By checking in, you can help avoid later challenges and disappointments for your child.

 Establish times for quiet and reflection

For families with children of different ages, and parents who may also be unexpectedly working from home more often, it’s good to build in some time for peace and quiet. Siblings may need to work in different rooms to avoid distraction. Many families will need to negotiate access to devices, priorities for wi-fi bandwidth and schedules throughout the day. Reading a book quietly is a great way to relax and have ‘calm time’ whilst continuing learning at home. It is also a great opportunity to provide your child with a screen break.

 Encourage physical activity and exercise

Living and working at home, we will all need some room to let off steam. Moving (independently and together as a family) is vital to health, wellbeing, and readiness for learning. Remember to take your daily exercise. Your teacher will provide suggestions for daily activity through links to Joe Wicks and other online videos. You may also want to seize any other opportunities to go for a walk outside in the fresh air; visit the local park to run around or even jog up and down stairs. Set your child new fitness goals and plan hands-on, life-ready activities that keep hands busy, feet moving, and minds engaged. You may want to think about how your children can also join in more around the house with chores or other responsibilities. Now’s a good time to think about increasing personal responsibility and keeping them busy.

Remember while remote education is important and will help to ensure that your child continues to learn, the most important thing to remember during these challenging times is to ensure your child feels loved and safe within their home. If you need any support to manage your child’s mental health and well-being, please get in touch with your class teacher or the school.

Learning Materials

We want to encourage all of our pupils to access learning online where required to ensure they receive daily feedback and are able to engage with learning in a similar way to their peers at school. As such, we have worked hard to try to identify all pupils without learning devices or the tools to engage in remote learning and provided these pupils with technology from school.

However, in extreme cases where parents or children are unable to access remote learning online, after support and discussion paper work packs will be provided and teachers will work with parents to agree a mutually appropriate way to submit and provide feedback on this work. This will be a last resort.