St Joseph's Academy – East Ayrshire

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.

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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

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

In order to speed up the process of registering for a catering portal account, it is necessary to ensure that all new S2 to S6 pupils can login to school computers using their school username and password. Please note this is not their Glow username and password but school username and password which grants access to school computers.

If your son/daughter is going into S2 to S6 and has forgotten their username and/or password for school systems, they must complete this form by Friday 7th August.

Arrangements will be made to share new passwords upon the first day for pupils next week. This will then allow pupils to login to the catering portal and order food for lunch. Please remember that where possible we recommend a packed lunch on Wednesday 12th, Thursday 13th and Friday 14th August other than for those pupils accessing Free School Meals.

The link to the form is here:

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please see letters for parents/carers and pupils who will use school transport this session. The first is for those using school buses, the second for those accessing ASN contracts, mainly via taxis.

School Bus Letter

ASN Taxi Letter

Dear Pupils and Parents/Carers,

Please see a letter and supporting document from Mr. Kane in advance of re-opening next week (click on the images to open the files).

Letter

Supporting Document

Dear Pupils and Parents/Carers,

Please see letters from Linda McAulay-Griffiths (Head of Education) in advance of the release of SQA results.

Letter to young people

Letter to Parents/Carers