During this period of the COVID-19 Pandemic we have planned Remote Educational Support for any pupil or pupils self-isolating at home or in the event of local or national lockdown when all but the children of Key Workers and those deemed vulnerable by the school are learning at home. This is through the online learning platform, Google Classroom. 

We have evaluated the response to our lockdown learning offer and listened to feedback from parents. We know every family, every child and every household are home learning in a variety of contexts, with different challenges and a significant variance in how and when their child is or isn’t motivated to engage with the learning offered. We recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support.

We know parents need to be able to contact staff and want the school to facilitate communication between parents to create a sense of community when in reality we are all distanced, this is possible through Google Classroom.

Our Remote Education planning reflects this by offering;

• a range of resources accessible to all

• a range of activities reflecting different stamina for engagement

• a range of activities covering the spectrum of learning styles

• activities to support phonics, reading, writing and maths

• practical activities such as crafts, art, science and PE etc

• videos of child’s own class adults reading stories

• videos of short bite-sized inputs, teaching sessions and taught segments recorded and taught by Portway staff

• videos of short bite-sized taught segments through links to teaching videos by The Oak Academy selected by Portway staff to reflect our curriculum

Resources will be a mixture of online learning, downloadable activities, hard copy resource packs pre-prepared by Year groups, video links to external platforms and our own internally produced videos.

Children with additional needs will be given individual resources to reflect their needs. Mr Banks (SENDCo) will get in touch with these parents. This may be to support access to whole class learning eg send home a writing slope or offer to support a specific need eg Speech & Language. The SENDCo will liaise with classteachers to have resources/aids and therapies ready for immediate implementation.

Classteachers will host twice weekly Google Classroom live chats.

Staff will give feedback to privately shared learning on an individual basis and also to publicly shared work in Google Classroom.

Staff will monitor individual engagement on a daily basis and offer support wherever it is needed.

Please click on the links below for advice and guidance for parents

• DfE guidance

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/supporting-your-childrens-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19

• Makaton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OS8vbjr2-Q#action=share

• NSPCC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-icCAGIDMiA#action=share

Coronavirus Story for Children

https://nosycrowcoronavirus.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Coronavirus_ABookForChildren.pdf