Remote Learning Policy

We ensure that all pupils have access to the resources and support they need to succeed, especially when they are unable to attend school in person.

Contents

1.     Introducing our Remote Learning Policy

2.     Scope & Responsibilities

3.     The legal framework

4.     Learning

5.     Resources

6.     Equipment 

7.     Remote Learning Platforms & Online Learning Tools

8.     Safeguarding

9.     Data Protection

10.   Wellbeing

11.   School & home communications

12.   School Responsibilities

Appendix 1: Pupil Code of Conduct / Behaviour Policy: Remote Learning Addendum

Introduction

Pupils are responsible for

Appendix 2: Parental Code of Conduct: Remote Learning Addendum

1.Introducing our Remote Learning Policy

  1. We recognise the importance of maintaining high expectations in all areas of school life and ensuring that all pupils have access to the learning resources and support they need to succeed, especially when they are unable to attend school in person.

  2. Our Remote Learning Policy lays out the responsibilities of each of the members of our school community in relation to the provision of remote learning capability to our pupils and details the practical and operational matters associated with this provision.

  3. Its aims are to:

  • Set out a framework for the effective operation of Remote Learning within our school.

  • Set out our expectations for all members of the school community with regards to remote learning.

  • Ensure robust safeguarding measures continue to be in effect during the period of remote learning.

  • Ensure staff, parent, and pupil data remains secure and used in line with Data Protection regulations.

    1. Our Remote Learning Policy will necessarily change in line with changing events, technologies and methodologies and as such will be regularly revised. Any changes will be communicated via our website and using our regular communication channels.

2.Scope & Responsibilities

  1. This Policy applies to all staff (including temporary staff, consultants, governors, volunteers, and contractors, and anyone else working on our behalf), pupils, parents and carers.

  2. All staff are responsible for reading and understanding this policy before carrying out tasks relating to remote learning, and for following this policy, including reporting any suspected breaches of it to the appropriate Senior Leader or Governor.

  3. All leaders are responsible for ensuring their team read and understand this policy before carrying out related tasks, and that they follow this policy, including reporting any suspected breaches of it.

  4. Our Governing Body, Headteacher, Senior Leadership Team, Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), SENCO, IT Staff and Data Protection Officer (DPO) are responsible for dealing with breaches of this policy, including suspected breaches, identified risks, and monitoring compliance with this policy.

3.The legal framework

  1. Relevant legislation, statutory instruments, statutory guidance and Department for Education guidelines are detailed below:

  1. This Policy operates in conjunction with the following school policies:

  • Accessibility Policy

  • Assessment Policy

  • Attendance and Absence Policy

  • Behavioural Policy

  • Bring Your Own Device Policy

  • Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy

  • Children Missing in Education Policy

  • Code of Conduct – Parents / Home School Learning Agreement

  • Code of Conduct – Pupils

  • Code of Conduct – Staff

  • Curriculum Policy

  • Data Protection Policy and associated Privacy Notices

  • Health and Safety Policy

  • ICT Acceptable Use Policy

  • Marking and Feedback Policy

  • Off Site Working Procedure

  • Online Safety Policy

  • Pupil Home School Agreement

  • Retention Schedule (Records Management Policy

  • Separated Parents Policy

  • Social Media Policy

  • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Policy

The content of this section is not exhaustive, and these provisions are subject to continuous development. 

4.Learning       

  1. We believe it is in the best interest of children engaging in remote learning to provide structured and sequenced remote learning, replicating their classroom experience as closely as possible, however we recognise that switching to remote learning will affect pupils and their families in a number of ways.

  2. The learning methods selected will be based on:

  • Being realistic and focusing on what is most important, recognising that remote learning can be more difficult for many pupils and providing appropriate support.

  • Allowing flexibility in the completion of activities, understanding that families may have more than one child sharing home resources and that workspaces may be shared with multiple family members, including by designing activities that are accessible for all pupils, including those working offline.

  • Ensuring remote education practices are inclusive including by tailoring the remote curriculum for pupils with SEND

    1. We will use a range of delivery methods including:

  • Directed online learning – Sign-posting to online learning resources

  • Remote live lessons – Lesson delivered to camera; pupils log in to a platform to participate.

5.Resources

The school will provide a combination of teaching and learning resources to support remote learning including, but not necessarily limited to:

  • Work booklets

  • Projects

  • Past and mock exam papers

  • Current online learning portals

  • Educational websites

  • Reading tasks

  • Remote learning platforms and tools

6.Equipment

  1. Pupils will need to use their own or family-owned equipment to access remote learning resources, unless the school agrees to provide or loan equipment, e.g. laptops.

  2. For pupils who cannot access digital devices at home, we will, where possible, apply for support from the government to provide devices if the child is deemed a vulnerable child with a named social worker.

7.Remote Learning Platforms & Online Learning Tools

  1. The Use of Remote Learning Platforms and Online Learning Tools is key to our ability to offer flexibility in our learning provision and offers the chance for greater efficiency, improved connectivity and collaboration between staff, governors and pupils, and flexible access to education for vulnerable and hard to reach children, supporting safeguarding and wellbeing agendas.

  2. These tools will further support pupils who may currently be learning through Virtual Schools, or in hospital, to feel more integrated into the school community.

  3. We will ensure that the platforms and tools we use are secure, maintain privacy and have enterprise level security.

8.Safeguarding

  1. Safeguarding and child protection remains as important in this environment as anywhere else, and staff members will apply the school’s safeguarding guidance to remote learning, just as they would to classroom working – staff who become aware of any child protection concerns will continue to follow established safeguarding procedures.

  2. We will adhere to all additional guidance on delivering learning for those children access provision at home

  3. When working remotely, we will ensure that the current Child Protection & Safeguarding Policy along with any addendums is adhered to at all times.

9.Data Protection

  1. Data Protection remains as important in this environment as anywhere else, and staff members will apply the school’s Data Protection Policies to remote learning, just as they would to classroom working – staff who become aware of any data breaches will continue to follow established data protection procedures.

  2. This includes maintaining the same high standards of data protection, when sharing events and lessons remotely, as we would sharing any other sensitive, personal or confidential data.

  3. Recording individuals will generate personal data including pupil images, names, contributions, login and contact details and will be protected, processed and retained in the same way as all personal data, in line with the schools Data Protection Policies and Privacy notices and in accordance with our other policies including Acceptable Use, Off Site Working and Bring Your Own Device policies, as well as our Retention Schedule.

  4. The Data Protection Act, GDPR and our policies require us to assess the lawful basis for Data Sharing and the Data Protection suitability of providers of services/platforms, and this information will be published in our Privacy Notices.

  5. We will carry out DPIAs of third party processors supplying remote and online learning and/or communications platforms and for any other processing deemed to require such.

  6. We will follow our Acceptable Use of IT and Email policy when communicating with parents and pupils.

  7. We will follow the procedures in our Data Protection Policy for recording, reporting and responding to data breaches, suspected data breaches and cyber security incidents.

10.Wellbeing

  1. In addition to safeguarding, pupil wellbeing is a significant consideration in our planning for remote learning.

  2. We will ensure our remote learning curriculum factors in support for pupils’ mental and physical wellbeing and considers differentiation in our pupils.

  3. This includes scheduling regular breaks in teaching, recommending fresh air and exercise-based activities and by ensuring a reasonable balance between online and offline activities.

11.School & home communications

  1. Maintaining a sense of community with parents, carers and pupils is very important to us and we will provide regular communication to parents about any general measures that need to be put in place if their child is learning remotely.

  2. During the period of remote learning, we will maintain regular contact with parents to:

  • Ensure parents are aware of what their children are being asked to do and when.

  • Reinforce the importance of children staying safe online.

  • Provide further information as the necessity arises.

12.School Responsibilities

Each member of our school community plays a part in the safe and effective delivery of remote learning. These responsibilities are outlined below.

Our governing body is responsible for:

  • Ensuring that the school has robust risk management procedures in place.

  • Ensuring that the school has a business continuity plan in place, where required.

  • Evaluating the effectiveness of the school’s remote learning arrangements including to ensure that the curriculum remains fully accessible and inclusive to all.

Our Headteacher is responsible for:

  • Ensuring the schools remote learning approach is effectively communicated to the whole school community and providing regular and timely updates as dictated by any circumstances relating to the invocation of a period of remote learning.

  • Co-ordinating and monitoring the effectiveness of remote learning delivery across the school, including to ensure that the curriculum remains fully accessible and inclusive to all.

  • Monitoring the security of remote learning systems, including data protection and safeguarding considerations.

  • Overseeing that the staff and pupils have the resources and appropriate training necessary to ensure effective remote learning in accordance with this policy.

  • Ensuring the relevant policies are available to the school community at all times.

  • Ensuring that there are arrangements in place for identifying, evaluating, and managing the risks associated with remote learning, including putting procedures and safe systems of learning into practice, which are designed to eliminate or reduce the risks associated with remote learning.

  • Ensuring that there are arrangements in place for monitoring incidents associated with remote learning.

  • Managing the effectiveness of safeguarding measures through a robust system of reporting, investigating, and recording incidents.

  • Ensuring that pupils identified as being at risk are provided with necessary information and instruction, as required.

  • Managing the effectiveness of health and safety measures through a robust system of reporting, investigating, and recording incidents including that the relevant risk assessments are carried out within the agreed timeframes.

  • Managing the effectiveness of data protection measures through a robust system of reporting, investigating, and recording incidents including the relevant Data Protection Impact Assessments are carried out prior to sharing pupil (or other high risk) information.

  • Regular reviews of the effectiveness of this policy.

The Governors and Headteacher are responsible for liaising with the Data Protection Officer to ensure:

  • all staff are aware of the data protection principles outlined in the GDPR.

  • all Data Protection Policies and Privacy Notices are updated to reflect remote learning platforms.

  • that all learning platforms, apps, games, communication platforms, computer programs used for remote learning are compliant with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 and where necessary, Data Protection Impact Assessments have been carried out.

  • all staff understand and follow the procedures for data breaches

The DSL is responsible for:

  • Attending and arranging, where necessary, any safeguarding meetings that occur during the remote learning period.

  • Liaising with the ICT technicians to ensure that all technology used for remote learning is suitable for its purpose and will protect pupils online.

  • Identifying vulnerable pupils who may be at risk if they are learning remotely.

  • Ensuring that child protection plans are enforced while the pupil is learning remotely, and liaising with the headteacher and other organisations to make alternate arrangements for pupils who are at a high risk, where required.

  • Identifying the level of support or intervention required while pupils learn remotely and ensuring appropriate measures are in place.

  • Liaising with relevant individuals to ensure vulnerable pupils receive the support required during the period of remote working, ensuring all safeguarding incidents are adequately recorded and reported.

The SENCO is responsible for:

  • Ensuring that the technology used for remote learning is accessible to all pupils and that reasonable adjustments are made where required.

  • Ensuring that pupils with EHC plans continue to have their needs met while learning remotely, and liaising with the headteacher and other organisations to make any alternate arrangements for pupils with EHC plans and IHPs.

  • Identifying the level of support or intervention that is required while pupils with SEND learn remotely.

  • Arranging additional support for pupils with SEND which will be unique to the individual’s needs.

  • Ensuring that the provision put in place for pupils with SEND is monitored for effectiveness throughout the duration of the remote learning period.

IT Staff are responsible for:

  • Reviewing the security of remote learning systems and flagging any security breaches to the Data Protection Officer.

  • Overseeing that any ICT equipment used for remote learning is resilient and can efficiently recover lost data.

  • Ensuring that all school-owned devices used for remote learning have suitable anti-virus software installed, have a secure connection, can recover lost work, and allow for audio and visual material to be recorded, where required.

  • Ensuring that any programs or networks used for remote learning can effectively support a large number of users at one time, where required, e.g. undertaking ‘stress’ testing.

  • Working with the SENCO to ensure that the equipment and technology used for learning remotely is accessible to all pupils and staff.

Teaching & Learning staff are responsible for:

  • Ensuring pupils are shown how to use the remote platforms and other tools to be utilised in the delivery of remote learning.

  • Create learning plans in line with this policy.

  • Adhering to this policy at all times during periods of remote learning.

  • Taking appropriate steps to ensure their devices remain secure in line with the ICT Acceptable Use Policy including by setting privacy settings on devices used to deliver or engage in remote learning to an appropriate level to protect themselves and the pupils/parents involved

  • Reporting any safeguarding incidents to the DSL and asking for guidance as appropriate.

  • Reporting any health and safety incidents to the health and safety officer and asking for guidance as appropriate.

  • Reporting any Data Protection incidents to the DPO and asking for guidance as appropriate.

  • Taking part in any training conducted to meet the requirements of this policy, including training on how to use the necessary electronic equipment and software.

  • Reporting any dangers or potential dangers they identify, as well as any concerns they may have about remote learning, to the headteacher.

  • Liaising with the SENCO and other relevant members of staff to ensure all pupils remain fully supported for the duration of the remote learning period.

  • Reporting any defects on school-owned equipment used for remote learning to an ICT technician.

  • Adhering to the requirements of the policies listed in section 3 including as they relate to remote learning.

Appendix 1: Pupil Code of Conduct / Behaviour Policy: Remote Learning Addendum

Introduction

This addendum supplements the school’s Behaviour Policy during periods of remote learning. If any conflict arises between this addendum and the school’s Behaviour Policy this addendum shall prevail during such periods.

Pupils are responsible for:

  • Taking care of their personal information.

  • Only sharing their image or using their camera in line with the parental consents recorded on their school file.

  • Taking reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised access to devices that are being used to access remote learning.

  • Ensuring the privacy of all individuals participating in events and lessons via video conferencing or other remote means, by not sharing any sensitive, personal or confidential data, this includes:

    • Not using the information / contact details / images obtained for any other purpose than learning. 

    • Not copying (by means of screen grab, photo or other means) or recording any element of an online lesson and disseminating or distributing it in any way.

  • Informing an appropriate member of school staff as soon as is reasonably practical if they become aware of a data security risk or breach.

  • Informing an appropriate member of school staff as soon as is reasonably practical if they have worries or concerns about the wellbeing of any of their peers.

  • Adhering to the Behavioural Policy / Online Safety Policy / Social Media policy at all times. 

  • Ensuring they have access to remote learning material and notifying an appropriate member of school staff if they do not have access.

  • Reporting any technical issues to an appropriate member of school staff as soon as possible.

  • Ensuring they are available to learn remotely during the school day/ normal school timetable, and that their schoolwork is completed on time and to the best of their ability.

  • Informing an appropriate member of school staff as soon as possible if they are feeling unwell or if schoolwork cannot be completed for whatever reason, and for following the Attendance & Absence Policy.

  • Maintaining the upkeep of any equipment they use to access remote learning resources.

  • If a pupil is provided with school-owned equipment, signing and adhering to the Acceptable Use Agreement/Codes of Conduct prior to commencing remote learning.

Appendix 2: Parental Code of Conduct: Remote Learning Addendum

We believe parents can most effectively facilitate and participate in their children’s remote learning by working in partnership with the school and staff.

We encourage parents to communicate any issues with remote learning, safeguarding, pupil welfare, wellbeing or data protection to an appropriate member of school staff as soon as possible.

If a pupil is provided with school-owned equipment, the pupil will need to sign the Acceptable Use Agreement/Codes of Conduct prior to commencing remote learning.