Dear Parent / Carer,
JANUARY 2021
I hope you have had a good holiday and wish you all a Happy New Year. As we begin this New Year with a return to the very surreal experience of lockdown and school closure I would like to provide some further update on our way forward through these coming weeks.
The latest guidance from Scottish Government is that schools will be closed until at least 1st February for most pupils. We opened our doors on Wednesday of this week to provide childcare for a number of identified young people and will be supporting the virtual learning of these young people in school from Monday 11th of January.
From our perspective as teachers and parents we share the anxiety and sense of uncertainty which is very much part of this experience. Managing learning at home and working from home is a challenge for both parents and teachers.
As a school we have learned a great deal from the experience of the lockdown last year and we will continue to build our skills and capacity in this respect. While learning from home is certainly not the route any of us would choose we will endeavour to support and teach our young people to best of our ability.
ONLINE REMOTE LEARNING – STRUCTURE
From Monday 11th January 2021, our plan is to follow our school timetable meaning that staff will be available at the time (period) that pupils would normally attend that subject. This will allow for a blend of tasks, real-time interactions which, at times, may also include live sessions.
This is a different approach from the period of remote learning that took place from March to June 2020. Due to the time of the year and the stage of course delivery we are keen to continue to explore new course content and concepts in addition to consolidation activities.
This does not mean that young person will be online from 8:45am until 3:35pm. Rather, their teachers will post work at the allotted period time and will then be available for them at their normal timetable period. This will, hopefully, provide a sense of structure to the day for both staff and pupils.
Please note that there will be instances where staff are not always available due to:
- their own childcare/caring responsibilities that arise from working from home
- assisting in the school hub for the identified children
- unplanned absence such as illness etc
As with the previous period of remote learning it will be important for pupils to ensure they give time away from technology, to get some fresh air and make sure they have a healthy balance of activities.
Our main platforms will be Satchel One (Show My Homework) and Glow (which gives access to MS Teams and the Office 365 suite).
Should there be any issue with digital access or the need for a device to support learning please contact us via the methods detailed at the bottom of this email.
ONLINE LEARNING SUPPORT
Last session we launched our Online Learning Hub on our school website which includes some helpful videos and guides to support you at home.
In addition, there are a range on online resources developed by Education Scotland which pupils can access. To reduce the length of this letter and the amount of information released we will continue to update this with further information and new resources will be communicated through our School App.
SQA
All S4-6 pupils have been receiving SQA updates from Miss MacKinnon via their year group Microsoft Teams page. As such, they will already be aware of changes to the previously-published January assessment calendar. This week, an agreement has been reached across all EAC secondary schools regarding our joint approach to SQA assessment for the coming months. Pupils, parents and carers will shortly receive a letter from Mrs McAulay-Griffiths, Head of Education, explaining what this will look like.
EMA
For pupils in receipt of EMA – this will continue to be processed throughout the period of closure.
CONTACTING US
To ensure that you are still able to make contact with us during this period when our school community are working from home we will relaunch a number of contact forms which were made available pre Summer 2020. Our School App Information tab will be updated to make these easily accessible.
General Contact Form – for general enquiries/contact
Wellbeing Concern Form – to allow pupils, parents and carers
Pastoral Team
Contact Mrs Causer (Douglas 2)
Contact Mrs Dunsmore (Graham 1)
Contact Mr Alldridge (Hamilton 1)
Contact Mrs McDowall (Hamilton 2)
Yours faithfully
Robert Johnston
Head Teacher
Please click on the image below to access the letter.
