St Joseph's Academy – East Ayrshire

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Following this afternoon’s announcement, all pupils in Scotland will learn online from 11th January until 1st February. This position will be reviewed again on January 18th.

The only exceptions are for those pupils regarded by social work or school staff as vulnerable and children of registered key workers.

If you had completed a Key Worker registration form and have since received confirmation of your registration from East Ayrshire Council, then please be assured of the fact that we have a list of pupils scheduled to attend between Thursday 7th and Friday 15th January. Where applicable, school transport will be available as normal for those scheduled to attend school.

It is likely that a new form will be released to cover attendance from January 15th until February 1st.

Pupils attending school will have access to IT to complete learning online.

The majority of teaching staff will work from home from Thursday 7th January until Monday 1st February.

Our prelim diet will not run in January, but will take place as soon as school re-opens.

All pupils should ensure that they have logged into Glow via the Glow website (login must be via the Glow website, not through apps – Glow – Sign In (rmunify.com) . This will help us target those struggling to access Glow. Any pupil not to have logged in since we closed in December should do so as soon as possible. Work will be posted from Thursday 7th onwards

School staff remain on holiday until Wednesday 6th January. Urgent enquiries should be directed to us via the ‘Contact Us’ form on our website. Further updates are likely to follow in the coming days, particularly around the collection of jotters and free school meal entitlement.

Update – Since posting, it has been confirmed that those entitled to Free School Meals who are not in attendance will receive a school meals payment to cover the period between 6th January and 31st of January. Anyone entitled to Free School Meals who is in attendance will receive a meal on site as normal. All others in attendance can access the canteen to pay for meals as they normally would.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Contact Us

Dear Parents/Carers,

EAC shared the letter found at the end of this post via school apps earlier today.  I have summarised some of the key points as follows.

Wednesday 6th January

School closed to ALL pupils, staff return to school as planned.

Thursday 7th January and Friday 8th January

School is open for pupils where ALL parents/carers residing within the pupil’s household are key workers, need to be at work on those days, and have no access to informal childcare.

Parents/Carers who meet the necessary criteria must register with EAC as soon as possible. To access the relevant online form, please click here. The letter shown below defines those regarded as Key Workers.

Any pupils identified by school or social work staff as vulnerable will also be in school on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th January.

Pupils in school on these days will be directed to online content for completion when in school.

All other pupils remain off school until Monday 11th January.

Monday 11th January until Friday 15th January inclusive

Pupils of registered Key Workers continue to attend school on days where Key Worker parents/carers are working.  Those pupils identified by Social Work and school staff as vulnerable, can also attend school. Pupils in school on these days will be directed to online content for completion when in school.

All other pupils will work online via Glow, and will have work set in advance of Monday 11th.

Monday 18th January Onwards

It is the intention of government to resume full time learning and teaching in school as of Monday 18th January.

January Assessment Diet

At the moment, we intend to move our planned assessment diet so that it now begins during the week beginning Monday 18th January. The timetable should be read as starting on Wednesday 20th rather than Wednesday 13th. As such, pupils in S4-S6 should continue to prepare for January assessments as they would have intended. We will clarify our position on this once back at work.

Communication with school

All communication with the school should be sent via the Contact Us form on our webpage. School staff are on holiday, and we respectfully request that this is taken into account if awaiting a response from school staff before Wednesday 6th January.

Contact Us

Letter to Parents/Carers

Click to access Letter-to-all-parents-and-carers-22.12.20.pdf

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please find below a message from Julie Muir, Strategic Education Manager. As you know, the initial consultation on the proposed relocation of Willowbank Senior Phase pupils to a bespoke area within our campus was postponed in December.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Please note that the Statutory Consultation to examine the proposals to extend Willowbank School by creating a new self-contained facility at St Joseph’s Campus  will resume in January 2021. The Public Meeting (Video Conference) is scheduled to take place on Thursday 14 January 7pm-9pm and login details will be provided via the School App. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all parents/carers to participate in the meeting. 

As the holidays approach, I hope you are able to safely spend some quality time with family and friends over the Christmas period and I look forward to meeting with you all in the New Year.

Shared on behalf of Julie Muir (Strategic Education Manager – Inclusion)

Dear Parents/Carers,

The undernoted letter is shared here on behalf of Vibrant Communities in conjunction with Police Scotland. While all parties recognise that anti-social behaviour will be caused by a small number of people, the areas mentioned are frequented by some of our pupils and Police Scotland has identified that those causing anti-social behaviour are of school age.

This letter has been shared with Parents/Carers of those attending Kilmarnock Academy, St. Joseph’s Academy and Grange Academy.

It should be noted that a similar approach to that outlined in the letter led to a reduction in anti-social behaviour in the Cumnock and Auchinleck areas earlier in the session.

Your support is much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Click to access Kilmarnock-ASB-Letter.pdf

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Please see an outline of our January assessment diet. Please note that there will be no study leave in January. This is in keeping with our approach in recent years. If not sitting exams, pupils should attend class as normal.

The timetable shows dates for each assessment. All relevant Health and Safety checks have taken place.

Click to access Prelim-TT-Jan-2021.pdf

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

You may be aware of the changes to the length of self-isolation periods for those close contacts of anyone to have tested positive for COVID. This letter should act as a helpful reference point if needed.

Click to access Letter-to-parents-and-carers-self-isolation-periods-13.12.20.pdf

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Please see below two letters from Linda McAulay-Griffiths, Head of Education.

Our January assessment timetable will be released to young people on Monday 14th December.

You may also find our earlier post useful when considering SQA matters – https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/2020/12/09/sqa-and-p7-s1-update/ .

Letter for Young People

Click to access Young-Persons-Letter-SQA-11.12.20-.pdf

Letter for Parents/Carers

Click to access Parent-Carer-Letter-SQA-11.12.20-.pdf

Kind Regards

Mr Kane