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How has practitioners been able to plan and prepare for upcoming online lessons due to the pandemic. Are they still getting PPA, do they have afternoons off??

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Has online learning contributed to the divide between children from poor backgrounds and children from wealthy backgrounds?

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how has the government helped schools when provided resources for children at home during the pandemic

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We know this is a challenging time for parents, carers and children. Remote education has brought new demands for them and changed how they engage with schools. Many parents and carers are balancing various responsibilities while supporting their children with education at home.

Schools and colleges are there to support you and your children in this.

Separate advice is available for parents and carers of early years children who have not yet started school.

What you should expect for your child's remote education

Schools and colleges have been working hard to deliver high quality remote education. They are now expected to publish information about their remote education offer on their websites. This will help you to understand:

what your child will be studying at home

how you can support your child to engage with their remote curriculum

The remote education that schools provide should be equivalent in length to the teaching your child would normally get in school. You should expect this to include a mixture of:

recorded or live direct teaching time

time for pupils to complete activities independently, such as working through assignments, PE or reading in a comfortable space

Remote education should be suitably tailored if your child has special educational needs and disabilities ( SEND).

The amount of remote education should be a minimum of:

key stage 1 to 3 hours a day, on average across the cohort, with fewer hours for younger children

key stage 2 to 4 hours a day

key stages 3 and 4 to 5 hours a day

Schools should also have a system in place to check pupils' engagement with work on a daily basis. Schools can decide how this will take place. It could include:

monitoring pupils' attendance at live or recorded lessons

checking that pupils have understood and completed their work

direct contact with pupils

Colleges are expected to:

continue to deliver as much of students' planned hours as possible

provide students with regular feedback on their progress

as far as possible, provide students with live online teaching in place of face-to-face delivery

If you do have concerns about the remote education being provided by your child's school or college, please discuss these first with the classroom teacher and if necessary, the headteacher or senior leader. If, having done so, you remain concerned, you can approach Ofsted.

More information on what parents and carers need to know about early years providers, schools and colleges is available.

Supporting your child during remote education

Parents and carers should not feel that they need to set work for their child.

However, the resources below can help you plan your child's days during this period. These resources may also be useful for pupils and students to use alongside the work provided by their school or college.

If you need further support, we encourage you to speak to your child's school or college about their remote education offer.

Engaging children at home

Watch Dr Elizabeth Kilbey's top tips or .
Watch Dr Elizabeth Kilbey's top tips
The Education Endowment Fund has produced support resources for parents. These include:

ways to support your child's reading at home

advice on how to establish a routine with your child

Mental health and wellbeing

You can read guidance for parents and carers on supporting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Guidance for the public on the mental health and wellbeing aspects of coronavirus (COVID-19) is also available.

The following organisations offer information and support on mental health and wellbeing:

Your local library can also provide access to Reading Well: books on prescription, a collection of carefully curated titles for adults, children and young people to support common mental health conditions, or deal with difficult feelings and experiences. Find your local library to join up and borrow them.

Young people can get free, confidential support at any time from government-backed voluntary and community sector organisations by:

texting SHOUT to 85258

calling Childline on 0800 1111

calling the Mix on 0808 808 4994

Resources for parents of children with SEND

We have worked with a range of other organisations to create extra resources for parents of children with SEND:

Curriculum materials are also available:

Additional educational resources

Your child's school or college may suggest resources on their website.

The following examples are used by many schools and teachers, but parents may find them useful too:

Resources and activities from your local library

Your local library can provide access not only to hundreds of books and ebooks to borrow for free, but many also offer online reading groups for children, borrow bags made up of librarian-chosen books, activity ideas and other resources. Find your local library to explore what is available and to join up.

Online safety

It is important to have regular conversations about staying safe online, which amongst other things, include conversations about the importance of keeping any log-in credentials and passwords safe.

Encourage children to speak to you if they come across something worrying online. Support for parents and carers to keep children and young people safe from online harm is available. This includes resources to help you to talk to your child about a range of online safety issues, support to set up home filtering in a child-friendly way and support to set up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices.

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Supporting your children's remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19)

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We know this is a challenging time for parents, carers and children. Remote education has brought new demands for them and changed how they engage with schools. Many parents and carers are balancing various responsibilities while supporting their children with education at home. Schools and colleges are there to support you and your children in this.

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The latest update includes:

additional information, support and resources to help keep children and young people safe online, including harmful online risks

advice on live streaming lessons

This guidance is to help schools and colleges support pupils' and students' remote education and to keep them safe as we continue our response to the pandemic.

It should be read alongside statutory safeguarding guidance on keeping children safe in education.

Where, in accordance with government guidance or legislation around coronavirus (COVID-19), a class, group or a small number of pupils or students need to self-isolate, or local restrictions mean that pupils and students are to remain at home, schools and colleges covered by the temporary continuity direction are required to provide remote education to these pupils and students.

All such pupils and students not physically unwell should have access to remote education as soon as reasonably practicable, which may be the next school day.

Schools and colleges should ensure remote education, where needed, is safe, high quality and aligns as closely as possible with in-school or college provision.

Schools and colleges should continue to improve the quality of their remote education and have a strong contingency plan in place for remote provision. Details of the expectations for remote provision can be found in the guidance for opening schools and opening colleges.

Safeguarding pupils and teachers online

Keeping pupils, students and teachers safe during remote education is essential. Teachers delivering remote education online should be aware that the same principles set out in the school or college staff behaviour policy (sometimes known as a code of conduct) will apply.

Schools and colleges may want to update their policies to reflect remote online education. Schools and colleges (led by their designated safeguarding lead) should review and update their child protection policy to reflect the fact pupils and students will be learning online and in the classroom.

DfE revised Keeping Children Safe in Education, which came into force on 1 September 2020, and it now includes additional information and support to help schools and colleges keep children and young people safe online. It includes for the first time a dedicated collection of resources (at Annex C) to support safe remote education, virtual lessons, and live streaming. It also includes support for schools and colleges to signpost parents and carers to help them keep their children safe online.

Schools and colleges may wish to use these resources to understand more about how to ensure online education is safe:

Schools can access the free Professionals Online Safety Helpline which supports the online safeguarding of both children and professionals. Call 0344 381 4772 or email helpline@saferinternet.org.uk. The helpline is open from Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm.

Guidance on teaching online safety in schools provides information to help schools ensure their pupils understand how to stay safe and behave online.

Important conversations with parents, carers, pupils and students

In your conversations with parents, carers, pupils, and students you should emphasise the importance of a safe online environment, which amongst other things, means keeping any log-in credentials and passwords safe. You should offer support and advice on how to do this.

It is especially important for parents and carers to be aware of what their children are being asked to do, including:

sites they will be asked to use

school staff their child will interact with

Reporting concerns

All school and college staff should continue to act immediately (following their child protection policy and the processes set out in Part 1 of Keeping Children Safe in Education) if they have any concerns about a child or young person's welfare, whether the child or young person is physically in school or learning from home.

Pupils and students should be encouraged to speak up if they come across something worrying online.

It is essential to have and communicate clear reporting routes so that pupils, students, teachers, parents and carers can raise any safeguarding concerns in relation to remote online education.

These should be reflected in the school or college revised child protection policy, and whether additional or alternative arrangements have been put in place. This should be communicated to all pupils, students and staff.

Schools and colleges should also consider referring teachers, parents and carers to the following practical support for reporting harmful or upsetting content, bullying and online risks.

Harmful or upsetting content

Get support on:

Bullying

Get advice on:

Schools may also wish to use resources such as Tootoot to provide a confidential route for pupils to report bullying or abuse.

Online safety advice for parents and carers

Schools should encourage parents and carers to provide age-appropriate supervision for the internet use of the children and young people in their care. Amongst other things, this should include:

talking to their children about not accessing age-inappropriate material on devices

knowing who their children are talking to online

setting up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices

Internet filters should be used to block malicious websites. These are usually free, but often need to be turned on.

The following information will help parents and carers to keep their children safe online:

Additional resources to support parents and carers to keep their children safe online:

Thinkuknow provides advice from the National Crime Agency (NCA) on staying safe online

Parent info is a collaboration between Parentzone and the NCA providing support and guidance for parents from leading experts and organisations

Childnet offers a toolkit to support parents and carers of children of any age to start discussions about their online life, to set boundaries around online behaviour and technology use, and to find out where to get more help and support

Internet matters provides age-specific online safety checklists, guides on how to set parental controls on a range of devices, and a host of practical tips to help children get the most out of their digital world

London Grid for Learning has support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online, including tips to keep primary aged children safe online

Net-aware has support for parents and carers from the NSPCC, including a guide to social networks, apps and games

Let's Talk About It has advice for parents and carers to keep children safe from online radicalisation

UK Safer Internet Centre has tips, advice, guides and other resources to help keep children safe online, including parental controls offered by home internet providers and safety tools on social networks and other online services

has advice on setting up parental controls, tips on how to talk to children about online safety, including the risk of sharing and receiving nude images and how to support children if they have seen something online that has upset them

Communicating with parents, carers, pupils and students

Where education is taking place remotely due to coronavirus (COVID-19), it is important that schools and colleges maintain professional practice as much as possible. When communicating online with parents, carers, pupils and students, schools and colleges should:

communicate within school or college hours as much as possible (or hours agreed with the school or college to suit the needs of staff)

communicate through the school or college channels approved by the senior leadership team

use school or college email accounts (not personal ones)

use school or college devices over personal devices wherever possible

advise staff not to share personal information

ensure parents and carers are clear when and how they can communicate with teachers (resources to support communications are available)

ensure logins and passwords are secure and pupils and students understand that they should not share this information with others

Teachers should try to find a quiet or private room or area to talk to pupils, students, parents or carers. When broadcasting a lesson or making a recording, consider what will be in the background.

Virtual lessons and live streaming

Remote teaching will include both recorded or live direct teaching time, and time for pupils and students to complete tasks and assignments independently. Online video lessons do not need to be recorded by teaching staff at the school or college: Oak National Academy lessons, for example, can be provided in lieu of school-led video content. Schools and colleges are best placed to decide on the most appropriate approach to teaching their pupils and students effectively.

If you choose to provide remote education using live streaming or pre-recorded videos, guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on which video conference service is right for your school and using video conferencing services securely could help schools and colleges to set up video conferencing safely, specifically the section on deploying and configuring the service.

We know that some schools and colleges have concerns around live lessons, but if done correctly, we do not believe they pose additional safeguarding risks and can actually bring many benefits, including improved engagement. You may find the following useful when organising live lessons (this is not an exhaustive list):

use neutral or plain backgrounds

ensure appropriate privacy settings are in place

ensure staff understand and know how to set up and apply controls relating to pupil and student interactions, including microphones and cameras

set up lessons with password protection and ensure passwords are kept securely and not shared

ensure all staff, pupils, students, parents and carers have a clear understanding of expectations around behaviour and participation

You may also find the following guidance useful:

In some areas, schools or colleges may also be able to seek support from their local authority when planning online lessons and activities, and when considering online safety.

Providing pastoral care remotely

Where pupils and students are required to remain at home following government guidance helping parents, carers, pupils and students to make a weekly plan or structure is important. These plans should include time for education, playing and relaxing to reduce stress and anxiety.

As set out in Public Health England's guidance for parents and carers, routine can give children and young people an increased feeling of safety in the context of uncertainty.

Schools and colleges might want to consider whether one-to-one sessions could be appropriate in some circumstances. For example, to provide pastoral care or provide support for pupils and students who are vulnerable or have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

This should be discussed and approved by the senior leadership team to assess any risks. There may be helpful solutions, such as including a parent or additional staff member in the call.

Personal data and GDPR

Schools and colleges should continue to follow guidance on data protection and GDPR. Schools should follow the guidance outlined in the data protection: toolkit for schools and from ico.

When managing personal data, education providers may need to consider:

taking care not to share contact details when emailing multiple people

being careful when sharing usernames and other personal data for access to online resources

providing access to school data systems safely

providing or making available sufficient information to data subjects, pupils, student, parents and carers to raise awareness about the personal data captured during lesson recordings, particularly where cameras are switched on

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Safeguarding and remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19)

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The latest update includes: additional information, support and resources to help keep children and young people safe online, including harmful online risks advice on live streaming lessons This guidance is to help schools and colleges support pupils' and students' remote education and to keep them safe as we continue our response to the pandemic.

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How has the pandemic affected learning in terms of technology? (presentation)

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How has the pandemic affected learning in terms of technology? (presentation)

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The students perspective of online learning

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The teachers perspective (podcast)

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Education for All (EFA) has been a top priority for governments and intergovernmental development agencies for the last twenty years. So far the global EFA movement has placed its principal focus on providing quality universal primary education (UPE) for all children by 2015.

The latest addition to The Open and Flexible Learning series, this book addresses the new challenges created by both the successes and the failures of the UPE campaign. This book advocates new approaches for providing access to secondary education for today's rapidly growing population of children and young adults and examines:

the creation and expansion of Mega-Schools, which combine distance learning and community support and have a proven track record of increasing access at scale

how to prepare the ten-million new teachers that are required to achieve Education for All by 2015 by focusing on classroom-based in-service training

strategies for using technology to scale up distance education cost-effectively

the creation of a twenty-first century educational ecosystem that integrates open schooling and teacher education with communities and their school systems

successful examples of open schools and teacher education programmes operating at scale around the world.

Readers will be delighted to find that Sir John Daniel, bestselling Routledge author of Mega Universities and Knowledge Media, delivers another insightful and practical book on educational technology. Mega-Schools, Technology and Teachers will be of interest to all who are concerned by the central educational challenge of our times: providing secondary education to tens of millions of young people around the world.

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Education for All (EFA) has been a top priority for governments and intergovernmental development agencies for the last twenty years. So far the global EFA movement has placed its principal focus on providing quality universal primary education (UPE) for all children by 2015.

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Will technology replace the school and university? Will technology replace the teacher? What do we really know about technology and learning? Does technology make education more individualized? What does the future hold for technology and education? What can be learnt from the history of technology use in education?

In a thoroughly revised edition of this successful book, Neil Selwyn takes a critical look at some of the major current debates and controversies concerning digital technologies and education. Focusing on the social as well as the technical aspects of these issues, Selwyn addresses fundamental but often unvoiced questions about education and technology. Over the course of eight chapters, the book gives careful thought to the people, practices, processes and structures behind the rapidly increasing use of technologies in education, with an emphasis on the implications of digital technologies for individuals and institutions.

The book focuses attention on the connections between recent technology developments and broader changes in education practice, education policy and education theory over the past 10 years. It also challenges us to reflect on future directions and controversies for education in the (post)digital age. Expanded study questions, annotated further reading and a new glossary of key terms are included to support readers. An updated companion website links to two bonus chapters and audio recordings of the questions for further discussion found at the end of each chapter.

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Will technology replace the school and university? Will technology replace the teacher? What do we really know about technology and learning? Does technology make education more individualized? What does the future hold for technology and education?

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With phones, tablets, consoles and smart watches, tech is a big part of our lives at home - but what about school?

Well, there are loads of projects where tech is being introduced in schools in surprising ways.

Take a look and let us know below if there's any tech in YOUR school that you love using.

Using the future to look at the past!

These kids are learning about the past in a futuristic way. Thanks to virtual reality, children can travel along Hadrian's Wall and see and hear what it was like thousands of years ago.

Using augmented reality they can even meet a Roman soldier who can come to life from the pages of a textbook.

This new way of learning has been created by a company called Discovery Education which has been showing it off at exhibitions including the Bett Show in London.

Would you like to see this in your classroom? Let us know by commenting below.

Sending a robot in your place

A seven-year-old boy who is too ill to go to school sends a robot to class in his place.

Devon Carrow, from New York in America, uses the £3,000 'robo-swot' to answer his teachers' questions and take part in group discussions, all from the comfort of his home.

The high-tech gadget uses HD cameras to show Devon his classroom and he can signal when he wants to give an answer with a flashing light.

His mum says that the equipment helps him feel included and realise that he still has to go to school the same as anyone else.

Imagine being able to visit far away countries from the comfort of your classroom? Well, this school in London has been using virtual reality to do just that.

Using VR headsets these guys can visit the pyramids in Egypt, take a swim under the sea, or even take a look at the Earth from space.

It works by using an app on a smartphone and putting it in a cardboard headset.

Guizhou Radio TV Station

Imagine if this was your school bus... you'd never want to leave. Passengers in south west China can now stay ultra-connected with a 5G-equipped bus.

They have also equipped some of the buses with screens and VR equipment to show off what 5G can do.

People can watch ultra HD films which take seconds to download. They can even experience virtual reality live broadcasting.

The first digital teacher

Meet Will. Believe it or not Will isn't human, but he is the first digital teacher.

Will is going to teach primary school children in New Zealand.

He can interact with students on a computer, tablet, or mobile phone, and has been teaching kids about the environment and renewable energy.

He can respond to the answers given by children and can react to their body language.

During Will's trial, the children said: "If we smile at him, he smiles back to us."

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Technology: How tech is changing classrooms - CBBC Newsround

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With phones, tablets, consoles and smart watches, tech is a big part of our lives at home - but what about school? Well, there are loads of projects where tech is being introduced in schools in surprising ways. Take a look and let us know below if there's any tech in YOUR school that you love using.

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We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We'd like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.