Important Message Regarding School Transport Kilmaurs to Stewarton

Irvine Road in Kilmaurs is closed this week between 7am and 5pm, therefore there is an impact on school transport for pupils being picked up and dropped off in Kilmaurs from Monday 17th April – Friday 21st April 2023, inclusive.

Marbill Coaches are aware of the closure and will be sending coaches to uplift pupils at either side of the road closure at the normal pick up times.

We will stop using our existing app as our form of communication from this Friday,  31st March 2023.  All future communication messages will come via our new Safer Schools Scotland App.

The new Safer Schools Scotland App gives empowering, current and informative information on current digital platforms/tools/apps in an accessible manner.  Within the app there are different users. Please find below and attached details about how to download the app and set everything up.
-Go to your App Store for Apple or Google Play and search for ‘Safer School Scotland’
-Set up your account
-In the school field type ‘Stewarton Academy’
Amend as appropriate – The code Parents/Carers is 1990
-To receive notifications we recommend enabling push notifications.

Please read the instructions below on the PDF attachment carefully before downloading the App.

We trust that you will find this information helpful. The new App has many beneficial features which we will highlight to you in due course.
However, for now, please ensure you download the app and get it set up to continue receiving communications from the school.

(Please note the current code is for parents and carers – pupils will be supported to long in to the pupil section later in the year).

Best wishes,

John Stuart
Head Teacher

Instructions for the Safer Schools App

Dear parents and carers,

We are very sorry that we have had to postpone this evening’s S2 Options virtual event due to technical difficulties.Unfortunately, there was an issue with Teams which did not allowing the organiser to access the meeting link on the Parent Council Teams account.

All possible work arounds were attempted attempted

Therefore, we had to unfortunately take the decision to postpone this evening’s event.

We will confirm a new date via the school app tomorrow.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Happy New Year to all in the Stewarton Academy community.
We will be straight back in to a busy term so I hope the reminders below will be helpful.

Industrial Action
You will have seen the message on this app from East Ayrshire Council on 6^th January which reminds you of the arrangements necessary due to industrial action by four teaching trade unions.
Please read this message from 6^th January carefully as the action will impact on different schools and learning centres in different ways. It also gives detail of support available for pupils who are entitled to free school meals. As far as Stewarton Academy is concerned, we will be closed to pupils on Wednesday 11^th January and then again on Monday 23^rd January 2023.
We aware that the strike action will cause an inconvenience to many families, but we cannot operate safely without the required number of staff in situ, and I thank you for your understanding at this time.

Key Dates
There are a number of important events in January. Please find a link in the box below to the  key dates document  as a reminder.
Please remember that there have had to be a couple of changes to the calendar published at the start of term, specifically the S4 parents’ evening is on in school Thursday 12^th Jan.

As highlighted in December, the virtual information evening for parents/ carers of S2 pupils regarding subject options will take place 6:30 – 7:30pm  Wed 18^th Jan via Teams – the link will be shared in due course in the coming week.

Pupil health and wellbeing
We very much hope that you have had a restful holiday. However, we know that there are a number of winter illnesses in circulation. Trusted health advice can be found on NHS Inform https://www.nhsinform.scot/ . You will recall that East Ayrshire issued specific information about group A streptococcal infections (including scarlet fever) via this app on 8^th Dec.
If you child is unwell, please consider not sending him/her to school, especially if he/she has a fever.
You will be aware that the S5/6 mid-course assessments begin this week. Please be assured that any pupil who misses an assessment through illness will be supported to complete necessary assessments when back in school.

Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to read this pre-term information. We look forward to supporting all our young people to achieve and thrive in 2023. If you would like support with any aspect of your child’s experience at Stewarton Academy, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s Principal Teacher of Pupil Support via the school office.
Best wishes,
John Stuart
Head Teacher

Key Diary Dates 2024-25

We had a very successful Parents’ Evening Information event on Wednesday night (27th April 2022). Thanks to staff who participated and to parents, carers and young who attended.

Here is a link to the presentation which was shared during the evening:

P7 Information Evening Presentation (Mrs Ward) – Presentation 2022

Stewarton Academy staff visits to our associated primary schools continue next week with Mrs Ward visiting Lainshaw PS on Wednesday morning and Dunlop PS on Friday morning.

We also have a number of Pupil Support visits planned over the next few weeks.

Mr Alexander and Mr Morgan will also be leading Volleyball sessions with associated primary schools during the month of May.

Cash For Kids

You will be aware from previous App messages that Stewarton Academy’s Parent Council have been leading fundraising efforts to support Cash for Kids recently.

We have till the 31st March to raise as much as possible for a chance to win an extra £3000 for the School.  There will be more information about these activities in the Newsletter tomorrow.

This message is specifically to highlight the Big Breakfast event this Saturday and the non-uniform day tomorrow.

The Parent Council, Big Breakfast event takes place on Saturday 26th March at St Columba’s Church hall from 9:30 – 12pm. The Parent Council invites parents, carers, pupils and all members of the wider community to come along and join them. There will be tombolas, the chance to enjoy tea coffee and a breakfast menu and also the opporunity to meet with other members of the wider school community.
Non-uniform day tomorrow – Friday 25^th March

The Parent Council have requested that we have a non-uniform day tomorrow, Friday 25^th March to support Cash for Kids. As with previous events, please note that we are very aware of additional costs which families are experiencing at the moment, so please note that for this event, no cash donations are requested (feel free to donate to the Cash for Kids website or our Parent Pay line if you wish).

Instead of cash donations, we are encouraging pupils and staff to donate a raffle/ tombola prizes for the event on Saturday. Suggested prizes are items such as a box of chocolates (in date please) or a bottle of something nice. Please only donate what you can afford. Senior pupils to collect prizes from pupils tomorrow at the school entrance or during classes.

Kind regards,

John Stuart
Head Teacher

Update on S4 Parents Meeting

Unfortunately, Net Media were not able to fix the issues in our S4 Parents’ Night. This was a national problem with their network and was beyond our control.

We are very sorry for this problem which was very frustrating for staff and parents and carers.

The system has worked well for all other virtual parents’ evenings this session. Therefore, we are hopeful that Net Media will be able to isolate the problem and allow us to make successful use of the system again.

We will be making contingency plans to provide feedback at another time, as soon as possible. Net Media’s analysis of the problem will inform how we go about this.

Therefore, we hope to be in touch over the next few days to confirm alternative arrangements.

Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience to parents and staff.