Remote Education - Microsoft Teams Parent Guide

Good afternoon, everyone.

REMOTE EDUCATION UPDATE
Thank you so much for your considered feedback on the remote education provision we offer. It was great to read so many positives about aspects we are 'getting right' but it was also important to read the feedback of what we could improve upon and what you wanted us to offer.

I fully appreciate and understand that everyone is different and individual circumstances mean that what works for one family, doesn't always work for another. Whilst making difficult decisions about our remote education offer, we do need to listen to parental feedback as well as considering the expectations outlined by the Department for Education. Children's wellbeing and quality of education is always at the forefront of our minds when making decisions.

As a result of your feedback, we will be making a number of improvements to our remote education provision after half term. Instead of using Class Dojo as a platform to set work for children at home, we will use Microsoft Teams. There are a number of benefits to using this platform which will become clear to you when we start using it.

After some successful trials last week and this week, we will also be able to offer your child three live learning sessions a week. One of these sessions will be a wellbeing session where children will have the chance to see and engage with their peers. (Children in Nursery and Reception working at home will have daily sessions due to their developmental needs and the challenges of these children submitting work independently.)

As of this afternoon, we have received parental permission for accessing live learning sessions from 296 children across the school. That is almost half of the school. If you haven't already done this, please click on this link to confirm your agreement on the Microsoft Form I sent out on Dojo.

I have included a link to the user agreement on the top of the Microsoft Form or you can access it at the bottom of the page on our e-safety page on the school website.

https://www.southwarkprimary.net/safeguarding/e-safety/

You should receive your child's log in details very soon. Please try to log on to make sure the log in works. Please note that there will not be any work set up yet. I have attached the Parent /Carer guide for your reference.

PLEASE DO NOT PANIC! We are busy creating support guidance which will help you and your class teachers will be able to support your child with any questions they might have during the live lessons.

More information will follow later in the week which will answer a lot of your initial questions.

Please bear with us - there are still a number of aspects yet to be fully decided upon but I wanted to update you on the changes which we have made. As with all changes, I understand that some people will have concerns. We fully expect there to be a few 'teething problems'. However, I am confident that the change to Microsoft Teams and some live learning opportunities will improve our existing remote education provision.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Mr Skirton