Home learning: Your questions answered
What should my child expect from immediate home learning when sent home during the pandemic?
The first day or two of being home educated might look different from our standard approach, while we take necessary actions to prepare for a longer period of quality home learning as anything we provide will need to be highly personalised. Your child’s tutor will initially direct you to home learning ideas on the school website, this will then be followed up with a delivery of a paper-based home learning pack and resources.
Will my child be taught broadly the same curriculum as they would if they were in school?
We do see that accessing new learning can be challenging for our students. We are seeing most success when we provide learning tasks that support student’s retention of knowledge and skills. This has been a key change of focus when planning. We broadly aim to provide learning that matches our curriculum long term plans but we have to ensure we adapt for maximum impact and engagement.
How long can I expect work to be set by school to take my child each day?
All children are very different and need very different learning experiences. We provide formal curriculum work to last for a 2 week period. Pre and Semi formal activities and planning will be sent each half term. The amount of work and resources provided will be personalised for each child but we encourage you to complete work that helps your day. We would encourage you to spend time reading with your child daily as we do in school. We also would encourage formal students to use our recommended online platforms that support learning in English and maths. Progress on these platforms are monitored in school by subject specialists. Our pre and semi-formal students can access wonderful online resources that are linked via our school website. There is then an expectation that you choose tasks from the work packs provided each day. Your choice will depend on your child. Tutors will advise on task choice during daily Teams sessions and weekly phone calls. You can contact the Academy at any time for additional tasks for your child.
How will my child access online home learning?
The Academy will provide devices and internet data to support your child in accessing online resources. Please inform us if you need support with this.
Where appropriate, students have been provided with their own email address and advice on how to access this to support online learning and daily Teams connections.
How will my child be taught at home?
Formal
Personalised work packs, specifically for English (including reading), maths and science have been created by subject leads.
We have also created a topic web all about ‘Being Healthy’ for this half term. This gives you ideas of activities to try at home linked to learning in art, PE, humanities, music, technology and PSHE. Activities have been included to promote sensory, gross and fine motor skills as well as communication and independent living skills.
At Abbey Hill, we understand the importance of connection and relationships. We are keen for students to embrace the world of virtual learning in a safe and supported way. Tutors have set up short daily sessions on TEAMS to encourage and support that connection. Initially this is an opportunity for students to familiarise themselves with the platform, learn the rules, speak with friends and take part in short group activities each day at a set time, supported by the class tutor. This will develop over time. Students will be able to access these sessions through their school email account. Guides on how to set this up have been provided.
Pre and Semi-formal
You should have been provided with the academy 5 year LTP for our successful pre and semi-formal curriculum here
This shows the current spring term topic in year 3 is now ‘Being Healthy’.
Packs have been created by our specialist team with personalised activities and resources related to this topic. A topic web and knowledge organiser have been provided to share the teaching that will be delivered in school. This is personalised for each tutor group. These activities and resource packs have been planned for the half term as learning and activities need to be repeated often as part of an established routine. Please record any observations around participation and progress so you can discuss successes and any thoughts for future learning with tutors weekly.
A large part of this offer is also advice, resources and programmes planned to support physiotherapy goals, gross and fine motor control, self-regulation and communication. ‘Goals and Next Steps’ documentation has been shared with you in home learning packs and we can discuss achievements and future goals weekly.
What are your expectation for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?
Our message remains the same, please only use whatever helps your day. We will be here on your child’s return to make sure progress continues. It’s what we do. If you require something specific, or would like to talk to us about how we can support your personal circumstance, please contact us in school. We will get through this together.
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
We will talk to you each week and discuss any concerns you may have in terms of engagement. We will then work together to support engagement at home or discuss access to in-school support if that is your wish.
How will you assess my child’s work and progress?
We encourage you to send any completed work back to us in school. We can collect finished work when we deliver new work packs to your home. You are welcome to send any incomplete work back to us too. This will help us evaluate our own planning and will help inform what we include in future work packs. You can email work, or photos of achievements to us at abbeyhill.homelearning@horizonstrust.org.uk. Any work we receive will be assessed and feedback will be given by tutors, either during daily Teams calls or on the phone. We will discuss your child’s progress with you weekly by phone. All work produced will be collated in school in student folders. This will then inform our curriculum planning for our return to in school teaching.
How will you work with me to help my child who requires additional support from a range of agencies?
Our professionals continue to work in school.
Our SALT’s, Kate and Sue are available for phone or virtual meetings to discuss how communication can be supported at home.
Our EP, Denise is available for phone or virtual meetings to discuss any concerns regarding behaviour, engagement and specific learning needs.
We can support with specific OT advice when required.
Our physiotherapy team, Harriett and Sharon are in school each Monday and Wednesday. They can offer onsite support or virtual support to families.
Our Parent Support advisor, Angela can support with any issues you may be experiencing as a family and signpost to specialist agencies.
Our specialist SEND nurse, Debby is on call to support you with any concerns around your child’s health (non-COVID related).
If you any questions specific to your child or family circumstance, we are here to help. Please contact us directly so we can get this right for you.
