St Joseph's Academy – East Ayrshire

We have released a file pupils may wish to use to help them track where to find work for each subject area. Pupils in S3 to S6 should add subjects depending upon what they are studying at the moment. The files are available in Microsoft Word format and can be accessed by clicking the text links below:

S1 and S2 Planner

S3 Planner

S4 Planner

S5/S6 Planner

We hope to release an index of where work is placed for each class by the end of the week. Pupils can then check the index and fill in any blanks on their planner.

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

We realise that young people are used to receiving notifications on mobile devices, and that notifications help young people plan their learning from home. We can now confirm that both Google Classroom and Teams will allow for direct access from the dedicated apps you can download from App stores.

We would also strongly recommend that pupils download Teams to their laptop of PC if they are using a laptop or PC to access work. Instructions can be found by clicking on the screen shot shown below.

Dear pupils and parents/carers,

We have noticed that the vast majority of IT problems raised with us have already been addressed in correspondence posted here or on social media. Please take the time to check the undernoted guidance before raising issues with us. This post is updated regularly in response to issues raised by pupils, staff and parents/carers.

Continue Reading →

Dear Pupils and Parents/Carers,

You can access Google Classroom from within Glow. You should not use a personal gmail address or try to access it from an app. It requires Glow login access at the moment.

Instructions can be found by clicking on the image shown below:

You can access Teams by following this guidance:

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please view the undernoted in light of the current pandemic. As with many workplaces, our working priorities are changing near daily across the late part of session 2019/20 and the entirety of session 2020/21. It is likely that a revised overview of progress against policy generation and revision will be shared in August 2021.

Original Post – April 2020

You may be aware of the high turnover of staff over the past few academic years. It is also the case that the National and Local Authority policy landscape has changed significantly since many of our school policies were last revised. With this in mind, we have started the process of reviewing all school level policy. In some cases, our policy will reflect exactly National and Local Authority level guidance. In other areas, it will be necessary to provide a school level context from which policy can be understood.

Given that the generation of policy, particularly at school level, should involve consultation, we aim to revise at least three policies per academic session over the course of the next few years. It should be noted that not all policy need be extensive should it satisfy the needs of our school community and our legislative obligations.  I am sure all stakeholders will recognise that aligning all policies with current guidance takes considerable time. We thank you for your forbearance while we work to provide clarity on all aspects of school life.

Please note that our annual School Improvement Plan, Standards and Qualities Report and School Calendar can be found on the homepage of our website, and are always updated annually. Our School Handbook also provides a general overview of school procedures as they relate to the day to day running of the school and can also be found on our homepage.

You can find revised policy on this page of our website:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/school-policy/

At the time of writing our policy revision schedule is as follows:

Complete

• Learning and Teaching – Revised 2018/19
• Uniform – Revised 2017/18 (publication online to follow)
• Curriculum Rationale – Revised 2019/20
• Staff Development/CLPL – Revised 2018/19 (publication online to follow)
• Guidance at time of personalisation and choice
  • Will be subsumed within Transitions policy at a later date
  • Available via School Handbook and website news feed for current session

Partially Complete

• Celebrating Success and Achievement – Revised 2019/20
  • Fluid, with updates annually in relation to Award Ceremonies and Extra-Curricular Activity
• Reporting to Parents/Carers – Revised 2018/19
  • Further revision will include Assessment, Homework and Tracking Progress throughout 2020/21 and 2021/22

Ongoing this session – Publication by end of session 2020/21

• School Handbook (Last revised 2018)
• Vision, Values, Aims and Catholicity
• Equality and Inclusion
  • Informed by Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES) and East Ayrshire Council policy
  • Includes Promoting Positive Behaviour and Anti-Bullying
• Communication, Digital Learning and STEM
  • Including complaint handling procedures
• Pastoral Care, Child Protection and Support for Learning
• Revision to assessment, homework and tracking (as detailed above)

Planned for review during session 2021/22

• School Leaver Support Policy
• Staff Handbook
• Promoting Attendance and Good Timekeeping
• Family Learning and Parental Engagement
• Pupil Leadership

Planned revision post 2021/22

• Developing the Young Workforce/Skills for Work and SDS Partnership Guidance
• Community Engagement and Parish Partnerships
• Self-Evaluation and School Improvement
• Promoting Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing
• 2 + 1 Modern Foreign Languages
• Transitions
• Raising Attainment and Closing the Attainment Gap
• Global Citizenship, Enterprise and Learning for Sustainability

Once all policy is revised, we will move to a refresh schedule on a rolling basis. However, it is anticipated that this will not result in substantial alteration unless our qualitative or quantitative data identifies a need to consult and revise fully.

Click here to return to our main School Policy Page.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parent/Carer,

One or two parents/carers or pupils have used the school closure engagement survey to ask questions or offer suggestions unrelated to COVID19, school closure or online access.

Please be assured that we are reading all responses. However, in order that we can direct enquiries appropriately, it would be beneficial if any other concerns could be raised via this form or the contact us page on our website:

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parents/Carers,

Here are some more fitness tasks to help pupils stay active at home. Click on images to zoom in.

Fitness Monopoly

Frustration Fitness

Dear S2 pupils and parents/carers,

As you know we are in the process of finalising next year’s timetable. You may remember that we have one flexible period in S3. For pupils wishing to study two Modern Languages, this period is used to facilitate delivery of your second chosen language.

Ordinarily, we would have issued an additional option form for this column, and discussed this with you at an assembly. However, the school closure has prevented us from doing so.

If you have not chosen to study a college course, and you do want to take a second language, please complete the form below as soon as you can.  We only need you to add your name to the form.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

We are asking that all pupils complete the following brief survey. This will allow us to direct resources towards those young people who have not yet managed to access Glow. We ask that all pupils take two minutes to complete this form. Parents/Carers can complete the form on behalf of their children.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx…

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Dear Parents/Carers,

Further to our first FAQ release last week, I would like to provide a further update. In the event that you have a query not addressed in this post, please check last week’s release first. If your query is not addressed there, please use the Contact Us page to raise any concerns.

First FAQ Guidance – https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/2020/03/25/frequently-asked-questions/

Contact Us Page – https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/contact-us/

I hope that you have found online delivery of content to be helpful over the course of the past week. I think there is recognition across our school community of the fact that online delivery cannot reflect the classroom experience. I wish to reiterate the point made last week around all of us maintaining realistic expectations of one another during the school closure period. Nevertheless, staff have worked very hard to upload a wide range of content across Groups, Teams and Google Classrooms and I would like to once again thank colleagues for their efforts.  I would also like to thank you and our pupils for continuing to engage with the content shared via Glow.

Timetable Change

We were originally due to change timetable on the 27th April. Our timetable change date is one of the earliest in Scotland. Most schools change in mid to late May or early June. In the current circumstances, it will not be possible to change timetable on the 27th April, as there is a significant amount of IT work behind the scenes which needs to be accounted for first. During the closure period, the systems we would use are not entirely accessible and it is not possible for the staff who would usually work together on this task to do so remotely.

There is also a need to consider how we setup new online learning groups when unable to synchronise data with the school management system. For this reason, our timetable will not change any earlier than Monday 11th May. Even then, we need to come to a collegiate agreement around whether or not we are in a position to upload enough content for new courses at that point. At the moment, no staff can access the school and the overwhelming majority of our resources are on school servers. For obvious reasons remote access to servers is prioritised for those staff working with vulnerable pupils and for systems critical staff within the local authority.  As I am sure you will understand, there is significant pressure on broadband connections in general at the moment and no school level server is setup to support mass remote access.

In the days prior to closure, staff may have had time to transfer files for the courses currently on offer, but this was not possible for all content or content delivered at the start of a new session.  It should also be noted that we would not ordinarily offer direct teaching to the vast majority of our new S4-S6 during May, as they are usually on study leave. This presents another challenge when trying to set a timetable change date that is realistic for all.

Over Easter, members of the SLT will work on the timetable, and within the constraints that exist, will attempt to upload the relevant data to SEEMIS (our school management system). If we get to that point without further issue, we will be in a position to consult with staff on the viability of going live online in mid-May.  It should be noted that we are considering contingency plans that would allow for access to third party generic resources. Young people would be issued with links and would be encouraged to work on certain parts of courses, but regular uploading of content associated with the early part of courses cannot be guaranteed at this stage. A further update will follow after the Easter break. We are working to find solutions, but as is the case in many industries, there are unique challenges that this closure period presents in terms of logistics and planning for schools.

SCHOLAR Access

Some parents have asked about granting access to SCHOLAR materials. SCHOLAR can be accessed via Glow and is an online learning tool for Maths, English, Science, Modern Languages and Computing. Pupils already studying those subjects can access SCHOLAR at the moment.

After the Easter break we will provide details on how to access SCHOLAR for courses our pupils intend to study next session but are not currently completing. This will perhaps negate some of the issues listed earlier for some of our learners. Doing so beforehand is not necessary, as young people are yet to migrate to new courses and have content to complete that has been issued by their class teacher.

This would allow our current S4 and S5 pupils to access content for some of their new courses. However, it will not allow staff to monitor progress within SCHOLAR. This is not possible until we formally change timetable. There is some uncertainty around providing access to our current S3. Originally, SCHOLAR offered a time limited 28 day access period. We are working to establish if this time limit has been removed for our S3 pupils. If it has been removed, we will also issue S3 with access codes after Easter.  We felt it counter intuitive to allow S3 access only for it to be revoked a short time later.

SQA Estimates

As you know, the SQA released a statement and a FAQ guide this evening.

SQA Statement – https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/2020/04/02/sqa-update-thursday-2nd-april-2020/

SQA FAQ Guide – https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stjosephsacademy/files/2020/04/SQA-Parent-and-Carer-FAQ-Guide.pdf 

I would like to refer to point 2a in the FAQ guide:

2.a. How will exams be certificated this year?

We are asking teachers and lecturers at schools and colleges across the country to use their
professional judgement, and knowledge of your work, to make an estimate of the grade and
band. This will be based on learners’ demonstrated and inferred attainment of the required
skills, knowledge and understanding for each course at National 5, Higher and Advanced
Higher.

This will provide SQA with the information needed to allow us to adjust estimates where
necessary, to ensure consistency both across the country, and in comparison with previous
years.

We will provide detailed guidance to schools and colleges on how to determine and submit
this estimate information after Easter, and by 20 April 2020.

As a result of the above, we are not in a position to provide any further guidance at this point. In the interim, pupils currently in S4-S6 should continue to engage with the content issued on Glow via their class teachers. We will release more details as they become known later in the month. What we do know is that the date for submission of estimates has changed to May 29th.

S1 Reports

In discussion with the local authority, chair of the Parent Council and professional associations, we have taken the decision to postpone S1 reports which were due to be issued in mid-May. While working from home, teaching staff cannot access the system by which reports are submitted.  It is also the case that much of the assessment data used to inform reports is in school and/or on computer systems we cannot access.  We had considered a manual process, but there is no practical or manageable way to gather and issue 1700 different subject reports without access to the reporting system.

In the event that the school re-opens before summer, we will work to issue reports prior to the summer break and in consultation with all teaching staff. In the event that this is not possible, we will look to move the date of either our S2 Parents’ Evening or S2 reports to earlier in the new academic session pending the approval of our Working Time Agreement for session 2020/21.

Pupil Participation in online learning and access to devices

While we have noticed that a significant number of young people have managed to engage in online learning, we are acutely aware of the fact that some learners have not engaged so far. Can I ask that you check in with your son/daughter to make sure that they have replied to any teacher requests to let staff know that they are online and receiving content. After Easter, we will begin supportive check-ins with those young people we have not heard from via online contact this week.

We are still attempting to make contact with some families of young people we believe are without a device. We hope to have made contact with all by tomorrow and will liaise with individual families directly in relation to how we can get devices to you during the Easter break.

Easter Break

I am sorry if the above post appears to only offer bad news or further uncertainty. However, schools are not immune to the precariousness and difficulty experienced across society. In spite of the above, staff continue to work hard for the benefit of our young people.

We will now begin our Easter break, and I wish all associated with our school a peaceful and restful fortnight. I once again ask for the intercession of St. Joseph to keep you all safe during our time off.

Thank you for your ongoing patience and support.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane