Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for your ongoing patience in what is not a normal school year. The continual need for heighted awareness around health and safety is having an impact on the operational life of the school, and while from the outside it may appear as if school is open as normal, our working environment and day to day experience is still somewhat different to that of a normal school year.

I would like to express my ongoing thanks to staff, pupils and parents/carers for their shared vigilance around compliance with the various health and safety measures in place.

Please be aware of the following updates.

Cabinet Paper – Transformational Review of Specialist Provision

East Ayrshire Council has today published a paper for consideration at next week’s cabinet meeting (Wednesday 11th November).  Cabinet are asked to consider agreeing to consult on proposals to relocate S1 to S6 provision for pupils from Willowbank School to a specifically designed and adapted area of St. Joseph’s Academy.

The overarching paper can be found on the webpage shown below and is titled ‘Transformational Review of Specialist Provision – Updated Timeline for Proposed Consultation on Expansion of Supported Learning Centres’

https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/MVC/Committees/Documents/Related/48709

Within the paper there is an entire section titled ‘PROPOSED CONSULTATION ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SECONDARY ELEMENT (S1–S6) OF WILLOWBANK SCHOOL IN A SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED AND ADAPTED AREA OF ST JOSEPH’S CAMPUS’.

Reference is also made to the potential establishment of a Supported Learning Centre within our school. Please note:

•  The paper is to be taken to cabinet to seek agreement to consult on the proposed relocation of Willowbank’s secondary provision to part of St. Joseph’s Academy
•  Any consultation around supported learning centre provision (which stands separately from the relocation of Willowbank), would be part of a later proposed consultation

SQA Matters

SQA has now started to release subject specific National 5 assessment guidance on a rolling basis. It is anticipated that by Thursday 19th November, SQA will have released guidance for all subject areas. Naturally, staff require time to analyse the content of guidance. Please be assured of the fact that staff are working with colleagues across East Ayrshire to establish assessment plans and procedures that can be shared with young people as soon as possible. It is likely that communication will be issued to all families by the last week in November.

At Higher and Advanced Higher level, SQA has published an examination timetable. While it is still the intention of SQA and the Scottish Government to run an exam diet, this position will be reviewed by no later than February 2021. In the meantime, all schools, pupils and families should proceed on the basis that the Higher and Advanced Higher exam diet will run in May 2021. The examination timetable can be found at the end of this message.

Any communication around potential prelims or assessment blocks will be included in the update that will follow in late November.

Reporting and Parents’ Evenings

Clearly, face to face Parents’ Evenings will not be possible this session. Earlier communication stated that we would not be able to run any Parents’ Evenings until after Christmas. It is now the case that no face to face Parents’ Evenings will be possible.

Our initial analysis suggests that both telephone based reporting and digital meetings are not viable or realistic when scaled across a secondary environment. While in some primary settings it is possible for the class teacher to call each family, this is not realistic when up to fourteen teachers need to speak to each family. In addition and in some year groups, one teacher would need to speak to ninety families per parents’ evening.  It would also be incorrect to presume that all families and staff have access to the technology required to conduct virtual meetings from home.

With this in mind, it is highly likely that we will revert to a model of enhanced reporting. Over the course of the next fortnight, school level negotiation with teaching staff and discussion with the Parent Council will inform our plans for the remainder of the session.

The delay in releasing reporting information has had an impact on the following:

S2 Parents’ Evening – Unable to run in September as would normally be the case

S4 Reports – Usually issued in mid November, anticipated delay until mid December

Please be assured that S2 and S4 will have priority initially. All other year groups usually receive reports or parents’ evenings later in the session, and as such there is currently no delay in reporting to those year groups. A final schedule will be released to all parents and carers as soon as possible.

Visiting School/Requesting a meeting with staff

Please note that no face to face meetings should take place in school. In the event that you need to speak to a member of staff, this would take place over the phone. Given the ongoing internal pressure in terms of supervision and health and safety, it is unlikely that staff will respond on the same day. Unless an urgent matter, we ask for your patience and will aim to return calls within three school days.

PE

We will begin to welcome some PE classes indoors as of Monday 9th November and as long as East Ayrshire remains within tiers 0 to 3 of Scottish Government guidance. If East Ayrshire were to move to tier 4, all PE would move outdoors again.

PE teachers will inform pupils on a class by class basis of arrangements for indoor provision. Please note that not all classes will move indoors next week as some are midway through blocks of outdoor provision.

SQA Examination Timetable

Click to access exam-timetable-2021.pdf

Kind Regards

Mr Kane