Remote Education Pre-Prep

Remote education is provided by the Dragon Pre-Prep for pupils who have to be away from school for Covid reasons with pupils provided with immediate access to the curriculum in an age appropriate way. Children out of school will cover the same curriculum content, either live with the rest of the class, with 1:1 live support from familiar staff or with materials provided for off-line learning. They register via Zoom each morning and get their instructions for the day in this session. Children have opportunities for Pastoral support from school staff, and to interact socially with their class mates. This provision also applies to pupils who may be overseas and unable to travel even when schools are open here in the UK.

We are aware that too much screen time can be detrimental to the health of such young children therefore the Pre-Prep offers the curriculum in a number of formats and also advises parents to prioritise learning in the core areas of phonics, reading, writing and maths.

Other areas of the curriculum will be offered but can be engaged with as appropriate to the age of the child or family circumstances.

The Dragon uses two platforms for our remote education. Zoom is used for live teaching and enables us to record lessons for those pupils overseas. Firefly, a learning platform, is used by pupils and teachers to share resources. If a child has technical requirements at home the IT Helpdesk is able to support, providing devices where needed.

Pupils will have access to live lessons as if they were in school and targeted 1:1 sessions to keep them engaged in specific areas. If a pupil is in a different time zone, lessons can be recorded. All resources are shared through Firefly, including access to programmes and resources usually used in school.

We encourage all pupils to engage with remote education and monitor their attendance as normal. We have provided parents with advice on equipment, online safety and supporting their children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing at this time. For further support, pupils have daily contact with their Class Teachers who remain the main point of contact between home and school.

Pupils’ work is submitted on Firefly allowing teachers to provide feedback as normal, in line with the School’s marking policy. All feedback and marks can be viewed on Firefly. Any concerns over progress or engagement will be discussed with parents and any extra support needed will be put in place.

All individual Learning Support Lessons and English as an Additional Language (EAL) lessons continue as Zoom sessions.

These will take place via Zoom and will be arranged after liaison with The Pre-Prep Music Coordinator, the music teacher and parents.