Primary School Online Learning Support
What Technology Do I Need?
We use Zoom for our primary school online learning teaching platform. Once you book, you will receive and email with a Zoom link. You do not need to pay for Zoom, as we do this. Please test the link we send you 10 minutes before the class starts. On Zoom you can check that your video and audio are working. Just before the class, we will start the lesson and the link will become active for ‘Join live meeting’.
All you have to do is click ‘Join live meeting’ to join the class. The Zoom app may ask for your permission to run. If you join before the teacher you will see a message that says ‘Waiting for host’. Zoom asks for your permission to use the camera and you can choose to show or hide your face. Please keep your camera on, at least until you have checked in with the teacher.
It’s fine (in fact encouraged!) for parents/a designated adult to sit near to their child during the class, but please stay out of view of the camera.
How To Download Zoom
Downloading the app called Zoom is really easy and takes about 10 seconds. You don’t need a personal Zoom account, so just stop when you get to the sign-up screen.
If you have a tech issue…
Have a look at Zoom’s comprehensive help centre here:
And just on that note… Critical Thinking Kids will do its best to help you if your child is experiencing technical difficulties during a class, but please remember that the teacher’s primary focus is to ensure an excellent learning experience for all learners, so their ability to troubleshoot with individual families may be limited during the lesson.
Student Safety and Conduct
Your child’s safety is our top priority. We safeguard children in a variety of ways. Your online tutor/teacher has a current enhanced DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service) check because they will be a practising primary teacher in this 2020 academic year. Zoom is a secure online network and your data will not be shared with Critical Thinking Kids. Classes taught on Zoom will not be recorded or shared. Data collected will be the parent’s email and name and the student’s name.
The teacher will run through how we expect children to conduct themselves during the class, but children can ask questions with the raise hand button or send a private chat to the teacher during the session. We ask that all children be kind and be patient with other learners. Please ensure a designated adult is monitoring your learners’ participation in a class. Learners interact with the teacher and other learners over group video chat.
Critical Thinking Kids’ classes will be objective, secular, and age-appropriate. They will not promote discrimination, hate speech, or violence.
Be Internet Safe
Children need to be internet savvy and safe. There are some great websites out there. Some that we use in our primary school’s regularly are shown below in the links.
This organisation provides advice on media consumption for children, including an overview of privacy and internet safety and tips for different ages.