When you think of ‘remote learning”, what springs to mind? You might see images of diligent teenagers hunched over laptops. Or you might think about all the teachers embracing the exciting new world of Teams, Zoom, Forms and other interactive online teaching tools.

Yet this perception does not take into account the realities of remote learning for many pupils: limited or no devices to use at home; siblings and parents also needing time to work online; fatigue; and other unwanted effects of excessive screen time. 

How can we make remote learning exciting, effective and practical whilst also realistic, achievable and fair? How can we scale back the dependency on technology and screens? 

First, some general pointers.

How to set remote learning work

Before you set your remote learning work, first think carefully about the circumstances of your class: ICT access, their and their parents’ grasp of English, their level of ability and their sources of help. Make sure you are not disadvantaging pupils or assuming anything about their home situation.

Secondly, think carefully about what you want pupils to learn and how you can make this explicit. The work may cover syllabus or curriculum content, or equally valid soft skills like research, questioning, revising and redrafting. Whatever it is, make it useful; there is nothing worse, as a parent or pupil, than facing an arduous and evidently pointless task. Set time limits, give minimum and maximum word limits and list ingredients or sources of help to ensure a clear and level playing field.

Next, ensure that the task presents a suitably high challenge with clear expectations and parameters. I’m sure all your classes are waiting with bated breath for the next exciting task that they can complete to the best of their ability, but there are children out there keen to rush through their work in 10 minutes flat and then build a den in the garden (OK, my own cherubs are in this category...) This is an unprecedented chance to allow classes, even A-level students, time to read widely, explore their subject and respond creatively; time to let go of our narrow and stressed focus on cramming information through well-worn, whole-class teaching.

Remote-learning activities

Why not try varying the balance of activities? Instead of an online written response, why not try a brief recorded teacher instruction and explanation, and then offline activities, reported back via a very brief quiz, or even getting pupils to draw a picture of what they have done? 

Below is a selection of activities that you may find useful, some more subject- or phase-specific than others, sourced from teachers in my network.

Making and creating

1. Using sock puppets to explain a complex concept like global warming has worked well for Rachael, a geography teacher.

2. Design a theatre programme or film poster for a text or story studied.

3. Explore qualities like resistance or gravity by making experiments at home: a marble run made of recycling materials like loo roll tubes, for example.

4. A variety of ideas could build towards a longer-term project, such as creating an illustrated children’s book with different pages exploring sound, rhythm, metre, colour and so on.

5. Recreative tasks - such as writing in the style of an author; writing from the point of view of a minor character; or retelling a Bible story as a comic strip - can provide an interesting way into more complex narratives.

6. Don’t be afraid to draw on childhood favourites: historical figures as Top Trumps cards is a great way of practising prioritisation, says Beth, a history teacher.

Speaking and performing

7. Experiment with sounds and beats by creating soundscapes. Holly, a music teacher, set students a challenge to create music with no traditional instruments, just water and objects in the bathroom. This kind of task lends itself well to being recorded on a mobile phone.

8. Practise speaking and questioning skills by planning, conducting and writing up a phone interview with an older relative or acquaintance about an aspect of social history or their own life.

9. Write, rehearse and deliver a persuasive speech or one side of a debate: this works well if several pupils work together, each taking a character in a balloon debate or opposing sides of an argument.

Finding and applying

10. Researching an idea can be a little dull, so try getting students to provide examples at home as a way in. Perhaps they could make a list of different objects in the home which would be conductors or insulators, for example.

11. Many simple science experiments can bring concepts to life: displacement in the bath, volume with different cups and containers, botany with food colouring and snowdrops, chromatography with Skittles or Smarties and kitchen roll... This is an unrivalled chance to get students interested in the practical application of science and technology.

12. Create a scaled-down version of what you could achieve in a formal school setting: Amy, a PE teacher, set her class the task of creating a circuit training session for a Borrower using items from the recycling, even making a short video clip of her own to demonstrate.

Revising and evaluating

13. It’s not just new concepts and learning that need to be delivered during remote learning, but revision skills and embedding prior knowledge. Creating a recipe book made from translations is a great way to revisit key words in a foreign language.

14. Learning walks where someone actually learns: finding objects made from particular materials, with specific sizes, volumes and measurements, that make certain sounds or are certain colours, is a great way to be sure that pupils have understood. This doesn’t need to be limited to primary pupils either: in the low-risk home education scenario we find ourselves in, you may well find that teenagers are more willing to engage with “younger” tasks.

15. There are also revision staples such as reading aloud or having pupils explain what they have learned to a sibling or grandparent, drawing diagrams and flowcharts and creating revision flashcards. 

Classic home-schooling

16. Borrow ideas from the home-schooling community as well as classroom teachers. Don’t forget how many daily activities are educational, from baking to gardening, to keeping a diary.

17. And, finally, that reliable and brilliant classic: reading great fiction. 

Helen Mars is an English teacher in Yorkshire