DB Primary Delivering Remote Education in Primary Schools

All schools are now expected to be able to provide remote education should the need arise. The DfE have established clear expectations around this. Whilst technology is key in providing remote learning schools should be conscious of those pupils who may not have access and they should provide worksheets, textbooks or workbooks where needed. 

The following article sets out the expectations (as per the Guidance for Full Opening Schools updated 1/10/20) and how DB Primary helps schools meet these.

When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to: 

Set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.  

This may be achieved through DB Primary by using a combination of Learning Library activities and the DB Primary Task Tool.

The Learning Library is a resource area full of interactive activities for children to undertake. This includes fact files bustling full of age appropriate information, interactive quizzes and live games. It also has teaching tools that enable teachers to model concepts through interactive teaching tools. All children’s activities may be assigned by teachers or accessed by children for their own self-learning. The auto marking feature and linked mark book save teachers’ considerable time.

The Task tool is a feature associated with community or class spaces. Here teachers may create their own activities for children to undertake. These may be supported with the teacher’s own resources or links to third-party (or Learning Library) activities to enrich the learning activity and opportunity. Some schools have integrated Oak Academy lessons into their task provision, so that children can access the lessons alongside other suitable material. Teachers may specify how children respond to the task. This may be using software such as Microsoft Office tools or directly on the web using the creative tools in built within the task tool.

Teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject.  

This may be achieved by providing good quality resources through DB Primary including but not restricted to signposting Oak National video lessons where appropriate, use of DB Fact files, Use of DB Task Tool for sharing of resources and activity, use of DB Community Page.

A key feature of the DB Primary Learning Library are the computing resources. The full primary programming curriculum for programming may be delivered without the need for any other resources. With a rich bank of other resources alongside the self-build tools DB Primary offers considerable opportunity for building or delivering your existing sequenced curriculum online. We would highly recommend building or delivering your curriculum building in the use of DB Primary for in-school use to enable the switch to remote to be so much smoother.

Our next release (Christmas 2020) will include further resources to support our curriculum for Relationships Education and Education for a Connected World (Web Wizards).  

Provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high-quality curriculum resources or videos. 

DB Primary enables many opportunities for teachers to deliver high-quality content as well as the areas explored above. Video lessons available through Oak National may be easily shared through DB Primary, sequenced appropriately for your children and your context. Alternatively, teachers may present their own video inputs, sound clips or documents for their children. These may be presented through a variety of tools – all of which enable children to communicate appropriately to demonstrate their understanding and to request support where needed.  

Gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work.

The combination of tools within DB Primary enables teachers to assess progress and understanding as well as offer timely interventions. This may be achieved in a timely and effective way tailored to the needs of individuals.

Enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding.

Using DB Primary teachers may adjust the planning and work dependent on understanding shown through work submitted or completed online. Teachers may wish to open either the forum or mail channels to enable pupils/parents to ask questions and receive support materials. The systems allow for individual tuition as well as group and class inputs. The Learning Library offers differentiated activity to enable teachers to target effectively.

Plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers.

Schools may achieve this through DB Primary. We would suggest teachers should adapt their existing planning to make it suitable to be delivered face to face or online. Use of the teaching tools and activities in school will help the shift to remote education should the need arise. The use of online communication tools in the classroom either as class or home activity can significantly enhance learning giving opportunities for all children to engage.

Addtional info

There is no requirement for face to face teaching or face to face feedback but through DB Primary teachers can integrate or link to live streaming services such as Microsoft Teams or Google Classrooms. Schools are advised to seek advice and ensure policies and protocols are in place for live lessons before embarking on them. There are considerations of both privacy and safeguarding that should be resolved prior to establishing such provision. Schools should also consider how to develop their (online) relationships curriculum to take into consideration the increased use of streaming services in children’s lives. 

There is the need to ensure continuity between in-class and home learning and whatever provision is used for remote learning should ideally also be regularly used in school. Children and teachers need to be familiar with the remote learning tools. DB Primary is the ideal tool to support both class and home learning. 

More info

If you would like to know more about DB Primary and how it can be used to maintain school community and teach remotely, please visit our web page or get in touch with our team.