Remote Education
Our commitment is to ensure Remote Learning at Ormiston Venture Academy offers personalised, challenging and aspirational curriculum opportunities for all.
Remote education provision: information for parents
This information is intended to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents or carers about what to expect from remote education at Venture where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.
For details of what to expect where individual pupils are self-isolating, please see the final section of this page.
The remote curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home
A pupil’s first day 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. We do however have remote learning plans prepared that will ensure your child can access the same curriculum as those in the academy.
Remote education for self-isolating pupils
Where individual pupils need to self-isolate but the majority of their peer group remains in school, how remote education is provided will likely differ from the approach for whole groups. This is due to the challenges of teaching pupils both at home and in school.
If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?
Students will follow given a ‘Short Term Home Learning Pack’ that will enable them to continue to follow their normal curriculum. Students will be expected to follow their normal timetable via online learning using carefully selected lessons from The OAKS National Academy and our own Learning Menus. These have been matched to align with the work students are doing in the classroom.
Remote education in the event of a school closure
What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?
Students will in the first instance be provided the ‘Short Term Home Learning Pack’ that will still enable them to continue to follow their normal curriculum. They will then transition onto our full remote learning program for school closure as outlined below.
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?
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects.
- In Key Stage 3 Create subjects, students will not continue with their rotations but will still have the opportunity to engage in learning across all Create subjects that provides a mix of knowledge and practical skills opportunities.
- In Key Stage 4 Vocational subjects are working under the umbrella of the blended learning policy written in response to absence and Covid -19. There will be more of focus on the theoretical side of PE, which will be supplemented with suggested physical activities to supplement their health and wellbeing.
Remote teaching and study time each day
How long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?
We expect that remote education (including remote teaching and independent work) will take pupils broadly the following number of hours each day:
All students (Key Stage 3 and 4) 5 hours per day + daily Personalised Learning activity.
Accessing remote education
How will my child access any online remote education you are providing?
- Students will be provided an interactive learning timetable accessible through the academy website. It will be personalised for students to allow them to follow a coherent and sequenced curriculum.
- This will provide instructions and links to allow students to access all the material that has been created to support their learning.
- This timetable will be supplemented with live lessons at least weekly across all subjects that ensure your child receives specific teacher input and feedback on the work. This will be scheduled and accessible through the timetable. If your child is unable to access the live lesson we will link a recording to their timetable to allow them to access it at a different time.
- All resources and materials have been created to ensure they are accessible through any internet enabled device and are suited to a wide range of internet connections
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:
How will my child be taught remotely?
We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:
- Live lessons that are created to ensure students are guided, can identify misconceptions in learning and have meaningful feedback at least weekly.
- Recorded teaching lessons or high quality recorded online material that provide clear explanations and then opportunities for students to apply new knowledge and skills through complex application.
- Venture Vitals – paper copy of all knowledge organisers for the relevant half term
- Learning Menus linked to the curriculum to support the learning and offer students additional opportunities to cover key skills, apply knowledge and check understanding.
- Printed resources sent home where required to supplement online learning
- Commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects. The academy has subscriptions to these and students have relevant logins.
Engagement and feedback
What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?
Expectations for pupils’ engagement with remote education:
- Students should use their Venture account to access lessons
- Fully participate in lessons, completing all the work set, including all written tasks.
- Students should take pride in the presentation of their work.
- Use their Venture Vitals.
- Students should take on board feedback and reflect on their learning by identifying strengths and areas of development.
- Turn off their camera and microphone and only turn on their microphone when the teacher invites them to do so.
- Use the ‘raise your hand’ feature or chat function if they would like to ask a question or contribute to the lesson.
- At the end of lesson, leave when requested
Expectations of parents and carers:
- Guide students to follow their remote learning timetable for accessing learning.
- If a student is unable to access a live lesson, ensure you child completes the lesson retrospectively. They can access it through their online timetable.
- Encourage students to take pride in the presentation of their work and follow the expectations they are used to in the academy. This includes the use of blue or black pen, where available self-reflections in pink pen, date written in full, underlined titles, best hand writing, graphs in pencil.
- Encourage students to complete all independent work to the best of their ability.
- Where a student is engaging with pre-recorded lessons ensure they follow the teacher’s guidance on time limits, instructions and pause as appropriate.
- Ensure students are using their Venture Vitals to support them with core knowledge and to read.
- Encourage students to take on board feedback through lessons
- Encourage students to reflect on their learning by identifying strengths and next steps.
- Ensure students are completing the tasks during Personalised Learning times – reading, cultural capital activities and Wednesday period 5 lessons.
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
- Live lessons will record students who have attended. The live lesson will take place every week for every subject with their class teacher.
- Students will complete a weekly quiz in all their subjects. This will assess the core knowledge covered throughout the lessons that week.
- Phone contact will be made to review and support engagement for all children in the academy.
How will you assess my child’s work and progress?
Feedback can take many forms and may not always mean extensive written comments for individual children. For example, whole-class feedback or quizzes marked automatically via digital platforms are also valid and effective methods, amongst many others. Our approach to feeding back on pupil work is as follows:
Students will receive regular feedback through a range forms. This includes:
- Teacher modelling of exemplar work
- Teacher modelling of thinking. For example, a model of a plan, a calculation or a process.
- Use of checklist to establish a clear framework for learning
- Teacher focus on misconceptions during lessons
- Student application of core knowledge which is followed up with teacher input
- Low stakes testing such as quizzes, vocabulary test, labelling task, mind dumps
- Students to routinely reflect on learning to identify their own areas of strength and next steps
- Teachers will focus on misconceptions
- Teacher could direct a targeted question during a live lesson
- Students can raise their hand during live lessons to as a question
- Students can ask a question in the chat function
- Assessments where appropriate – this will depend on the length of a lockdown
Additional support for pupils with particular needs
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 in the following ways:
- The content of lessons for the vast majority of subjects continues to follow the curriculum students have been doing in the academy to ensure continuity.
- Students will be given clear verbal explanations and instructions during all lessons
- Lessons will be chunked.
- Appropriate scaffolding will be place for all students
- Students will have self-reflection modelling to them so they can identify areas of strength and development
- There will be a focus on remembering core knowledge that is in the Venture Vitals
- Students will engage with structures they are familiar with from their learning in school as part of remote learning.
- Students will have the opportunity to ask questions during live lessons
