Parental letter
SQA exams 2021
Immediately prior to the October break, the Scottish Government announced that National 5 examinations would be assessed this year using an alternative certification approach based on teacher judgement supported by assessment resources and quality assurance. The full SQA document can be found here. The document also includes guidance for schools on gathering evidence and producing estimates.
Higher and Advanced Higher examinations will go ahead as planned, with the examination diet running from 13th May to 4th June inclusive. Results will be published on Tuesday 10th August 2021.
In addition to these arrangements, SQA has also made modifications to individual subjects to free up additional time for teaching. Should you be interested to read about these changes, you can find them here.
We are now awaiting further information from SQA detailing the specific assessment evidence required to produce estimate grades for National 5 candidates in each subject.
We appreciate that the on-going uncertainty about National 5 assessment is unsettling for everyone and will ensure that information is shared with young people as quickly as it becomes available.
Support for Seniors
We have a number of supports available to help young people achieve their potential in 2021. Many departments already have supported study arrangements in place and our finalised timetable for the coming weeks will be available shortly.
Mr Gess runs a ‘Study Station’ in ICT 5 every lunchtime providing a quiet space to revise, complete homework and access resources.
Our Study Skills evening will now take place on Tuesday 24th November. More details on this to follow this week.
Parents Evenings
The prospect of Parents’ Evenings this year as we have traditionally held them is very slim and we are looking at alternative ways that we can feedback to you alongside our regular tracking reports.
In order to help us, please complete the feedback form on the link below, giving us your view on the best way forward this year.
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKejYQbQ6wUpKvUxynKl_7HJUQU5LNFlYTTNJSjdLV1NBVTNUMzZYNUxVMi4u
Covid-19
You will be aware that advice concerning face coverings for young people in S4, 5 and 6. Face coverings should now be worn in class by young people in all these year groups from Monday 2nd November. Please continue to support us by reminding young people.
We continue to staff entrances every morning to support young people in our routines and it is as important as ever that we keep this up. Where we have young people absent from school self-isolating, we will be in touch through their ipads to provide work and ensure that they do not fall behind.
Remember that at present, you should not attend the school without an appointment. We know that there may be occasions where a face-to-face meeting is essential however, where possible we are trying to keep all correspondence via telephone or email.
iPad rollout
We have now successfully deployed almost 700 iPads – the remaining iPads to be deployed had technical issues which are being resolved. We also now have some additional stock to cover an initial shortfall. We are aware that there continues to be some frustrating individual issues surrounding Apple ID. We report these to the service provider CGI as soon as we are aware but unfortunately cannot fix issues in-house. If you are having persistent issues, please contact Mr Brown.
Health and Wellbeing
Despite the ‘Tier 3’ restrictions, our school counsellor is still able to provide support for young people in person on a referral basis two days a week. This has been a real help for young people accessing the service during a difficult time as we all try to get used to a new normal.
Pick up at the end of the school day
If you collect your young person from school, you will know that this can be a very busy time with up to 700 people leaving at once - most walking, some cycling and others being collected by car.
Please continue to be mindful of others and leave as soon as you have collected your young person.
Finally, I would like to say a personal thank you for all your support over the last three months as we have faced new challenges fighting coronavirus both in and out of school. By working together, we can ensure that all our young people get the education that they deserve.
Thanks
Patrick