St Joseph's Academy – East Ayrshire

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please see recent updates from NHS Ayrshire and Arran for all parents/carers of school age children (click on images to see each letter).

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Please click on the image below to see a letter from Professor Jason Leitch for all families of school age children.

Please click on the image shown below to access information from Ayrshire College in advance of College courses starting again soon.

Please click on the image shown below to read a letter from Linda McAulay-Griffiths, Head of Education.

Dear Parent/Carer,

School Photographs

On an annual basis, young people have their photograph taken for the school management system.

Usually, photographs of sibling groups and our S6 cohort are also taken. This session, only individual images will be taken. We will, if possible, arrange a date late in the 2020/21 session to facilitate sibling group images and an S6 year group photo.

While we appreciate that siblings are in the same household, the fact that they are in different year groups and classes adds a logistical challenge against the need to avoid unnecessary gatherings across year groups. For this reason, it is more practical to take individual images only at the moment.

Individual photographs will be taken tomorrow (Thursday 27th August) for all year groups.

School App

Please note, if you have downloaded the school app (instructions shown at top of our website under ‘Communication’), then the latest school news appears under the ‘News’ section rather than the ‘Messages’ section. However, the app defaults to show notifications for messages rather than news. Please check the news section for latest updates. To avoid duplication of work, staff do not post directly to the app, but have the app set up to pull over website and twitter posts. There can be a delay of an hour or so in new messages reaching the app but they will always appear under ‘News’ and not ‘Messages’.

Permission to leave school – voicemail messages

Please note, if you call the school and leave a voicemail message detailing an appointment (e.g. dentist, doctor etc.) that a young person needs to attend during the school day, staff will not routinely call back to acknowledge receipt of the message. Staff will update our internal records based on your voicemail message. As always, young people will only be released when a parent/carer reports to school to collect their son/daughter.

In the event that you need to speak to a member of staff, please make this clear when leaving a voicemail message.

Face Coverings

As of Monday 31st August, young people over the age of 12 are required to wear face coverings in communal areas of the school. This means wearing a face covering when in school corridors and when in the street, library, toilets, reception area, assembly hall and small gym (used for interval and lunch time for now). Young people will need to remove face coverings when eating snack or lunch.

In addition, young people over the age of 5 need to wear a face covering when using school transport. This means that if your son/daughter uses a school bus or taxi, they need to wear a face covering when using the bus or taxi.

Young people do not need to wear face coverings in classrooms or when outside. As the majority of the school day is spent in classrooms, the actual time spent wearing a face covering will be minimal. The above comes into effect as of Monday 31st August.

More information will follow from East Ayrshire Council in the coming days.

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:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/files/2020/08/COVID-19-Secondary-School-RA-St.Josephs.pdf 

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

Dear Parents/Carers,

The first Parent Council meeting of the session will take place on Monday 24th August at 7pm. The meeting will be held online. If you wish to attend, please email stjosephsacademyparentcouncil@gmail.com for joining instructions.

pp

Jim Campbell

Parent Council Chair

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Following our ‘soft start’ I write to you to provide a general update on our plans for next week. As you know, all pupils will return to school on Monday.

Pick up and drop off/Parental Gatherings

Thank you for ensuring that young people and staff could enter and exit school safely. By way of a reminder, parents/carers should not be on site in the playground in the morning or at the end of the school day. Parents/Carers dropping pupils at school are asked to park cars in designated spaces or to drop young people in a safe area outwith school grounds. The same would apply at pick up time.

Staggered Lunch 

As you know, we will operate a staggered lunch break as of Monday 17th August. Lunch for S1, S2 and S3 will start at 12.25pm and end at 1.10pm. Lunch for S4, S5 and S6 will start at 1.15pm and end at 2.00pm.

Young people are encouraged to spend lunch outside. However, if the weather dictates that young people must remain indoors, pupils should use the following areas of the school.

12.25pm – 1.10pm

S1 and S2 – Street/Assembly Hall

S3 – Small Gym

1.15pm – 2.00pm

S4 – Small Gym

S5 – Street/Assembly Hall

S6 – Library

The above will help ensure that we can keep young people within social bubbles (by year group).

Online Portal/Ordering Lunch and ‘Eat Out to Help Out’

We helped the majority of pupils register for the new catering portal last week. Some pupils could not login to the school network and password reset requests are with the IT department at East Ayrshire Council. We will carry out a ‘mop up’ of those yet to register next week. Pupils should order online the day before they wish to purchase food from the canteen.

The secondary school menu can be found here: https://www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/Resources/PDF/School-meals/School-meals-menu-for-secondary-schools.pdf 

Once registered, you access the ordering system as follows:

https://portal.east-ayrshire.gov.uk

(Will not work with Internet Explorer, you must use Chorme, Firefox, etc.)

When you open the link you are asked to enter a username and password.

Username: Pupil

Password: Meals

You will then see all secondary schools in East Ayrshire. Select ‘St. Joseph’s Academy’ and enter your school username and password. You can then order lunch.

East Ayrshire Council is participating in the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ programme until the end of August. This means that school meals are half price for the next two school weeks.

Health and Safety

You can find a copy of our risk assessment here: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/files/2020/08/COVID-19-Secondary-School-RA-St.Josephs.pdf

A group of staff meet every Monday to consider Health and Safety and to highlight any areas of concern. At the beginning of September, we will consult with pupils around their perception of what is and is not working well. Parents/Carers should contact the school directly if  concerned about Health and Safety.

Dear Parents and Carers,

You may be aware of the statement made by Education Secretary John Swinney in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, the full text of which can be accessed at https://news.gov.scot/speeches-and-briefings/deputy-first-minister-sqa-2020-results

You will be aware that a considerable number of our young people had results downgraded from the estimates submitted by teachers in May/ June. Thank you for the numerous phone calls and emails we received from pupils and parents in support of our young people. We had collated every request for a review/ appeal in anticipation of the appeals process.

Mr Swinney clearly stated yesterday;

I can confirm to Parliament today that all downgraded awards will be withdrawn.

Using powers available to me in the Education (Scotland) Act 1996, I am today directing the SQA to re-issue those awards based solely on teacher or lecturer judgement.

Schools will be able to confirm the estimates they provided for pupils to those that are returning to school this week and next.

The SQA will issue fresh certificates to affected candidates  as soon as possible and, importantly, will inform UCAS and other admission bodies of the new grades as soon as practical in the coming days to allow for applications to college and university to be progressed.

As the First Minister confirmed yesterday, in those cases where moderation led to an increased grade, learners will not lose that award. Many of those young people will already have moved on to secure college or university places on the strength of the awards made to them. To unpick them now would not in any way be fair.

Finally, due to the unique circumstances of this situation, we will this year make provision for enough places in universities and colleges  to ensure that no one is crowded out of a place they would otherwise have been awarded.

Therefore, any young person from St Joseph’s who had a grade moved down (i.e. given a lower grade than the teacher estimate) will now have this rectified and a new certificate issued. Where the teacher estimate was in line with the final grade or lower than the final grade, there will be no change.

This will happen automatically and there is no need for pupils and/ or parents to make further contact with the school (or first contact if none has been made). We will be in touch if we require any further information from you. We will keep you posted of key dates in the process of revised certification.

Thank you for all your support of the school and staff during this last week.

Miss Quigley