Friday 26 February

Dear Parent/carer

 

Thanks to the Parent Council for hosting an online meeting on Tuesday of this week. This included presentations from Mr Shankland on SQA assessment arrangements and from Ms O’Brien on remote learning.  You can catch up with it at: https://youtu.be/5iHJFINkUYY   Parents also raised questions on capacity contingency proposals - updates on the Parent Council’s work in this area and others can be found on its website: http://jghscouncil.btck.co.uk/News

 

Work continues apace to continue the learning provision and support for all pupils over the coming weeks. We expect to receive more detail on the return of pupils to school on Tuesday of next week, when the First Minister is expected to make a further statement to outline more of the detail on which pupils can return to school from Monday 15 March. Once we have that information, we will consider how we will manage the return of some pupils to school and the simultaneous online learning provision for those learning remotely.

 

Essential Practical Activities Classes

We emailed all S4, S5 and S6 parents yesterday with the timetable of essential practical activities classes that will be taking place next week.  Please check this to see if your child/children are involved in any of these sessions.

Briefly after the publication of the timetable, the SQA announced that the requirement for all N4 candidates to sit an Added Value Unit (AVU) had been removed.  The completion of this unit was to be the focus of the N4 Practical Woodworking Skills and N4 Practical Cookery sessions.  Resultantly, these sessions will now no longer be required to run.  All students involved have also been individually notified. All other sessions will run as published.

 

S4 Parents’ Evening

Our S4 Parents’ Evening will be on Monday 8 March from 5pm – 7pm.    The appointments will be online, utilising the software that has been used successfully in our S3 and S2 parents’ evenings.  Detailed information as to how to book and access appointments will be sent to parents on Monday.  We are currently working on having the system ready to go live for appointment booking at 6pm on Monday 1 March.

 

World Book Day 2021

World Book Day falls on Thursday 4 March this year, and, as usual, every pupil is entitled to receive a free £1 Book Voucher which may either be exchanged for one of 12 specially produced book titles or used towards the cost of another book. This year, the £1 Book Voucher is a printable pdf document. Further information on how to redeem the vouchers can be found on the World Book Day website and local book shops will have their own arrangements, where possible, for supporting the exchange of vouchers in a safe way.

 

Engagement Reports

Parents/carers of S1-3 pupils will receive an engagement report today, sharing details of their children's current engagement level across their subjects. Please note that this report is for information only, but if you have any immediate concerns over your child's wellbeing, please contact their Pupil Support Leader. We are reviewing the current procedure and will share a revised procedure next week with dates of upcoming engagement reports for all year groups.

 

S1/2 Additional Resource Team

Following our recent pupil survey on workload related to the S1/2 rotation of subjects, we have learned that many of our S1/2 pupils feel that they have enough tasks (69%) or too many tasks (22%). However, we are aware from some parents/carers that they would like some additional work available for subjects. (Survey results and key messages will be shared at a later date)

We have therefore created a new team for pupils who have completed all work and tasks set by their teachers and require additional resources to keep them motivated and learning during this online learning period. This team is optional, so if you and your child feel that the current workload that you are receiving is fine and they have an adequate number of tasks/assignments to work through, then there is no need or pressure to join the team.

 

If you would like your child to join this team then the joining code is ucmhpl8. This will take them into the ‘S1/S2 Additional Resources/Work’ team.

 

There are instructions and guidance in the team on how to navigate and where to find extra resources either for general learning or subject specific. Please note that, as this is extra work, there is no obligation for teachers to mark the additional work that is completed - it is simply there to keep pupils learning.

 

My quote of the week:  ‘’None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful." Mother Teresa

 

Best wishes to all for a sunny and safe weekend.

 

Yours sincerely,

Donald