Remote Learning Offer

The academy will endeavour to deliver the full curriculum to children, in line with what teaching would be in place should we be at the academy in person. Our curriculum offer will remain broad, balanced, and mirror the KS3 and KS4 National Curriculum. Our KS5 offer will also remain broad and balanced.

Whilst we will cover the subjects, there may be some adjustments that need to be made to the existing curriculum for more practical subjects (such as PE, Art, Design Tech and Music). We thank you for your support and patience with this.

In the instance that children need to engage in remote learning, due to self-isolation, bubble closure or whole school closure, the academy will work hard to ensure that no child is left without work to do in the immediacy. Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources. We encourage our year 7 and 8 students to also engage daily with MyOn (our online library) and Accelerated Reader: 20 minutes daily reading with quizzing when the text is finished should be the minimum. Students will have access to teachers for support and guidance. Where students do not have access to a device or internet at home and are unable to attend the academy, a work-pack, textbook or worksheet will be provided for each lesson.

The minimum amount of time remote education should be in practice for Key Stages 3 and 4 is 5 hours per day. As per normal expectations, homework may also be set. Students should also check their tutor group’s team daily to ensure they are engaging with their tutor and assemblies/activities when set. This will include DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), for which our KS3 groups will be able to access MyOn (our online library) if they do not have a book with them.

Students will be able to log into Microsoft Teams, and access their lessons and work resources. Students will have access to teachers for support and guidance. Where students do not have access to internet at home, a work-pack, textbook or worksheet will be provided for each lesson.

Where pupils do not have access to internet at home, we will be in contact to discuss the support available for either a place in the academy, support we can offer to provide internet access at home or paper-based resources.

We will do our very best to support any children without access to a device or internet at home with the support to rectify this. We are doing this through a combination of laptops and dongles and are looking forward to rolling out the Horizons project in the coming weeks.  If we are unable to rectify this then a child without internet or device access is able to attend our on-site provision, in line with the government guidance.

For students with no online access, they will be expected to attend our on-site provision, in line with the government guidance. Paper based work will only be available when these students have to self-isolate. The work packs will be set in line with the usual curriculum, which is accessed by somebody collecting from reception and posting or informing reception that one needs to be posted. They can be returned to the school for marking when the student returns to the academy after their isolation period.  

The academy teaching staff will run their timetable of lessons as planned with students logging into MS Teams for live lessons. During the national lockdown, students will follow their normal school timetable with the adjustment of the lesson time being reduced to 45 minutes to allow students a screen break between lessons.

Any timetable updates can be found on our school website: https://www.oasisacademyisleofsheppey.org/curriculum/online-learning

We acknowledge however that there may be some situations where a full timetable of lessons may not be possible – particularly in the instance of significant staff sickness. In these situations the academy will work closely with the National Education Team to agree an approach that blends the most effective methods of teaching and benefits our students best. This may include using lessons from websites such as Oak National to support.

We expect every student to engage in lessons as they would in the classroom, and similarly our staff will be checking student understanding in the same manner as well. This could take the form of online quizzes, marking/assessment of assignments or work returned by email or other apps, or in-class engagement. 

Student behaviour practices are expected to be in line with those within the academy, and additional rules will be in place for things such as microphone and camera use, raising hands, or class conversation through MS Teams. Students will be issued a virtual raffle ticket if they exceed expectations and a negative behaviour event if their effort and conduct is below expectations.  

We know that strong parental engagement is important to make this successful, and therefore endeavour to communicate regularly with you around how the remote learning is going. We will be there to offer support on how to access the information remotely around resources, lessons and your child’s attendance, behaviour and engagement.  

We ask that you support your child by creating a quiet place for them to attend lessons at home, and do not record any lessons for your own use due to GDPR and data protection.  

We will be checking in with children during lessons and online-check-in sessions to ensure we have a good overview of their understanding and engagement. Online quizzing and assessment tools also help us to see how many children are actively engaging in lessons, and as always we will be monitoring attendance.

If there are any concerns we will ensure we are in contact with you as parents and carers by telephone or email. This may be from a class teacher, subject leader, year leader or progress leader. 

We will be assessing your child’s progress through work submitted daily via Microsoft Teams or GoFormative, engagement through questions in lessons, using online quizzing/marking tools and other work returned by email/other agreed communication. This will help us identify needs of the individual or needs of the class quickly and effectively. We will continue to follow our normal feedback (fortnightly/three-weekly) cycle to ensure sequences of learning are as effective as possible and misconceptions are addressed early. We will continue to work towards an end of term summative assessment to assess how effectively your child has progressed that term and what steps need to be put in place to support this if required.  

SEND students 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:

• When supporting a student with an EHCP or identified as ‘K’ on the SEND register, TAs will attend live lessons and book in to follow up with the student to ensure the work is completed, support where needed, and address any misconceptions
• Reading recovery intervention will take place online with students who have a reading age 2+ years below their chronological age
• TAs will communicate with home at least once per week to provide feedback on their support for the student

Students will have access to live lessons as if happening in school, through a Microsoft Team meeting. In the instance they do not have access to this all provisions will be made to ensure work packs are delivered to ensure no work is missed.