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 entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

The Remote Curriculum: what is taught to pupils at home

A pupil’s first day or two 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

This information is to provide clarity and transparency to pupils and parents/carers about what to expect from remote education where national or local restrictions require entire cohorts (or bubbles) to remain at home.

The Remote Curriculum:

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

• Initially, a student may be provided with printed work to complete, as they would in school. This is for a short-term duration, whilst teachers ensure that the lessons required by the student are available via Teams.
• Normally, students will be able to access their lesson content in Teams, which will be set for them by the teacher.

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 where appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, physical education and lessons in some subjects requiring a school based practical element cannot be taught in the same way as they would be in school under normal conditions.

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 five hours each day.

Accessing Remote Education:

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

• The platform for Remote Learning used at Hilbre High School is Teams. Information about using Teams is available on this website.

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will Hilbre 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:
• Where it is deemed that a student does not have a suitable device for study, we will aim to issue or lend laptops to pupils
• Where it is deemed that a student does not have suitable devices that enable an internet connection (for example, routers or dongles), we will aim to provide a dongle, mobile phone SIM card or apply for support for the parent by their mobile network provider. For further information, please click here.
• Should a student be unable to access any printed materials needed if they do not have online access, we will aim to post materials home
• Students can submit work to their teachers if they do not have online access by posting or dropping-off work at school.

In all above cases, please contact the Main School office or the relevant Year Office in the first instance, to report your situation. We will then do all we can to rectify your situation.

How Will My Child Be Taught Remotely?

We use a combination of the following approaches to teach pupils remotely:

• live teaching (online lessons). The majority of our lessons involve live teaching.
• recorded teaching (e.g. Oak National Academy lessons, video/audio recordings made by teachers)
• printed paper packs produced by teachers (e.g. workbooks, worksheets). These will be made available to students who cannot access the resources digitally (which will normally be uploaded onto Teams.)
• textbooks and reading books pupils have at home
• commercially available websites supporting the teaching of specific subjects or areas, including video clips or sequences. For example, Kerboodle, MyMaths and Seneca Learning. Teachers will direct students to these websites, where relevant.
• long-term project work and/or internet research activities where appropriate. We aim to apply these learning methods where they are required by examination boards as Non-Examine Assessment Projects

Engagement and Feedback:

Hilbre’s Expectations for Student Engagement and Support Provided at Home:

• Our expectations for students’ engagement with remote education is the same as what we expect when a student is learning in school. As such, we will continue to gauge and report on each student’s Engagement with Learning on a termly basis.
• We are fully appreciative of the demand remote learning places upon parents/carers and thank you for the support, guidance and encouragement you are able to offer at home.

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

• On a daily basis, we will monitor each student’s engagement with remote education and, where circumstances allow (for example a full class learning remotely we will register students learning at home for each individual lesson.
• Where engagement is a concern, parents/carers will be contacted, in the first instance, by a member of the student’s Year Team or Head of Key Stage to address the problem and work together to search for a remedy.

How will Hilbre 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 student work is as follows:

• Students receive verbal feedback in their lessons.
• They will be asked to submit written work to teachers, using the assignment tab in Microsoft Teams.
• Teachers will set quizzes and tests which are likely to be provided to students using Teams. Hilbre is investigating other software that will also contribute to the enrichment of student learning and feedback, such as Uducake.
• Feedback will be given regularly, in line with the school Teaching and Learning Policy. It is expected that feedback to students learning remotely will be of the same frequency as if they were learning in school.

Additional Support for Students with Particular Needs:

How will Hilbre 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:

• Our SEND department will  work with families to deliver remote education for pupils with SEND and, where appropriate, we will aim to provide Teaching Assistant support.

Remote Education for Self-Isolating Students:

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?

• Our teachers have uploaded lessons onto Teams, which students will be able to access. For self-isolating students whose peer group is being taught ‘live’ in school, they may need to study the Teams lessons set for them that are not ‘live’.
• It is possible students may be able to participate in blended learning lessons, whereby they have the opportunity to join a lesson in school. Such options will be determined at the time of isolation and depending on student and teacher circumstance.