Plan B
Have schools not prepared for remote learning?
The section below was in the guidance dated 7th August - I copied it for a previous post over a week ago;
Section 5 Contingency plans for outbreaks -
"For individuals or groups of self-isolating pupils, remote education plans should be in place.These should meet the same expectations as those for any pupils who cannot yet attend school at all due to coronavirus (COVID-19). See section on remote education support."
"In the event of a local outbreak, the PHE health protection team or local authority may advise a school or number of schools to close temporarily to help control transmission. Schools will also need a contingency plan for this eventuality.This may involve a return to remaining open only for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, and providing remote education for all other pupils."
Remote education support
"Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, we expect schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. Schools are expected to consider how to continue to improve the quality of their existing offer and have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision by the end of September.This planning will be particularly important to support a scenario in which the logistical challenges of remote provision are greatest, for example where large numbers of pupils are required to remain at home."
In developing these contingency plans, we expect schools to:
*use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos, and that is linked to the school’s curriculum expectations.
*give access to high quality remote education resources.
*select the online tools that will be consistently used across the school in order to allow interaction, assessment and feedback, and make sure staff are trained in their use.
*provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access.
*recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support, and so schools should work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum.
When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to:
*set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
*teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject.
*provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high quality curriculum resources and/or videos.
*gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work.
*enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding.
*plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers.
"We expect schools to consider these expectations in relation to the pupils’ age, stage of development and/or special educational needs, for example where this would place significant demands on parents’ help or support. We expect schools to avoid an over-reliance on long-term projects or internet research activities."
"The government will also explore making a temporary continuity direction in the autumn term, to give additional clarity to schools, pupils and parents as to what remote education should be provided. DfE will engage with the sector before a final decision is made on this."
A range of resources to support schools in delivering remote education is available:.....