I would hope schools would allow these children to join in as many lessons as possible via Zoom or a similar platform. The child at home could observe tea her input and work as part of a group. Children in the class may need permission from parents to join in on screen discussions, as there may be safeguarding or other issues. Teachers can email work to the pupil and set up 1:1 online meetings to check on progress and provide support. The pupil’s TA (if they have one) could also do sessions. A teacher coming to the home could be problematic if they are also visiting other children /have school aged children of their own etc.

If parents have medical advice to keep their child off school then the school should do so it can to support the child's education at home. If not, things are much more problematic as without this it may be that the issue is parental fear rather than actual risk and the school should be working to get the pupil in to school.

The difficulty with supporting home education while also delivering on school teaching is avoiding unsustainable teacher workload.

Zooming a lesson that is being delivered live can be technically difficult: where is the camera and microphone? If the teacher moves or other pupils are speaking, can the remote pupil see/hear them. We have found this can be quite challenging. If the pupil at home has a question how do they communicate? If they simply have their microphone on they then speak over the class unless the teacher knows they have the question which means the teacher needs to be looking at the screen. There are also safeguarding issues around any recording or streaming of a lesson involving other pupils - all would need parental permission which may not be possible in some cases where for very good reason the pupils photo is never to be used by the school.

Separate 1:1 sessions are ideal but not sustainable long term, particularly if more than one child is off long term, as the impact on teacher workload is huge.

Providing access to the lesson materials electronically is quite easy. Encouraging teachers to plan lessons that can be remote completed in the first place makes sense as this may become widespread at any point anyway.

Email or other communication to check understanding is great, but parents and shielding pupils need to remember that most teachers teach most lessons so there may be a delay in response.

Use of the school VLE to collect work and provide feedback really helps.

Planning homework that checks a lesson had been understood is good for the whole class anyway so is to be encouraged.

TAs can attend lessons, act as go betweens by zooming in the lesson -  as long as permission is there, or just by passing messages.

If a pupil also has 1:1 time on their timetable this should be zoomed if the pupil has the technology and connections for that.

Staff going home is probably best avoided as the pupils are of due to shielding.

I have two out. One on doctor sign off and one for to PHE guidelines on aerosol generating procedures. It's hard.

Hi

Taken from

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools#section-5-contingency-planning-for-remote-education

'Where a class, group or a small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or local restrictions require pupils to remain at home, we expect schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. Schools are expected to consider how to continue to improve the quality of their existing curriculum, for example through technology, and have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision.'

and much more.

As a Governor , we have been looking at this as it has been mentioned specifically as one of those things Ofsted will look at.

Sonia