Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,
Thank you for your ongoing support as we come to the end of our first full week of this session. Please find a general update below.
Parental Responsibility – COVID Symptoms
Please remember that if your son/daughter has a temperature/fever, a persistent cough or a loss of their sense of taste or smell, you should not send them to school and should follow NHS advice. If you believe that your son/daughter has symptoms of COVID you should arrange for a test via the NHS.
If you have children at different schools, and one is off with COVID like symptoms, you must inform the other establishment too and should not send siblings into the other school for as long as symptoms persist or until a negative test is returned for the child exhibiting symptoms.
Pupils with any of the above symptoms in school will be sent home and parents/carer advised to follow NHS guidance. However, the school should not be put in a position where we are dealing with situations already known to parents/carers and where symptoms are clear e.g. sending a young person to school with a fever or persistent cough.
If sent home from school, school staff will follow up at the start and end of each school day to check in with the family.
Health and Safety
I would like to express my thanks to our young people for their excellent conduct and patience since re-opening. School staff are very pleased with the way in which young people have conducted themselves this week.
The risk assessment for our site can be found here:
Lunch and Break
Our staggered Lunch system is working very well. We continue to review break time arrangements, and ask for your support in encouraging young people to make their way to period 3 classes well before 10.45am. For now, we will continue with one interval but will review this at the end of next week.
Litter
Until today, litter was not an issue. However, today it was particularly problematic. Please continue to reinforce the message of using bins and taking responsibility for mess created at tables and outside.
ParentPay
All new pupils, including our new S1 cohort, were issued with ParentPay letters earlier this week. Please follow the instructions on the letter to register.
Lockers
We have over one hundred new lockers but await installation. This explains the delay in issuing new lockers. The new lockers are on site and as soon as we can issue lockers we will.
Uniform
Uniform has been very good since re-opening. We acknowledge that in a small number of cases it has been hard to source uniform items. We will begin to reach out to the parents/carers of those not in uniform next week and will, as always, offer support where necessary.
School Lunch Pre-Order System
School staff have assisted the vast majority of pupils with registration. Around eighty pupils have forgotten their school passwords which prevents registration. As and when these passwords are reset we will continue to help young people register.
The catering department at EAC has acknowledged and remedied a fault whereby some pupils could not place orders.
All pupils wishing to purchase lunch should order online the night before. A video demonstrating how to order can be found here: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/2020/08/17/ordering-lunch/
Glow, Teams and Google Classroom Access
Now that school lunch registration is complete we will move onto Glow, Teams and Google Classroom access. Where young people have mobile devices with them, school staff will ensure that Glow, Teams and Google Classrooms are working.
Glow intend to reset all pupil and staff passwords soon, and this will have a knock on in terms of registration issues. The rationale for a national password reset is based on maintaining system security. School staff will support pupils to access Glow again after all passwords are reset. It is anticipated that this will take us around three weeks in total.
ShowMyHomework
On a rolling basis, we will begin to issue ShowMyHomework parental login details, starting with our new S1. We will also re-issue registration letters to those parents/carers not currently registered. It may take a week or so for these letters to be generated and will be a priority once Glow issues are resolved.
School iPads
We still await the return of some devices which were loaned to other pupils outwith our school during lockdown. If you have a school iPad which needs repaired then we will identify a drop off area where it can be sprayed before being passed to the IT department.
The school iPads are being phased out and as such the new S1 will not receive an iPad. Where possible, we will allocate to the new S2 but can only do so once all that were borrowed are returned to school and reset.
Google Classroom Access on EAC devices
We are aware of ongoing issues with access to parts of google classroom from within the school network and when on council devices. Please know that this issue is with our IT team for action and we will update as and when possible. Access does work on personal devices outwith school or accessed via mobile data. However, we realise that this is not suitable for all and are working with IT to find a resolution.
PE
Today’s announcement around the reintroduction of indoor sport is likely to have an impact on schools. However, we await further and final guidance. We will advise on indoor activity as soon as we can. Mr Howson will issue further information from the PE department in due course.
Annual Data Checks, EV5 forms, Photography Permission
Please continue to return paperwork as soon as possible. Thank you to those who have done so already.
College Courses
Given ongoing restrictions around face to face delivery and COVID 19, college provision will be different to that anticipated pre summer. Some College courses will run online only, some on Tuesdays only, some on Thursdays only and some on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will call all parents/carers to advise of how college provision will impact upon each young person.
Today we received further advice that the planned start date of next week has now changed. We will share more when we can.
We await further clarity on how S3 DYW/College provision will look and will communicate this to those pupils taking S3 college courses in due course.
Advanced Highers
It is no longer possible for pupils to attend more than one educational establishment. As such, those pupils studying Advanced Highers (AH) at Grange Academy or Kilmarnock Academy can no longer attend classes in person. The local authority are supporting the recruitment of a part time Science teacher to allow us to offer AH Chemistry and AH Biology here. AH Physics will also now run here and we can offer partial delivery of AH Music and AH English.
Arrangements in Modern Languages, History, Art and Maths are unchanged, as those AH courses were already on offer here. No pupil from outwith St. Joseph’s will attend our school for AH courses.
We ask for your patience as the recruitment of another Science teacher will take around two weeks. As soon as the new teacher starts we can offer formal lessons. In the interim, pupils studying AH Biology and AH Chemistry should speak to department staff about access to resources online.
EMA Applications
EMA applications need to be scanned and sent electronically. If anyone needs their application scanned please hand the paper version into the school office.
Kind Regards
Mr Kane
