Remote Teaching and Learning

Introduction
Defining remote education and blended learning
Key issues and messages
Frequently asked questions
Further information

Introduction

There is a clear expectation across UK governments and administrations that schools have plans in place to deliver remote education where pupils are unable to attend school for Covid-related reasons.

Governments, administrations and other relevant bodies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have produced guidance on approaches to remote teaching and learning and members should ensure that they are familiar with the provisions of official guidance relevant to them.

The advice set out below is consistent with this guidance and will help teachers and school leaders to ensure that remote education is undertaken in a way that is safe and sustainable for the workforce and secures the best possible educational experiences for children and young people. The advice also sets out what the NASUWT considers to be acceptable and unacceptable practice.

Defining remote education and blended learning

Typically ‘remote education’ is used to describe situations where pupils are being taught remotely in their own homes rather than at school in a classroom. However, ‘remote education’ may also include situations where a teacher is working remotely and teaching a class of pupils at school, e.g. the teacher is teaching from home because they are self-isolating or shielding.

‘Remote education’ is often used to refer to teaching and learning that takes place online. However, it also covers teaching and learning using hard copy resources such as text books and worksheets.

‘Blended learning’ refers to learning that involves a combination of face-to-face teaching and remote education which may be delivered online or through hard copy resources.

Key issues and messages

Schools must have realistic expectations about what can and cannot be achieved through remote education and blended learning

There is limited evidence about effective remote education and blended learning practice in schools. School policies and plans for remote education and blended learning need to reflect the fact that evidence is emerging and that practice is evolving.

Schools should seek regular feedback from teachers to establish what works and remote education plans should be updated in response to this feedback.
Schools should ensure that they keep abreast of emerging evidence about effective practice and issues.

Schools should assess whether it is appropriate to digitise the school’s curriculum for remote education or whether it would be more appropriate to use external curriculum resources that have been designed to support remote education

Schools need to pay particular attention to tackling any workload arising from teaching face-to-face lessons and preparing for and teaching remotely.
Schools should consider whether external resources which have been designed to support remote education (e.g. Oak Academy in England [1], Glow in Scotland [2] and Hwb in Wales [3]) can be aligned with the school’s curriculum and support pupil progression and whether these resources will help to reduce workload.

Schools need to establish whether particular subjects and/or topics are delivered remotely.

Some areas of the curriculum are best taught face-to-face. School leaders will need to ensure that contingency plans identify whether pupils who are learning remotely will need support to cover any elements of the curriculum that are not addressed remotely.
Schools will need to ensure that remote lesson resources cannot be misused.

Schools should not monitor teacher’s online lessons for performance appraisal and quality assurance purposes

Most teachers have received very little training/CPD about remote education. Further, there is limited evidence about effective practice in remote teaching and learning in schools. Therefore, it is wholly inappropriate for schools to adopt punitive and high stakes management practices to judge a teacher’s performance in respect of remote teaching and learning.
School leaders should focus on creating a climate that is developmental, supportive and collaborative to ensure that teachers and school leaders can develop the knowledge skills and competencies needed to implement remote education and blended learning effectively. Adopting punitive and high stakes performance appraisal and monitoring of remote teaching is likely to undermine supportive, developmental and collaborative approaches.

Schools must ensure that teachers and school leaders receive training and continuing professional development (CPD) to help them plan for and deliver remote education effectively

Evidence about effective approaches to remote and blended learning in schools is emerging. Teachers and school leaders need to develop their knowledge of and competencies in planning and delivering remote education and blended learning. They also need up-to-date evidence about effective approaches and practice.
Teachers must be supported to develop their knowledge of remote education resources and pedagogies that support remote education and blended learning. Schools need to ensure that teachers have time within the working day to undertake CPD and plan and work collaboratively.

The school’s approach to remote education must recognise the professional status of teachers

Teachers should have access to evidence and support to enable them to carry out their role effectively.
Teachers should be able to make appropriate use their professional judgement to select the approach to teaching remotely that suits them and the pupils they teach.
Teachers should be supported to feedback their experiences of and views about the school’s approach to remote education and blended learning, including where improvements could be made. They should also be supported to share their knowledge and experiences of effective remote education resources and pedagogies with other teachers and school leaders.

Schools must take action to address poor working practices that pre-date the Covid-19 pandemic and continue to generate massive and unnecessary workload for teachers; teachers and school leaders should challenge the use of burdensome and inappropriate working practices

Teachers and school leaders must not be directed to undertake tasks and activities that are not directly related to their core responsibilities for teaching and leading teaching and learning, including administrative and clerical tasks that do not require the knowledge, skills and expertise of qualified teachers.
Schools across the UK should ensure that they comply with the recommendations set out in the reports of the Independent Teacher Workload Review Group Reports on marking, planning and data management. Schools should also ensure that they comply with the recommendations of the Teacher Workload Advisory Group Report Making Data Work. Although the recommendations in these reports were developed in the context of the education system in England, the NASUWT considers their findings and recommendations to be applicable to practice elsewhere in the UK.
The core purposes of marking, feedback and planning must be to help teachers to secure high-quality educational experiences for pupils and provide information to support effective teaching.
Marking and planning should never be used as a proxy for evaluating whether a teacher is performing well.
Most school assessment policies have been developed for face-to-face teaching contexts. It is not appropriate to simply apply these policies to remote learning contexts.
Schools must ensure that burdensome and inappropriate planning, marking and assessment practices are not replicated in approaches to remote education and blended learning.
Schools should seek to establish how technology might be used to reduce workload burdens and improve arrangements for assessment.
The focus of assessment of remote learning should be on formative assessment, providing feedback to pupils in order to support future learning and not on providing evidence for school tracking systems.
Teachers teaching remotely must not be required to reproduce in written form the verbal feedback that pupils might be given in classroom teaching. Teachers should be supported to identify and use technology that can help them to provide feedback to pupils more efficiently and effectively, e.g. tools that support the development and use of feedback templates or that allow the teacher to record short verbal feedback.
Teachers should not be required to record their lesson plans, including for remote education, for evaluation by others.

Schools must ensure that tasks related to planning for and implementing remote education are done instead of other tasks that teachers and school leaders have been asked to undertake

Schools should ensure that workload activities that do not require immediate implementation are deferred to a later date.
Schools should make it clear to teachers and school leaders what work or activities will be set aside or delayed.
Schools should ensure that arrangements to support teachers (e.g. CPD, lesson observation of teachers undertaking statutory induction) remain in place.

Schools should undertake workload impact assessments of arrangements for remote education and blended learning

Schools should integrate workload impact assessments into all planning arrangements, including contingency planning for remote education or blended learning.
Schools should undertake regular audits of the school’s remote education and blended learning provision to ensure that it is not increasing teacher and school leader workload and working time.
Schools must ensure that teachers’ and school leaders’ workloads are manageable.

Live teaching to pupils in their homes raises issues for privacy and data protection which must be addressed

Teachers and school leaders should ensure that any live teaching is consistent with NASUWT advice. Please see the NASUWT Checklist for the Use and Management of Live Streaming.
Recordings of online sessions are defined as protected under current legislation and cannot be collected, stored or retrieved without parental permission, or in any other way that does not comply fully with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The consequences of a GDPR breach are potentially very significant.
Pupils and/or others present in the home may seek to record an online video session (e.g. on a phone) even if the record function is disabled on the platform, meaning that the school and the teacher are not in control of how that session is used. The NASUWT has received examples of remote lesson recordings being misused, for example being uploaded to social media and to a porn site. Therefore, the Union strongly advises members to not participate in live video lessons to pupils’ homes unless they are sure that measures are in place to prevent such inappropriate practices.
Teachers will need to consider when it may be appropriate to use the chat function to communicate with individual pupils, rather than responding to the whole class, e.g. providing prompts or support to a pupil who is struggling with a particular task or activity that other pupils have understood or are completing.

Live teaching to pupils in their homes must not undermine a teacher’s control of the lesson or their professionalism

The NASUWT has received reports of parents interrupting live lessons to inform the teacher that their child wants to speak to the teacher and to question the subject matter or quality of the lesson. Such incidents take control of the lesson away from the teacher, shift the focus away from teaching and learning and potentially undermine the professional status of the teacher.
Schools should have protocols in place setting out how live lessons will be conducted. The protocol should make it clear that only the class pupils should participate in the lesson and that it is unacceptable for a parent, sibling or other person to interrupt or seek to participate in the lesson. Schools should communicate these expectations to parents and pupils.

Teachers who are working from home should be able to use synchronous or asynchronous approaches to teach pupils in school remotely. Schools should ensure that school equipment is used to deliver lessons undertaken by teachers working remotely

Where a teacher works from home and delivers lessons to pupils in school remotely, schools must ensure that such pupils are supervised. For example, a cover supervisor, teaching assistant or another responsible adult should be present on-site to support the teacher working remotely.
Asynchronous materials provided through the Oak National Academy in England, Glow in Scotland and Hwb in Wales, have been designed specifically to be used without the live presence of a teacher and may be particularly well suited to current circumstances.
The purpose of remote teaching however organised is not to replicate a live lesson.
Remote teaching must not add to the overall workload burden of the teacher working from home.
Schools should recognise that teaching remotely represents a very different and challenging form of teaching and normal expectations in respect of teaching and learning should be adjusted accordingly. Schools should not undertake lesson observations of remote teaching or other forms of monitoring that might be used in classroom teaching contexts.

Schools must ensure the safety of pupils but this must not require teachers to telephone pupils or hold one-to-one video conferences

Arrangements must be put in place to protect children and young people where there are safeguarding concerns. Teachers who become aware of child protection concerns should follow their school’s established safeguarding procedures.
The school’s safeguarding arrangements should not require teachers or school leaders to make telephone calls to children or hold one-to-one video conferences with pupils. The NASUWT strongly advises teachers and school leaders to avoid such practices.
The personal contact details of members of staff, such as telephone numbers or email addresses must not be shared with pupils.
Where it is identified as necessary for a pupil to be engaged with on an individual basis, it will be important to ensure that at least two members of staff are present on any call.

Schools must protect the wellbeing of teachers, including when implementing remote education strategies

Employers have a responsibility to consider the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their staff. Schools must recognise that this requires them to adopt measures to minimise and reduce workload burdens of teachers and school leaders.
Schools will need to pay particular attention to the pressures on teachers and school leaders as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in general as well as pressures associated with remote education and blended learning.
Schools should not establish systems which require teachers to keep written records of their daily work activities, including activities that are carried out from home.

Frequently asked questions

Workload

Should I be expected to teach pupils face-to-face and teach and support pupils who are being educated remotely?

Teachers should NOT be expected to undertake all of their normal teaching duties and do additional planning and preparation for remote education and teach remotely. Schools should re-prioritise work so that new responsibilities are undertaken instead of old activities. Schools must give teachers the time that they need to plan, prepare for, and teach pupils who are learning remotely. This may mean that a teacher will need to spend less time teaching face-to-face. It is important that schools do not underestimate the time that may be needed to prepare remote lessons.

Teachers may wish to use existing audio-visual resources and materials designed specifically to support remote education, such as those available through the Oak Academy [1], Glow [2], and Wales Hwb [3] for England, Scotland and Wales respectively.

Schools should seek to establish how technology might be used to reduce workload burdens and support teachers to teach and assess effectively and efficiently.

Pupil wellbeing is a significant issue for my school. Sshould I be expected to support pupils’ wellbeing and do all my usual teaching duties?

Planning and preparing lessons

Are teachers required to produce their own lesson materials when teaching their classes remotely?

There is no national requirement or expectation that teachers should produce their own lesson materials when teaching pupils remotely.

Schools should take account of their context and ensure that the approach they adopt is both manageable and sustainable.

School leaders should engage with teachers and workforce unions when forming remote education policies. Such policies should enable teachers to use their professional judgement to determine the most appropriate approach to remote education for their pupils.

Marking and feedback to pupils

How often should a teacher provide feedback to pupils and how much marking should a teacher undertake?

There is an expectation that teachers maintain regular contact with the pupils they teach. However, this does not mean that teachers should undertake detailed marking of pupils’ work or that they need to provide each pupil with detailed feedback about their work.

Feedback and marking practice should always be manageable for teachers and not distract them from other learning-related activities.

The core purposes of marking and feedback are to support effective teaching and learning by providing pupils with feedback about their performance and enabling teachers to secure high-quality educational experiences for pupils. Schools should not expect teachers to replicate in written form the verbal feedback that pupils would typically be given during typical classroom teaching and learning.

Teachers might employ a range of approaches to providing pupils with feedback about work they have undertaken remotely. For example, teachers might make use of the quizzes and other assessments integrated into some online remote education resources. Teachers might also use technology to record and send pupils short verbal feedback.

The NASUWT’s advice and guidance on the principles of effective marking and assessment practice should guide the development of schools’ approaches to the provision of feedback. While this guidance was developed in the context of practice in England specifically following the publication of the 2016 Teacher Workload Review Group Report on Marking, the Union is clear that the principles underpinning this report apply with equal force across the UK.

Assessment

Should teachers undertake regular assessments of pupils’ remote learning in order to demonstrate pupils’ progress and to fulfil school data-drop requirements?

School assessment policies have usually been developed for circumstances where pupils are being taught face-to-face. It is not appropriate for schools to simply apply these policies to remote education. In particular, schools should not be using summative assessment tracking systems, or require ‘data-drops’ of assessment outcomes, or set assessment targets where remote education is used.

The key principles that should guide decisions about the use of assessment in remote education are that it should be useful to pupils and their teachers, and that the approach to assessment should be manageable.

Teachers should be supported to identify and use technology that enables them to provide assessments and feedback more efficiently and effectively.

Replicating the school timetable online

Should the school seek to replicate the school timetable where pupils are being taught remotely?

Schools will need to take account of a number of factors when determining what can be provided remotely. This includes the age and independence of the pupils, pupils’ access to technology and a quiet space to learn, the subject and the topics being studied, and the workload demands of learning and teaching online.

There is no expectation in any UK jurisdiction that remote education must be provided exclusively through livestreaming or any other form of live learning.

All remote learning activities should be subject to an effective workload impact assessment and schools should ensure that teachers are given sufficient time to plan, prepare and assess remote and blended learning.

Health and safety and the use of screens/digital devices

My school requires me to teach lessons online following the school normal timetable. This means that I am often looking at a computer screen continuously for 2 or more hours. I have been experiencing sore eyes and headaches. Am I entitled to a break?

You must take regular breaks from the computer screen.

Employers must comply with regulations on the use of display screen equipment (DSE). ‘Display screen equipment’ includes display screens, laptops, touch screens and other similar devices, e.g. tablets, smartphones. The regulations apply to workers who use DSE daily for more than an hour at a time. This means that the regulations will apply to teachers who use DSE to teach remotely. It also covers other teaching tasks that are completed using DSE, e.g. planning, marking and assessment.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has produced guidance on the DSE regulations covering workers who are working from home. This can be found at Managing home workers' health and safety.

Employers should ensure that workers who use DSE have regular breaks from using that equipment. This could be a change of activity or actual breaks. The HSE recommends that workers take short breaks often rather than longer breaks less often (5 or 10 minutes every 50 to 60 minutes rather than 15 to 20 minutes every 2 hours). In the case of synchronous approaches to teaching remotely, schools will need to ensure that remote education teaching timetables provide time between lessons for teachers to take adequate breaks from teaching using a screen or device.

The regulations state that, where possible, employers should provide workers with some discretion over when and how they take breaks. Schools should ensure that they provide teachers with this flexibility. Asynchronous approaches to remote education should help to ensure that teachers have this flexibility.

The DSE regulations require employers to undertake risk assessments of work stations and the use of DSE to establish health and safety risks and whether measures are effective. You should report the problems you are experiencing to your employer.

Teachers should contact the NASUWT for advice if their employer does not take appropriate action to address health and safety issues that they are experiencing, or if their employer is failing to comply with the DSE regulations more generally

Lesson observations and appraisal

Should line managers/headteachers observe an online lesson (e.g. a live lesson or a recording of a lesson) in order to judge the quality of the lesson or to appraise a teacher’s performance?

No, it is not appropriate for a line manager to observe an online lesson in order to judge the quality of the lesson or for performance appraisal purposes. There is limited evidence about what constitutes effective remote education practice.

School managers should focus on supporting teachers, including by creating a climate where teachers can collaborate and share experiences and practice about what does and doesn’t work. Punitive and high stakes management practices undermine efforts to create such a climate.

Managing face-to-face and online teaching

What proportion of my timetable should I be expected to spend teaching pupils face-to-face if I am also expected to teach and support pupils who are being educated remotely?

Schools must give teachers the time that they need to plan, prepare for and teach pupils who are learning remotely. Teachers should NOT be expected to undertake all their normal teaching duties and do additional planning, preparation for remote education or to teach remotely. Schools should re-prioritise work so that teachers have time to prepare for and provide remote education. This might include reducing their face-to-face teaching time.

Teachers should contact the NASUWT for advice if they are required to undertake work related to remote education in addition to all of their normal duties.

Teaching pupils face-to-face and remotely at the same time

Remote education and younger pupils

Does remote education to younger primary pupils need to be delivered online?

Teachers will need to establish the learning objectives and then consider the most appropriate medium for pupils to meet those learning objectives. Teachers will also need to take account of the support that a pupil will need when they are learning.

Some elements of the curriculum may not be suited to online learning (e.g. practising writing). Also, the level of support that a young pupil may need in order to participate in learning online (e.g. a parent or adult sitting with them while they undertake the work) may mean that online learning is not appropriate or realistic.

Privacy, security and control online

What should schools do to secure the safety of staff from stealth recording software and screenshots?

The school should ensure that digital platforms do not allow pupils to record lessons. The school should have a code of conduct setting out how pupils should behave online and the sanctions that will be used to address inappropriate behaviour. This should make it clear that the school may refer serious incidents to the police or external agencies.

The school should ensure that parents and pupils understand what is and is not acceptable online behaviour. The school should encourage pupils and parents to report any concerns about the inappropriate use of remote lessons, including videos of teaching and learning.

The NASUWT advises teachers not to participate in live video lessons unless they can be sure that the school has measures in place to protect them and prevent inappropriate practices. This includes making it clear to parents that it is not acceptable for them or other family members to interrupt or seek to participate in a lesson.

Teachers should use the NASUWT Checklist for the Use and Management of Live Streaming on the right/below to ensure that their school is implementing appropriate remote education procedures and practices.

Pastoral support to pupils

What should a teacher do to ensure the welfare and wellbeing of pupils they are teaching remotely?

It is particularly important that schools continue to contribute to the welfare and emotional wellbeing of all pupils, including pupils who are not attending on-site provision. However, it is not appropriate for schools to insist that teachers and school leaders make telephone calls or hold one-to-one video-conferences with pupils. No personal contact details of any member of staff, such as a telephone number or email address should be shared with children.

Schools must have arrangements in place to protect children and young people for whom there are safeguarding or child protection concerns. None of these arrangements require teachers to contact individual pupils directly.

General pastoral and welfare issues may be integrated into online lessons as appropriate.

Staff should follow the school or setting’s established safeguarding procedures if they become aware of any child protection concerns.

Complaints from parents about remote learning

What should the school do if parents are complaining about the amount of remote learning being set or about the quality of remote learning?

It is important that schools seek to establish constructive relationships with parents; that parents are encouraged to support their child’s learning; and that parents are encouraged to raise any concerns that they have with the school, including any barriers to their child accessing or engaging with remote education. Schools should provide parents with clear information about any expectations being made of them and their children.

Schools should ensure that parents do not target particular teachers or leaders. Schools should also recognise that remote education is new and a whole school issue. Where complaints are founded, the focus should be on securing change through support, training and development.

Weather-related remote teaching

Should teachers be asked to work from home if schools are closed due to adverse weather conditions?

It is reasonable for a school to expect teachers to work from home if the school is closed because of adverse weather conditions.

However, schools should recognise that some teachers may experience difficulties working from home and should seek to allow staff to work flexibly where necessary.

The expectation that teachers work from home should not mean that teachers are required to deliver live lessons to their classes. Asynchronous approaches to remote education may be more appropriate.

Further advice and support

Teachers and school leaders should contact the NASUWT for advice if they are experiencing difficulties relating to planning for or implementing remote education. This includes concerns that their school is not implementing remote education appropriately and concerns about the impact of remote education on workload and wellbeing:

England	[email protected]
Northern Ireland	[email protected]
Scotland	[email protected]
Wales	[email protected]

The NASUWT would also welcome feedback on how remote education is operating in practice, including examples of effective approaches and of challenging and poor practice. Please email feedback and evidence to the Education Team.

Footnotes
[1] Oak Academy available at www.thenational.academy
[2] Glow available at glowconnect.org.uk
[3] Wales Hwb available at hwb.gov.wales

Independent Teacher Workload Review Group, Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-teacher-workload-marking-policy-review-group-report
Independent Teacher Workload Review Group, Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-teacher-workload-marking-policy-review-group-report
Independent Teacher Workload Review Group, Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-teacher-workload-marking-policy-review-group-report
Making data work: Teacher workload advisory group report. Available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-workload-advisory-group-report-and-government-response

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