Calverley Church of England (VA) Primary School 

Home Learning Plan

To be reviewed Summer 2023

Our Vision 

Following the teachings of Jesus, we challenge and support all members of our community to love one-another, make the most of their God-given gifts and care for everyone in friendship.  Allowing all to flourish; enabling heart, mind and spirit to soar.  “I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength.” 

Rationale, aims and definitions 

The person responsible for the monitoring and overview of home learning is Mr R Curran.

The purpose of this document is to outline the provision that we will aim to provide in the event that COVID-19 restrictions lead to a situation where not all pupils are able to be taught in school.  These circumstances are: 

  • Bubble closure: where a year group bubble has to be closed due to positive test for COVID-19 (teachers from that group will work from home) 

  • Full closure: where school is not open to any children. 

  • Local lockdown: where school is only open to key workers and vulnerable pupils

  • National lockdown: where school is only open to key workers and vulnerable pupils 

It is important that we have a clear and coherent plan so that we can continue to provide a high-quality education for pupils.  Government guidance states: 

“remote education, where needed, is high quality and aligns as closely as possible with in-school provision: schools and other settings continue to build their capability to educate pupils remotely, where this is needed.” 

Guidance for full opening: schools (Published 2 July 2020) 

Approaches and practises outlined in this document are also informed by guidance from Oak Academy – the online learning platform created by the government. 

Working practise 

In the event of a bubble closure or full school closure, staff in that bubble would be required to isolate for 14 days and would therefore be required to work from home. 

In the event of a local lockdown or a full lockdown, staff would be required to work from school.  Staff from each bubble will be able to share the teaching of pupils in school and pupils via home learning.  One classroom from each bubble will be allocated to pupils attending school, the other for teachers to use to support home learning.  This ‘spare’ classroom would need to remain on standby as an isolation space in the event of a person presenting COVID 19 symptoms. Staff who are forced to shield will be given the option to work from home to provide online support for pupils working at home. 

It is important to note that this provision is dependent on the health and wellbeing of members of staff.  If both teachers from a year group fall ill at the same time, then it may be difficult to continue to provide the same level of provision.  In this event, we will still aim to provide pupils with links to online learning via Oak Academy but may not be able to provide the same level of feedback to pupils. 

Teaching and Learning 

At the start of the Autumn term, teachers will map the curriculum for their year group against the long term plan provided by Oak Academy.  By mid-August 2020, Oak Academy hope to have all the lessons for the academic year available on their website.  This allows year groups to teach units in an order that matches our long term plan as closely as possible. 

The Oak Academy lessons are based on the objectives of the National Curriculum. The lessons on Oak Academy are, as the head of Oak described in a recent webinar, agnostic: not year group specific.  This allows teachers to choose units from other year groups when required.  Many of the lesson will have downloadable materials which means that they can be used offline too. 

If any of the closure events outlined above take place, then the affected groups will move from teaching lessons from our school curriculum to the lessons provided by Oak Academy.  Pupils being taught in school, and pupils taught remotely will be taught using the same resources and activities.  

When a period of closure ends, we recognise that it may sometimes be appropriate to complete an Oak Academy unit before returning to our school curriculum. 

Timetable and Planning 

Each week during a period of closure, pupils will be provided with a timetable of the activities for that week.  Due to the more intensive nature of home learning, we will allocate daily activities totalling:  

  • Reception 

  • KS1  3 hours learning

  • KS2 4 hours learning

In KS1 and KS2, this will be made up of core activities: 

  •  Oak Academy lessons (1 hour Maths, 1 hour English and 1 hour of another subject plus additional independent learning from reading, timestables and spellings) 

Additional activities including 

  • Weekly spelling list to practise each day 

  • Daily phonics activities using Read Write Inc online videos  

  • Times table and KIRF activities 

  • Active Maths 

  • Quizzes (using Teams or Kahoot) 

We recognise the need for flexibility in our timetables.  The ability of a child to complete at a given time will depend on variables such as access to shared devices and meal times.  Therefore, our timetable is broken up into windows during which we would like pupils to complete the main activity (usually from Oak Academy) and additional activities if time permits.  During this time, a teacher will be available online to answer questions and support pupils. 

Learning Platform 

From March 2020, we have used SeeSaw and Tapestry to set activities, receive responses and provide feedback to children.  From September 2020, we will use Microsoft Teams in Year 2 to Year 6, whilst Reception & Year 1 will continue to use Tapestry.  We already use other products in the Microsoft suite, so the choice of this provider makes integration easier.   

In order to fully utilise the provision that Microsoft Teams provides, there are significant training requirements that will need to be met, for both pupils and staff, at the start of the next academic year.  

Communication and Feedback 

Feedback plays a vital role in supporting the learning of pupils, as well as monitoring their wellbeing.  Two types of communication will be offered 

  • Text – appointed time for support for each day during English and Maths sessions using chat function in teams. Parents will have to support pupils with this, especially younger children. 

  • Video & Audio Recordings/ Live Streams 

  • Teachers will post a short video or sound clip at the beginning of each day to map the day’s learning. 

  • targeted feedback to address misconceptions in groups.  Feedback in the afternoon on variety of subjects. 

If the bubble closes and teachers are forced to work from home, then they will endeavour to provide video feedback.   

Assessment, Recording and Reporting 

Every Oak Academy lesson ends with a quiz to assess a child’s understanding of the content in that lesson.  On completion of a lesson, we will ask pupils to upload a screenshot or clipping of their score. 

Some lessons, such as writing activities may be completed on paper.  Here, we will encourage pupils to upload a picture of their work so that it can be looked at by their teacher. 

Other lessons may be able to utilise the suite of services provided under our Microsoft Office 365 for Schools & Students package.  These tools are accessible to pupils online using their login Office 365 login.  Children will be able to submit documents that they create to be viewed by their teacher. 

In line with our policy on marking in school, we will not provide written feedback on every piece of work submitted. 

Resources and Planning 

We can provide laptops for any children without equipment to access home learning or alternatively we can send work on paper if specifically requested from families who cannot access the internet. 

Time for training pupils and staff 

Safeguarding 

See our Safeguarding Policy.