Welcome to the Willowbrook Primary School Remote Learning Zone

Here are a variety of websites and our information regarding our Online Platform to support online activities for you to complete at home together.

Willowbrook Remote Learning Provision

We will  provide high quality learning provision each day, through DB Primary, in line with what your children would be receiving if they were in school.

We will:-

• Enable access to high-quality online or offline resources and teaching videos:
  • provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos. These videos do not need to be live streamed and can be pre-recorded or videos created via other platforms.
  • provide printed resources for pupils who do not have suitable online access.
  • avoid an over-reliance on long-term projects or internet research activities.
• Ensure assignments are set with meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
• Provide work that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school is set, and as a minimum: primary:
  • EYFS/KS1 - 3 hours a day, on average, across the school cohort.
  • KS2 - 4 hours a day, on average, across the school cohort.
• Check, at least weekly, whether pupils are engaging with their work, and inform parents immediately via a phone call or home visit where engagement is a concern.
• Check how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum through questioning and other suitable tasks, and provide feedback, at least weekly.

We will follow the structure below;

• Weekly - Mindfulness/Zumba sessions
• Daily - 1 Literacy session, 1 Mathematics session, 1 Phonic/Spelling session, 1 Guided Reading session and 1 Topic session.
• The topic sessions will include you child’s new topic, PE, E-safety, Picture news etc. 

These tasks will be explained to you when they are uploaded.  A whole day of sessions will be provided for your child.  This will be new teaching for your children and we will continue to use a variety of resources to support our pupils in completing those activities through our new learning platform DP Primary. This may include pre-recorded video clips, voice-over presentations, other on-line learning platforms such as BBC Bitesize, YouTube, and resources from HM Government’s Oak National Academy.

The BBC will show curriculum-based programmes on TV from Monday 11^th January; this could really support families where there are issues with technology and enhance the range of resources available.

We will be providing exercise books for you to work in if needed.  These can be collected from the front office.

Please encourage your child to complete all the activities set each day. If there are reasons why your child is unable to do so, please contact the school. We will continue to keep our approach under review.

Data and Access to Technology

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: We will provide laptops for any pupil who is in need.  For those parents who we are aware of who need this support, we will be contacting you directly. 

• If you are having difficulties with accessing the home learning due to lack of device; please contact the school office admin@willowbrook.essex.sch.uk.
• If you are having difficulties with accessing the home learning due to lack of data, can I suggest that you firstly contact your current internet provider if you have one, as many are offering free data to support children’s learning. This includes, BT, Virgin, Three and Vodafone. If you are not successful please contact the school email address and we will guide you to the correct support.

SEND Provision

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:

• We use an online learning platform which allows staff to create their own teaching videos. Videos for EYFS and year 2 are interactive and involve practical tasks.

• We are able to differentiate work and assign tasks directly to the children, therefore it can be individualised where necessary.

• Staff can assign interactive games to support consolidation and overlearning.

• Physical packs have been made and created for those pupils who have difficulty accessing online learning.

• Additional phone calls are made to children that have been identified as needing further support in engaging with/ completing tasks.

• Parents are able to communicate with the class teacher and SENCO via e-mail and telephone calls.

• One Plan meetings have been held to facilitate discussions between staff and parents on provision for children with SEND and whether any further support is required.

• Those children with an EHCP or identified as vulnerable have the opportunity to attend school.

NEW Online Reading Scheme

We have just invested in a full online reading scheme so that the children can assess their reading scheme books at home.  Children will be assigned to the correct reading band by their class teacher and can then work their way through the books as usual.  The online scheme has lots of useful extras like questions about some of the texts for children to complete after, advice and guidance for parents and audible features to help children with unknown sounds and words.  It will take a few days to get this set up and organised and then we will send out further details and long-ins for all pupils. We are aiming for children to be able to access this by the 18^th January.  It looks really exciting and will allow children to continue to progress through the reading scheme during lockdown.  This will be explained in more detail via a letter.

If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from the approaches described above?

If your child is self-isolating while the school is open, Class Teachers will find providing remote learning more challenging as they will be teaching full time. Therefore, learning will still be accessed via DB Primary and will contain video teaching, but it will be lessons from The Oak National Academy. The lesson will be selected by school staff to best match the learning taking place in school and posted within your child's class page on DB Primary.  You can also access any other lessons from the Oak Academy icons below.

Additional Links

EYFS

 Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

We also have a range of other resources your child can access from home using the following link or the School Website Links or any of the other information below.

Additional Online Support

As we utilise virtual learning more frequently and often within a hybrid approach, it is essential that children are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material. The use of technology has become a significant component of many safeguarding issues. Child sexual exploitation; radicalisation; sexual predation: technology often provides the platform that facilitates harm.