Remote Education Provision: Information for Parents and Carers: 

This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require families to remain at home. As a school we strive to continue the education of your child should there be a need for any closures in school or long-term absences.  

We aim to keep remote education at Shefford Lower as close to the classroom curriculum as possible. Just like our classroom curriculum, it is carefully sequenced and ensures that children obtain the building blocks they need to move on to the next step whilst revisiting prior knowledge. 

The Remote Curriculum is the broad term encompassing any learning that happens outside of the classroom, with the teacher not present in the same location as the children. Within our remote curriculum we offer: 

• Online learning, where the curriculum is delivered via technology such as educational links or ‘live’ lessons as well as pre-recorded videos and/or resources to support children’s learning to complete either online or in a paper-based exercise book at home. 

• Work packs- which provide a range of curriculum activities for families with limited or technological restrictions. 

• Sign posting families to external apps and websites that would further support engagement in remote learning. 

Independent Activities

In addition to the direct teaching through Microsoft Teams, teachers will be assigning a range of activities that children can complete in addition to the timetabled sessions – there may be quizzes and fact files for example.

On the page there will be links to access learning materials from other online learning tools, such as Clicker, Oxford Owl, TT Rockstars, Purple Mash and Espresso. Your child’s logins are kept in their communication book.

We highly recommend the audio reading materials – developing a love of reading is the most crucial priority for our age phase of learners.

To see the work that is assigned to your child and when it is due, please choose the ‘Assignments’ icon in Microsoft Teams where your child can find the assignment information and submit their work when it is done.

If they complete their work in an exercise book, they use the web camera built into the Surface device, on an iPad or phone to capture the work and upload it.

If you require a list of your children’s login details, please contact your child’s class teacher or the school office on schooloffice@shefford.cbeds.co.uk

What if I am strugging to access the online resources or my child is stuck with their work? 

Please contact school. We have staff in the learning hub ready to help you. We can make adaptations, find out answers to your queries, support with learning, talk to your child, create work packs and much much more 

I don't have a device - can school provide me with one?

If you have devices at home then you can use Office 365 Microsoft Teams on a Windows PC, an Apple device and Android devices. Children will be able to join calls from laptops, tablets or smartphones, through the app. However, we would suggest that the device that your child uses has a screen that is large enough for them to easily watch the teacher’s presentation or electronic whiteboard notes.

This does not require a high-end device. Teachers will teach in a manner that is straight-forward and does not need any additional offline tools, other than Office 365 and the online resources.

You can access everything through a web browser and all the logons can be found on the Help Guides page of the web site. Please click on the links that will take you to the login pages for Office365 and the other learning resources.

You can also install the Office 365 apps onto your devices at home. Your child is entitled to install the full Office suite from the web site onto a PC and the apps for Teams, OneNote and Office on your different devices. There are also apps for Flipgrid and Clickview.

Safe Online

There are several key guidelines that we will be following, in order to ensure positive online behaviours on the school digital platforms.

• Children will be expected to behave in a polite and courteous manner with their peers and teachers, while online.

• Staff will be available at set times within the school day for online support, outside of scheduled lessons. There will, however, be periods of the day when teachers will go offline and will not be accessible by Teams message, such as lunchtimes, outside of normal educational hours and in the evenings.

• When staff provide one-to-one support the call will also be recorded.

• We recommend that children have adequate time away from devices and that they have enough opportunity for physical activity.

• Please set up a working environment where you can both supervise and support children during a school day. Set clear expectations for the sensible use of the device and to ensure that it does not get damaged.

• Follow our Online Safety Policy and Access to Remote Learning Policy found here.

Keep in Touch

It is important that we keep in touch with you and your children during periods of remote education. Every day we will be registering the children in the morning and recording each live session. We will also be tracking the work completed and participation in learning.

If your child is not online and we do not hear from you then we will be in touch to make sure that you are all OK.

There is no one-size fits all solution to remote teaching and learning. We are keen to work with you to provide the best support that we can. You communication to us helps us achieve this. Our ethos is a listening school adapting to how children learn best.