St Joseph's Academy – East Ayrshire

Dear Parents/Carers,

As you may have heard, there will no examinations at National 5 level this session. The SQA are set to publish subject level guidance after the October break. We anticipate that between two and four pieces of assessment per subject will be used to inform teacher judgements at National 5 level. SQA also intend to quality assure/moderate teacher judgements throughout the year.  At this stage, we anticipate that we will still run a prelim diet at National 5 level but will confirm this after the October break.

At Higher and Advanced Higher level, it is still the intention of the Scottish Government and SQA to run an exam diet in May 2021. However, the SQA yesterday published a number of alterations to each course at Higher and Advanced Higher level. Staff now need time to read the associated documentation but will communicate with young people to advise of alterations to course assessment as soon as possible.  In the event that the Scottish Government need to cancel exams at a later date, they have provided assurance that they will not do so any later than mid-February. For now we are to proceed on the basis that exams will run at Higher and Advanced Higher level in May. If they were to be cancelled we would revert to a similar certification process as that advised for National 5.

We thank you for your patience whilst teaching staff take some time this week and during the first week back after the October break to read the various guidance published yesterday. We also anticipate with keenness the release of the documentation which will clarify assessment procedures at National 5 level.

We will of course keep young people up to date with subject by subject matters and will send out more communication on SQA certification after the holiday period.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Today, we received confirmation of the fact that the catering team will begin to offer snack at interval again. As of Sunday, young people can pre-order food for collection at interval. Pre-orders should be made online via the system used to pre-order lunch. Orders can be placed between 3pm the day before break until 9.30am on the day.

Food and Drink Options are as follows:

We will speak to all pupils on Monday about the procedures in place for collecting food and drink at interval.

Dear Parents/Carers,

The annual Parent Forum and Parent Council AGM will take place online on Monday 5th October 2020 at 7pm. If you would like to attend then please email the undernoted address to request joining instructions.

stjosephsacademyparentcouncil@gmail.com

pp Parent Council

S6 pupils who left in June 2020 can view the Virtual Awards Ceremony at: https://glowscotland-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/eajasmen_pioli_glow_sch_uk/EqeBVRz5KeBEiXX-85DWoq0Bt9nfZVHYT5F90AMyTdMFIw.  Additional access information has been sent by text to your main contact.  This link expires on 30th September.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Parent Council AGM

The Parent Council AGM is likely to take place on Monday 5th October. This date will be confirmed as soon as possible. The meeting will take place online and once the date is confirmed we will share joining instructions with you.

School Calendar

At this time it is not possible for us to share a school calendar with parents/carers. The school calendar is governed by the Working Time Agreement (WTA), and national advice around WTAs was to postpone discussion and sign off until after August 2020. Local discussion (which will inform school level planning) is ongoing, and it is hoped that we will be able to sign off on our draft calendar before the October week. We will then share this with you and place a copy on our website for future reference. For obvious reasons, there is ongoing uncertainty around the viability of some calendared events such as school shows and Parents’ Evenings. As soon as we can do so we will provide clarity for parents/carers.

SQA Courses and Exam Diet

The SQA are yet to decide upon any alterations that may be made to courses or exams this session. Please be assured of the fact that we will share any SQA updates with you as and when they are released to us.

Car Park Trial

The car park trial will run until Wednesday 16th September inclusive but will cease as of the return to school on Tuesday 22nd September.

It is clear from our recent trial that using the first row of parking spaces as a drop off area has:

• Reduced the number of stationary vehicles blocking the main entrance
• Led to a much better flow of traffic from the entrance gate along to the primary school side of the car park

However, it is also clear that the drop off area will not:

• Address the wider issue of volume of traffic (estimated at between at least 200 and 300 cars per day, ratio of 3:1 primary to secondary, understandable given age of pupils)
• Prevent most parents/carers from arriving within the same ten minute window across both schools and the ECC (8.45am to 8.55am)
• Prevent congestion when exiting the car park given the natural tailback caused when hundreds of cars are leaving at around the same time

We have witnessed first hand the frustration that some parents/carers encounter each morning, but have observed that much of the frustration will not be resolved by altering the car park layout, as it is mainly to do with the volume of traffic using the car park area. That said, the changes trialled did remove at least one known issue.

Moving forward, we will now end the trial period and report to EAC and Mitie. Our perception is that it has been a success but we cannot make this a permanent arrangement without re-painting the area and requesting the removal of the concrete islands along that row of car parking spaces. We are also unable to sustain staff presence every day, and as such cannot advise that parents/carers continue to drop off in the trial zone until the area is painted properly.

We appreciate that this will be frustrating for some, but the process we need to follow dictates that the trial must come to an end pending decisions to be taken between school staff, EAC staff and Mitie. As and when we can provide a further update we will do so.

School Meal Portal Issues

Teaching and office staff cannot assist with school meal portal issues. All school meal portal enquiries should be directed to preordermeals.enquiries@east-ayrshire.gov.uk .

It is anticipated that a break-time service may start at some point between the September weekend and the October week. We will provide more detail once confirmed by our colleagues in catering.

Face Coverings in school

Government guidance is clear in that school staff are to encourage young people to wear face coverings in communal areas. If your son/daughter has a medical exemption, please ensure that this is brought to our attention.

We have received a small number of letters from families of young people who do not have an exemption but object to the wearing of face masks for other reasons. School staff will continue to encourage all young people without an exemption to wear face coverings. While I appreciate that the issue is contentious, there are a number of staff and pupils with relatives who are very high risk. Even if the virus itself usually causes minor to mild illness in most teenagers, I cannot with good conscience disregard the very legitimate concerns of those staff and pupils with relatives who are very unwell at home. As such, all pupils without a valid exemption will be encouraged to wear face coverings.

Face coverings on school transport

Guidance is also clear as to the need to wear face coverings on school transport. A small number of pupils wear face coverings on school buses but not in school. This is an untenable position, and will be challenged by school staff.  Please encourage your son/daughter to wear face coverings on school transport as per national guidance and for the same reasons as detailed earlier.

SMHW – S1 Issue

We continue to liaise with Satchel:One around the ongoing issues we are having with S1 class list migration from Glow. This issue prevents staff from issuing notifications/tasks online. We will advise of resolution as and when we can but have furnished Satchel:One with all requested information.

Pupil Leadership Teams

We are delighted to share with you our Pupil Leadership Teams for this session:

S6 Pupils

Head Girl: Carla Duffy

Head Boy: Calum Grant

Head Girl (Junior School): Ava Heron

Head Boy (Junior School): Harris Hughes

Depute Head Girl: Emira Attia

Depute Head Boy: Kai McClusky

House Leaders: Shonagh McGhee, Kerry McGahon, Melissa Maitland, Jennifer Lockhart, Dylan Ewing, Gia Gunn, Hannah Mulhearn

S3 Pupils

School Captain (BGE): Sarah McCready

School Captain (BGE):  Paul Duffy

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

This is a reminder that school is closed on Thursday 17th, Friday 18th and Monday 21st September and will reopen on Tuesday 22nd September.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parent/Carer,

As you may know, we have ongoing and long standing issues in the school car park, particularly first thing in the morning. Many parents/carers elect to stop in the middle of the car park to drop pupils off. This happens at the entrance and exit, and is an issue caused by a minority of parents from both St. Joseph’s Academy and St. Andrew’s Primary. Despite reminders over the years, the issue persists. While teaching staff cannot be reasonably expected to work as car park attendants, we do appreciate that our responsibility extends to raising awareness and trying to offer solutions. With this in mind, we propose a one week trial starting tomorrow (Friday 11^th September).

Upon entrance to the car park, parents/carers have the following options:

• Take an immediate right turn, find a parking space and park your car before allowing pupils to exit vehicles
• Drive the length of the car park to the overspill car park beside the astro turf pitch, find a space and park your car before allowing pupils to exit vehicles
• Use what are normally car park spaces to the immediate left as a drop off area

The entire row of car parking spaces on the immediate left will not be used by school staff. This creates a drop off zone that runs for the length of the car park and would operate in a similar way to drop off areas at airports. For the duration of the trial, school staff and our campus officer will be in the car park area from around 8.35am to direct traffic. Please remember that the drop off zone will extend to the entire length of the car park, and as such parents/carers should drive along as far as they can before pulling into the drop off area. This will ensure that traffic flows appropriately.

In addition, we feel it prudent to remind everyone of the fact that we have several zebra crossings throughout the car park, and drivers should continue to take care when moving off after having dropped a young person off. We also note that some of the congestion is caused by the natural delay that parking and manoeuvring can bring, and see no obvious solution to that particular issue. While we do not believe that a drop off zone will eliminate congestion completely, we do hope that it will help. We will review this matter at the end of next week.

Kind Regards

Mrs Murray (HT St. Andrew’s) and Mr Kane (HT St. Joseph’s)

Dear Parents/Carers,

While this video is particularly harrowing, we are aware of the wider risks of social media access and would encourage all parents/carers to continue to discuss appropriate use of IT and social media with their children.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane