It may be that due to Covid, we are forced to ask classes/ bubbles to self- isolate for 14 days at any given time. There is no way of knowing when or if this will happen and it could happen more than once in the same class / bubble. Like you, we are hoping that it doesn’t happen, but we have to be prepared in case it does. We want to make sure that all of our children and all of our staff stay healthy, and we also want to make sure that all of our children continue their learning whether they are at school or at home.

So, we have made some changes to the online learning that we are going to offer the children if their bubble has to self- isolate. In line with government guidelines, we will be setting work online mainly as we are not encouraged to send paper home, and we also want class teachers and TAs to be able to still interact with the children on a daily basis. In order to achieve this, we will be using Google Classrooms. If you have any problems which would prevent your child from doing their work online, we will provide a pack for them, but this is hopefully not going to be too many of you.

In the event of a bubble lockdown, you will find that work is there for your child to do every day. The work that is set will be following on from work that they have been doing and will continue to take them forward. New work and concepts may well be introduced, and if you don’t ensure that your child does it, then they will find that they are behind the others once they come back to school. Just like at school, work will have been tailored for them. They will be expected to do the work set and to hand it in. Mr White’s video shows how this can be done: they can either work on-line and submit it, or they can do it on paper, take a photograph of their work and then attach it for the teacher to look at. Very often, the teacher will also provide answer sheets later in the day for the children to be able to check their own work. We will also hand out a pencil, rubber, ruler, glue-stick and small pack of pencils in the event of a bubble isolation, to make sure that everyone has what they will need to do what is asked of them.

Technology willing, each day, at 9:30am, there will be a Google meet session, where the whole class will meet up together with their teacher and /or TA via a video link on Google classrooms. This will last no more than 30 minutes. The teacher will do an online register and explain the day’s work. Sometimes, they may ask some children to stay online for a little longer than others and do some direct teaching with them over the link. The children should always have a pencil and paper with them during this session.

The teacher will leave a maths lesson, an English lesson, a geography / history OR science lesson and a quickfire game or activity to play or do for both spelling / phonics and for maths. These are the sorts of things the children do in class and will help them to commit the facts that they need as known facts to memory. The children should make every effort to do all of these lessons. This is just like a day at school. No-one should miss them unless they are ill.

If your children are ill during bubble isolations, then you should let us know by phoning school as usual so that we do not expect to see them online or to do the work set. In the event of a bubble lockdown, the children are not ‘off school’. They are distance learning and we ask that you support us as much as you can by ensuring that they do the work set every day and are in touch with their teachers in the Google Meet sessions.

There will be a second Google Meet whole class session at 2:15pm, when the teacher/ TA will feed back on work and ask how things have gone. It will end with a class story or part of an ongoing story. Electronic registers will be taken at both Google meet sessions, just as if the children are at school. By doing this, we can make sure that we are keeping up with the legal requirements for children’s attendance at school.

Technology is great when it works, and we do understand that it won’t always! So, if the google meet sessions don’t manage to go ahead some days, you will still be able to find all of the work for each day on Google classrooms in your child’s class folder. The teacher will have left written instructions and can use the Google stream function to chat with the children about their work. Everyone in the class can see this stream, and it should not be used by children, or anyone in their families, for anything other than to ask about and comment upon the work that they are doing. Doing the work in these cases will act as our evidence of attendance.

We really do hope that we don’t have to have bubble isolations, but Google classrooms is a great tool, and we will be using it in the future for homework and possibly for parent meetings if we are still having to socially distance as we are now. Please do get involved with it and take a look at what your child is doing on there once we ask you to start using it. You will be given your child’s login details when necessary.

Google Classroom

Covid-Isolation (Non-bubble)

If your child has to isolate because they have been in close contact with someone with Covid and they are going to absent from school for a week or more, we will provide work for them to do at home, based upon what the children have been doing in class that day.  Each teacher will negotiate with families as to whether this work will be available to collect from school , be emailed to you or will be available via Google classrooms.

When you inform us that your child is going to be absent, then the class teacher will give you a call and together a plan can be made for how your child can access the work they are missing.

If they are ill because they have Covid symptoms themselves and are not fit to do the work, then there would be no expectation of them having to do any work as they are ill.

Please do encourage your children to keep up with any work if they are able as absence from school can and will have an effect upon their learning . We all need to work together to ensure that this happens  as little as possible.