On the evening of January 4th 2021 it was announced that from Tuesday 5th, all schools would be closed other than for the children of critical workers and vulnerable children.
To the right is the video Mr Bowman recorded for our children in response to this announcement and below is an overview of our Spring 2021 home learning approach alongside key reference documents.
In-school Learning
Our in-school team of staff is teaching our children of critical workers and vulnerable children within year group bubbles. To minimise the number of adults in the school at any one time, each year group typically has one adult and one teaching assistant to support the learning, and has the use of two classrooms.
The in-school teacher plans the curriculum with the remote teacher and all children, whether in school or at home, will enjoy similar lessons which cover the same objectives.
The structure and timings of the day, including play and lunchtimes, are all as in the Autumn term for our in-school learners.
Remote Learning
Our children learning remotely do so via Microsoft Teams. They have a structured day of live teaching inputs as shown below. Each teaching input is followed by time for the child to complete the work set.
| Activity | Notes |
| Teaching Input 1 | This is scheduled as a meeting via the Teams calendar. Children should join the meeting ready to start on time. An adult should be present to supervise the child, albeit at distance within the same room/space. |
| Children complete task 1 | Children complete task 1 in this time and submit it as an assignment to the relevant channel on Teams when it is ready. |
| Break | |
| Teaching Input 2 | Scheduled and joined as outlined above. |
| Children complete task 2 | Children complete task 2 and submit it as an assignment to the relevant channel on Teams when it is ready. |
| Lunchtime | |
| Teacher input 3: Phonics/spellings and wider curriculum | Scheduled and joined as outlined above. Children will need a whiteboard, piece of paper or notebook to show the teacher during the lesson, but no work will need to be uploaded/submitted for the phonics/spelling session. |
| The wider curriculum session should continue from the previous one. No need to change meeting. | |
| Children complete the wider curriculum task | Scheduled and joined as outlined above. Children will need a whiteboard, piece of paper or notebook to show the teacher during the lesson, but no work will need to be uploaded/submitted for the phonics/spelling session |
| Break | |
| Story | The teacher or teaching assistant will read a story to round off the day. |
We have created two different timetables for these sessions and allocated them in a way which we hope gives us the best chance of avoiding siblings having to be on 'meetings' at the same time However, depending upon the ages of the children at home, such clashes may be unavoidable. If this presents issues with the number of devices available at home, parents should contact the school office.
The timetables are available by clicking on the links below:
Timetable A: Reception, Year 1, Year 4 and Year 5
Timetable B: Year 2, Year 3 and Year 6
Important Documents
Here are three important documents related to remote learning:
A parents' guide to remote learning at St Stephen's
The parental role in remote learning
A children's guide to using Microsoft Teams
Well-being and Support