Welcome to our home learning page. At BVPS, we are committed to supporting our pupils to continue their learning journey throughout a period of self-isolation, bubble closure or lockdown. Below you will find recommendations for keeping healthy, both in mind and body, as well as information about our remote education offer. If your child is feeling unwell, we would not expect them to conduct home learning; we ask our community to put health and well-being first.

In order to access our remote learning offer, we know that children will be spending more time online. Please check out advice and resources on our Online Safety page.

Seesaw: our online learning platform

Remote education provision: information for parents

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.

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

As a school, we will endeavour to ensure that our full remote education offer is ready and shared with pupils as soon as possible. However, our initial offer for day one will include a learning opportunity for maths, English and a wider curriculum area using the following resources: White Rose Maths, BBC Bitesize and Oak Academy. These learning opportunities will also be supplemented with independent reading on Collins E-books and optional practice via Times Tables Rockstars, SumDog or Phonics Play.

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?

Yes, we teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate (see curriculum page). However, we have needed to make some adaptations in some subjects. For example, in English, we may have altered the order of texts we study and selected the most appropriate texts which can be studied remotely. In Art and D&T, we may need to postpone the production of or adapt an ‘end product’ based on the resources we can provide or that families have available at home. In science, pupils may not be able to carry out experiments themselves at home, but instead could watch a video of an experiment being carried out.

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 the following number of hours each day:

Accessing remote education

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

Seesaw for Schools is a digital app-based platform that allows pupils, teachers, and parents or carers to complete and share classroom work. Seesaw is a platform for student engagement.

Via Seesaw, pupils can access the learning opportunities planned and shared by their teachers and show what they know using various media, from photos and videos to drawings, text, links, and PDFs. This is all on the Seesaw platform, meaning it can be seen and appraised by teachers and shared with parents and carers.

The pupil portfolio grows over time, allowing them to carry it through a period of school closure. This is a great way for all teachers to see how a pupil has progressed over time – even showing how they worked to get the final result. 

See our useful documents page for tips on using Seesaw.

If my child does not have digital or online access at home, how will you 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:

School has received a small allocation of devices from the Department of Education to support disadvantaged children in Y3- Y6 whose face-to-face education is disrupted and who are otherwise unable to access remote learning. These children may be in circumstances where they have no digital devices in the household; where the only available device is a smartphone; or where a single device is being shared with more than one other family member. However, as school either becomes or is made aware of technology access difficulties, if families do not meet this criteria, individual circumstances will be considered. Parents can email FAO Mr Evans to request a device and give details of their circumstances for consideration.

On allocation of a laptop, parents are asked to sign a user agreement and contract, which support online safety and allows for return of the device for updates, as well as giving details of how to access IT support.

Currently, school has a small number of data SIM cards to support access to the internet whilst we are awaiting delivery of routers and dongles from the Department for Education. The data SIM cards  can be used in a smartphone to tether a device to the internet. Parents can email FAO Mr Evans to request a data SIM card.

Where there is online access, parents are encouraged to support their children to use our online learning platform, Seesaw. This gives the children the sequenced learning across the curriculum that is beneficial to them. School endeavours to support children through the provision of laptops and IT support. If this is not possible, then printed work or workbooks can be collected from school or delivered in exceptional circumstances. School also provides exercise books for children as they are needed to help them to record their work ready to upload to Seesaw. Collection dates are advertised to parents to distribute these.

If there is no way at all to resolve internet access, written work/workbooks can be offered to children to support their remote learning.

How will my child be taught remotely?

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

Videos of BVP team

Teachers may share learning opportunities using pre-recorded videos shared via links on Seesaw. We feel that pre-recorded video lessons, which can be accessed at a time to suit your family, are preferable to live lessons at scheduled times. A pre-recorded video lesson allows parents to timetable their time and shared devices to access the learning opportunities, particularly if there is more than one child at home. Our team will respond to questions, provide feedback and prepare the next day’s lessons.

Oak Academy

Oak Academy is a Government funded initiative containing pre-recorded video lessons, quizzes, worksheets and creative activities. Teachers may direct your child to a particular lesson on the Oak Academy website; the link will be posted on Seesaw.

BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize provide a variety of resources to aid home learning. Teachers may direct families to particular resources if appropriate.

Phonics

The Letters and Sounds for Home and School channel has been developed by English hubs and is used throughout YR and KS1 to supplement the phonics videos created by our own team of teachers to support teaching and learning in phonics. This resource is designed by experts for use at home with children who are unable to attend school. We may also direct children to access Phonics Play as a means of deliberate practice and to help new learning 'stick'.

Collins e-library

Children in Reception, Year 1 and 2 will be familiar with Collins Big Cat books. BVP is investing in their virtual library so that children in all year groups can access reading books of an appropriate level in the event of isolation. Individual log-in details have been shared, but if you are having trouble logging on, please contact your child’s class teacher. 

White Rose Maths

BVP has worked with White Rose Maths for many years and use their materials to inform planning in the classroom. Staff will continue to use White Rose Maths materials to deliver remote learning opportunities.

BVP Maths Videos

There is a bank of videos available on our school website to support pupils in Year 3-6 with the most efficient calculation methods. 

Sumdog

All children have a Sumdog account that they should be familiar with as they use it for regular homework. Via Seesaw, teachers will direct children to use particular features and set maths challenges. 

Times Tables Rockstars

Children in Years 3 and 4 have Times Tables Rockstars accounts to aid practice of this key maths skill. 

Engagement and feedback

What are your expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?

During a period of school closure, many of our families are having to balance their own work with supporting their child(ren) to engage with remote education. We understand how challenging this can be, depending on each family’s individual circumstances. As a school, we:

• set meaningful and ambitious work each day in an appropriate range of subjects
• provide teaching that is equivalent in length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school.

We ensure that the learning opportunities we plan are designed to enable pupils to complete tasks independently, as much as possible, but recognise that this may differ according to each child’s age and individual needs.

We expect that as long as your child is fit and well that they aim to:

• Logon to Seesaw daily to watch the ‘start of the day’ video
• Join the live daily catch-up with their teacher(s)
• Engage with the learning opportunities set by their teacher, prioritising English and maths
• Upload any completed work to Seesaw (by lunchtime if you can) as soon as possible
• Demonstrate our school values of ‘challenge’ and ‘responsibility’ by trying their best to complete their work to the best of their ability.

To enable pupils to access remote education we do ask for parents to support us by:

• Notifying us if you do not have digital or online access at home
• Supporting your child to logon to Seesaw everyday (please see the Seesaw guides on our school website to support you with this)
• Monitoring your child’s use of technology to ensure that they are safe online
• Structuring your child’s day using the timetable set out in the ‘start of the day’ video, as a guide
• Let us know if your child is unwell and unable to access remote education
• Ensuring that your child has the appropriate resources to tackle their learning (pen, pencil, ruler, paper/exercise book- school can provide these, just get in touch if you need any resources).

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

We will regularly monitor all pupil’s engagement with remote education and identify any pupils who are not engaging appropriately. Where we have concerns, a member of staff will make contact with the family to discuss their individual circumstances: this will help us to further strengthen our relationships with our school community and enable us to offer any necessary support or remove any barriers to learning.

If a family chooses to or is unable to engage with our remote learning provision, we do ask them to let us know in writing by       e-mailing the school office and, where appropriate, to notify us of what alternative provision they have in place. In these circumstances, we will continue to share learning opportunities via Seesaw with the family should they wish to access them at any point.

We will continue to conduct our regular phone calls to all pupils who are not attending school throughout a period of school closure; we will ask to speak to your child(ren) so that we can keep in touch with them and help all of our pupils feel connected to school.

How will you 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 pupil work is as follows:

At Bournville Village Primary School we believe that effective marking and feedback is an essential part of the teaching and learning process. It should ensure pupils understand what they have achieved and what they need to do to close the gap between current and desired performance.

Feedback:

• Is part of the learning process
• Needs to be acted upon
• Involves the learner more actively.

Feedback should require a response:

• Response to a request for action
• Response to question
• Response to further challenge

Teachers will use the following methods to provide feedback on pupils’ work:

• Individual verbal (via a voice note) or written feedback (via a written comment), when required
• Daily feedback videos (these are based upon common errors and misconceptions collated from maths and English work submitted by lunchtime each day

Additional support for pupils with particular needs

How will you 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:

Children with SEND have appropriate work set for them on Seesaw by the adults who know and work with them regularly. It is individualised to their learning needs. Teachers and other familiar adults support children to access this through their interactions on Seesaw or by phone, as appropriate.  

Any equipment that supports their learning is sent home for children with SEND to use, for example, coloured acetates, listening tin, pencil grips etc.

Interventions usually received in school are delivered ‘virtually’ where possible, allowing children to continue to make progress against their targets. 

Phone calls home support parents to manage behaviour or other needs in the home environment. Parents are then signposted to support from other agencies, where required, as well as being offered access to the school’s pastoral team, as necessary. See our S.E.N.D page for further information.

Remote education for self-isolating pupils

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?

Throughout a period of lockdown, we will continue to ensure that our remote education offer aligns with what we have outlined here.

When schools fully re-open, there may still be a requirement for families to self-isolate; if the child(ren) is unwell then we do not expect them to undertake any remote education, however if the child is feeling well, we do expect them to access the provided learning opportunities.

In these circumstances, we will continue to provide learning opportunities via Seesaw which will align with learning opportunities delivered in school, as much as possible. We may also supplement learning opportunities with lessons from Oak Academy in wider curriculum areas and a member of staff* will provide feedback on work submitted, where appropriate.

*Staff absence may impact on who interacts with your child via their Seesaw account and levels of interaction.