Zoom facilitates face to face contact, which enables children to see each other alongside their peers and myself while they learn in a small group. It feels like a small class, as we learn, share and praise each other throughout the lesson. There have been a number of questions about the security of Zoom as an app and I want to reassure you that my IT consultants have risk assessed the app and advised me how to use the app securely.

Each meeting will be set up separately, with a specific code needed to join and there will be a waiting room, so that I will only allow each pupil to join one at a time. I request that your son/daughter has their camera on when they join the room. These safeguards restrict access to members of the group only. This will be closely monitored on a regular basis to ensure the safety of your child.

A couple of other actions also need to be implemented, as follows:

• Your son/daughter will be expected to be ready for their lesson a couple of minutes before it starts.
• All participants should be in their daytime clothes in a family room. No bedrooms and PJs! If a child is in PJs or not in a family room, I will ‘exclude’ your child until they change/move rooms, then they can re-enter the group. I will not be recording our lessons, as this requires storage and a separate data sharing agreement for each child. Therefore, it is important that an adult is in close proximity, although I am not asking you to sit in on the lesson. I have a recent (16/5/20) current DBS (Number: 001698885890)
• In order to ensure all participants in the group can hear, and to block out background ‘home sounds’, I will use the mute button with children who are not answering a question at that moment.
• Hand raising is encouraged for permission to speak.