Dear Parents/Carers,
ParentPay
All S1 pupils as well as those in S2-S6 without active ParentPay accounts have been given login details for ParentPay. Pupils were given letters in school either today or yesterday. Please follow the instructions to create your ParentPay account. Please ignore reference to a second letter on biometric ordering as the online portal supersedes biometrics.
Lunch Portal
On the school homepage, pupils can access the lunch portal.
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/
Please remind pupils to place orders the evening before school. A small number of S1 pupils as well as those pupils in S2-S6 who are new to the school are as yet unable to access the portal, and orders will be taken on a daily basis for those impacted by this delay. We anticipate that all accounts will be live by close of day on Friday.
Free School Meals (FSM)
The ParentPay system has notified us of the fact that up to 70 pupils who were in receipt of FSM last session are yet to apply this session. Like transport, it is necessary to apply on an annual basis. The application form can be found here:
If you require support in completing this application then please call the school office and ask for your child’s Pastoral Care teacher.
School Buses
All pupils accessing school transport must apply for transport every year. Today, we identified around ten pupils on one bus for whom families had not applied for school transport this session. For the remainder of this week, bus drivers will still accept pupils onto buses.
However, any pupil not to have applied by Friday may find that the driver cannot accept them onto the school bus. Several reminders have been sent to parents/carers since May. Please take responsibility for ensuring that you have applied for transport where necessary.
We also understand that those families to have applied in the past fortnight may not have received confirmation from SPT or East Ayrshire Council yet. We have raised this with both SPT and EAC and anticipate that confirmation will follow shortly. The delay is due to a bottleneck in late applications very close to the start of the school year.
As and when SPT provide up to date lists, school staff will check lists against bus occupancy. While drivers would not wish to prevent pupils from accessing school transport, there are potential implications around capacity which may mean that some pupils cannot access the bus until they apply as requested. Please do not delay in applying if you are yet to do so.
Satchel:One (Show My Homework)
All parents/carers of those in our new S1 were emailed access codes for Satchel:One. For those in S2-S6, around 40% of parents/carers do not have active accounts. This means that you are unable to keep up to date with homework issued by school staff. In the coming weeks, office staff will work through the list of those parents/carers yet to register and will email access codes to you. We encourage all parents/carers to register.
More broadly, it takes Satchel:One around one full school week to synchronise with Glow/SEEMIS. At the moment, all sections and staff appear correctly, but many pupils are yet to appear on the Satchel:One system within their class groups. We are aware of this and have asked Satchel:One for an update on when the synchronisation is likely to complete. We anticipate that by next week the system should be fully up to date.
Kind Regards
Mr Kane
