Home Learning
Please have a look at our Online Safety page for more information on staying safe online during school closures.
In the event of a school closure or need to self-isolate, from October 2020 onwards, 'Showbie' will be used for home learning, where tasks, loom lessons and instructional videos will be uploaded. Please see our Home Learning Policy below.
The Home Learning Policy will tell you most of what you need to know about how we are providing remote learning in a variety of different situations. However, see the frequently asked questions below to give you more information about our provision.
If there is a full school closure we will move straight to the use of 'Showbie' to provide work and 'Zoom' to provide live sessions. The links to 'Zoom' will be sent through our secure platform.
If when the school is open, your child has to isolate at home, the school will work closely with you to ensure that your child is supported and continues to learn what the rest of the class are learning.
Your child has been taught how to use 'Showbie' during the Autumn Term and they will know their user name and password.
If you have any further questions about how to use 'Showbie', please contact your class teacher using your class email.
Please see below a guide for parents on using ‘Showbie’.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should my child expect from immediate remote education in the first day or two of pupils being sent home?
In the event of a child needing to self isolate due to:
- Testing positive for Covid
- Awaiting a negative Covid test result
- Being told to isolate before surgery
- Being contacted by track and trace
The family will be:
- Contacted on the first day of absence by a member of staff by phone to discuss home learning
- Directed to activities on our online platform ‘Showbie’
If a child is does not have access to technology at home:
- They will be contacted by a member of staff by phone regularly to discuss home learning
- Text books (Collins/Key comprehension) will be provided
- Activities that would have been uploaded to Showbie will be printed and posted instead
- Where possible a school laptop will be provided
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?
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects.
how long can I expect work set by the school to take my child each day?
Your child will be provided with work and contact time for up to 4 hours per day.
This will include:
- a live registration session on Zoom every morning
- a live catch up session at the end of the day.
The timetables for these live sessions vary for each year group.
- The daily work uploaded to 'Showbie' detailed below.
English: Five lessons per week (1 for each day).
Maths: Five lessons per week (1 for each day).
Geography/History: One lesson per week.
Science: Two lessons per week.
PE: Two lessons per week.
Art/DT: One lesson per week.
Computing: One lesson per week.
RE/PSHE: One lesson per week.
How will my child access any online remote education provided by the school?
'Showbie’ is our home learning platform. It is used to assign, collect and review children’s homework.
Class teachers have spent time teaching the children how to use 'Showbie' so they should be familiar with it. The ‘user guide’ is to aid your understanding of how to support your child using 'Showbie' to complete home learning tasks can be found below
How does it work?
'Showbie' keeps children’s work organised by classes and assignments. At a glance, children can see their upcoming assignments and due dates so they can organise their home learning. Children can provide responses to assignments or annotate worksheets directly in the form of text comments, the pen tool (which allows them to draw and write directly on the page) and pinned voice notes. Likewise, teachers can provide feedback in the form of voice notes, annotations, and videos.
How can my child access 'Showbie' at home?
1) The web version can be accessed using Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla or your usual internet browser via: www.showbie.com
2) The app can be downloaded for free from the app store https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/showbie/id548898085
The app is currently only available for iPhone/iPad use, not Android yet.
How will my child be taught remotely?
Class teachers are responsible for:
- Reporting any safeguarding incidents to the Designated Safeguarding Lead.
- Creating a timetable for the children to follow each week.
- Creating and uploading:
English: Five lessons per week (1 for each day).
Maths: Five lessons per week (1 for each day).
Geography/History: One lesson per week.
Science: Two lessons per week.
PE: Two lessons per week.
Art/DT: One lesson per week.
Computing: One lesson per week.
RE/PSHE: One lesson per week.
- Using a video platform to register/catch up with their classes and explaining the morning’s learning ahead.
In order to avoid difficulties with registration due to pupils having to share devices and parents having children in more than one year group, registration times will be staggered.
Year 3 – 8:30am – 8:45am
Year 4 – 8:45am – 9:00am
Year 5 – 9:00am – 9:15am
Year 6 – 9:15am – 9:30am
- Using a video platform to catch up with their classes and read, do quizzes, have discussions, show and tell etc in order to encourage engagement.
Year 3 – 2:30pm – 2:45pm
Year 4 – 2:45pm – 3:00pm
Year 5 – 3:00pm – 3:15pm
Year 6 – 3:15pm – 3:30pm
- Recording and uploading five recorded maths lessons.
- Recording and uploading five recorded English lessons.
- Recording other lessons where appropriate.
What are the expectations for my child’s engagement and the support that we as parents and carers should provide at home?
Parents are responsible for:
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Ensuring their child registers on Showbie every school day and assisting where necessary.
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Informing their child’s teacher via email or the school office no later than 8:30am if their child is unwell or unable to participate in home learning.
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Taking an active interest in their child’s learning.
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Supporting their child to follow the weekly timetable set by their child’s class teacher.
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Monitoring their child’s communication and online activity.
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Recognising, rewarding and celebrating their child’s effort and achievement.
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Communicating with their child’s class teacher via phone or class email if their child is struggling to access the home learning.
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Overseeing their child’s use of ‘Showbie’ – ensuring that they complete all relevant work on time and to the best of their ability and submitting it to their child’s class teacher by the agreed deadlines in order for the work to be marked.
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Reporting any technical issues to the school as soon as possible.
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Providing school uniform for their child to wear each day that they learn from home.
Pupils are responsible for:
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Wearing school uniform.
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Eating breakfast and being prepared to learn before school starts.
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Following the Online Safety Policy at all times.
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Ensuring they attend daily meetings with their class teacher.
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Following the timetable set by their class teacher.
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Completing all home learning set by their class teacher through Showbie, on time and to the best of their ability.
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Reporting any technical issues or issues regarding their home learning activity to their responsible adult and if possible, their teacher, through ‘Showbie’.
How will you check whether my child is engaging with their work and how will I be informed if there are concerns?
Teachers are responsible for
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Ensuring that marking is done in accordance with the school’s marking policy.
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Returning marked work via ‘Showbie’ to the pupil, by an agreed date.
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Contacting parents/carers via parentmail/email/phone that same week where a child is not completing their schoolwork or their standard of work has drastically decreased.
How will the school work with me to help my child who needs additional support from adults at home to access remote education?
A variety of methods will be used to give feedback, mark work and make assessments
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Marking on ‘Showbie’
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Using the comment box on ‘Showbie’
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Feedback during live sessions
If my child is not in school because they are self-isolating, how will their remote education differ from children who are being educated in school?
The SENDCO is responsible for:
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Ensuring that pupils with EHC plans continue to have their needs met while learning remotely, and liaising with the class teacher and other staff/organisations to make any alternate arrangements for pupils withEHC plans and ILPs.
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Supporting the class teacher/LSA in order to provide required interventions.
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Ensuring that the provision put in place for pupils with SEND is monitored for effectiveness throughout the duration of the remote learning period.
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Making weekly contact via phone or email with parents whose children have EHCPs/CPs to ensure that they are supported in being able to engage fully with home learning and communicating this to class teachers.
Why are the teachers recording lessons rather than having live lessons?
We teach the same curriculum remotely as we do in school wherever possible and appropriate. However, we may need to make some adaptations in some subjects. The class teacher will communicate regularly with parents, to ensure the provision matches what the children in school are receiving, as much as possible. The use of 'Showbie' enables teachers to upload the resources that the children in school are receiving when appropriate.
In most cases pre-recorded lessons are at least as good as live lessons, and may be even better. A recent article in the Times Educational Supplement raised the following points:
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Perhaps the biggest advantage of pre-recorded lessons is accessibility. In many homes, there aren’t suitable devices for all children to access lessons at the same time. One laptop can’t serve three children who all have live lessons simultaneously, but it will give access to lessons that have been recorded.
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There can be a problem with the amount of bandwidth streaming that live lessons require. This often becomes an issue when children are trying to join live lessons at the same time that parents are trying to have virtual meetings or teachers are trying to deliver lessons live at the same time in school.
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Pre-recorded lessons also mean that pupils can pause, rewind and revisit explanations that they have struggled with.
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As remote learning on a national scale, is fairly new, there is little definitive evidence that one method is better than another. A report from the Education Endowment Foundation points out that the method of delivery is much less important than the quality of that delivery. The quality of delivery of pre-recorded lessons is very good as teachers watch their lessons back and spend time improving them – time permitting. At Garden Suburb Junior School we are ensuring high quality recorded lessons.
This isn’t to say that there is no place for live remote interaction. We have had positive feedback from our children and parents regarding the video call registration and catch up sessions - the children have enjoyed reading class books, participating in quizzes, discussing their learning and ‘show and tell’.
What should you do if you do not have access to technology or the Internet?
We have been fortunate to receive 26 laptops from the DfE which we have now allocated to families in need of support. We are hoping to receive another allocation in February. Please contact your class teacher or the school office if you need support with technology.
Does my child need to attend the online Registration?
Yes - the children should be on time for registration, smartly dressed and in their school uniform. It is important to inform the school if your child is not going to be attending registration, just as you would if your child was not attending school. Please email Mrs Morgan Chiswick welfare@gsjs.barnetmail.net and ensure that you include the full name of your child, their year group, class and reason for absence.
