To get involved in the Pitch 200 Challenge, click the link, watch the three videos and vote for your favourite engineer.

The challenge finishes on Monday, 29th June.

For more information on how to register, upload your form or see the schedule for the Great Science Share, please visit their website:

https://www.greatscienceshare.org/great-science-share-day

It has been great to see so many people taking part this week! If possible, try to get your walk done by Sunday and ask your child to post a photo on the Conic Hill Google Classroom.

Well done to Mrs Hepburn who is our first parent to complete the challenge. She walked an incredible 7 miles around the Dams to Darnley Park!

And Miss Shaw and Mrs Drewett were our first members of staff to complete the challenge. Miss Shaw walked around the Clyde and Mrs Drewett climbed a local hill.

Kirstie Stewart in S2 was our first pupil to post her walk – she walked her dog around Barrhead.

We can’t wait to see more photos and posts about your walks!

If you fancy being creative then get involved with the University of Dundee’s The Future of STEM competition (prizes available).

The competition is open until the 15th June 2020, and submissions should be sent by email to the address at the bottom of this flyer.

** Note: It is requested that an adult emails any entries to the email address stated **

GOOD LUCK

Date: Wednesday, 27th May (10am – 12.30pm)

Tideway are re-connecting London with the River Thames, by building a 25km Super Sewer under the Thames to intercept those nasty spills and clean up our river for the good of the city.

If you are interested in apprenticeships in areas ranging from civil engineering, boatmasters, business administration and digital engineering, then come along and meet the Tideway team in this interactive online workshop.

More info here: https://uptree.co/tideway/e/3215741163/

** If you are interested in this opportunity, then you must apply TODAY (13th May). Applications after this date may not be considered. **

S3 DOFE Students only

A number of changes to the Duke of Edinburgh Award have recently taken place to allow students to continue with their award at home.

Non-completion of a section

If students haven’t fully completed a section(s) – and don’t think it is possible to complete a section(s) due to current lockdown restrictions – then their DOFE can now be done at home.

In short:

1. Volunteering – Students can now undertake volunteering hours to help their extended family.
2. Physical – your daily walk or run can count as a new physical activity (just record your walk/runs on strava/mapmyrun app)
3. If you can’t undertake a section, then you can change your section and count previous hours as well as any future time spent on the new activity. This would require the student to have two assessor reports.
4. Note: that family members cannot be an assessor for a student. If students require to undertake a new activity to allow them to complete their DOFE then they should make Mr Boag aware. It is likely that your new assessor will be one of the DOFE staff within school.

DOFE Messages

Can I highlight to all students the messaging system within eDOFE.  The DOFE Manager has sent all students an important message highlighting the changes above and also two social media accounts that may be of interest:

Messages can be accessed by logging into your eDOFE account and looking at the top right-hand corner of the screen (See image below. Image taken while accessing eDOFE using a laptop)

Social Media Accounts

I would urge all DOFE students to follow the two social media accounts below:

1. DOFE Facebook account – DOFE EastRen is East Renfrewshire’s DOFE account. This will be updated regularly with all changes that are taking place, but also some fun and mindfulness techniques that may relieve some boredom (even for a while).
2. Instagram account – CLDEastRen brings together a number of services within East Renfrewshire (formerly Young Persons Services & the Communities Team)

Expeditions

Normally, DOFE expeditions take place in June and September. With current social distancing rules in place, it is not possible to have students out on any DOFE expeditions. Having discussed this at length with the DOFE Manager, it is likely that current S3 DOFE students will complete their expeditions in June/Sept 2021. I will make students aware should this change.

Finally

Most S3 DOFE students should have photo/text evidence that they can upload to their eDOFE accounts.  If students have completed a section, then they should contact their assessor and ask for a report. Students should encourage their assessor to complete their report online by following this process:

1.  Ask your assessor to access the DOFE Assessor’s website.
2.  Students should give their assessor their DOFE ID number (student’s unique seven-digit number), their level (Bronze) and the section (physical, skill or volunteering)

Assessor’s can then type their report into the website and submit it to me for approval.

As ever, if students need further advice or guidance, then please get in touch using the DOFE Google Classroom.

Mr Boag

DOFE Coordinator

S4 DOFE Students only

All S4 Duke of Edinburgh students have completed their expedition section and should have all the information they need to finish the Bronze Award.

A number of you had evidence to upload or were waiting on an assessor’s report and I thought this would be the ideal time to get these tasks finished off.

S4 DOFE students should take the time they have available to obtain any outstanding assessor reports and have these, along with any further evidence, uploaded into their eDOFE account.

Expedition Section

All students should complete the expedition section (and then submit for approval) using the following information:

Start & End Point: PA15 4HU

Date: 25th & 26th Sept 2019

Journey & Exploring times should add to 6 hours per day.

Wild Country tickbox should be UNTICKED

Students that have completed their DOFE presentation should upload the PPTX file as evidence.

 Non-completion of a section

If students haven’t fully completed a section(s) – and don’t think it is likely that they will finish their section(s) due to current lockdown restrictions – then their DOFE can now be done at home.

In short:

1. Volunteering – Students can now undertake volunteering hours to help their extended family.
2. Physical – your daily walk or run can count as a new physical activity (just record your walk/runs on strava/mapmyrun app)
3. If you can’t undertake a section, then you can change your section and count previous hours as well as any future time spent on the new activity. This would require the student to have two assessor reports.
4. Note: that family members cannot be an assessor for a student. If students require to undertake a new activity to allow them to complete their DOFE then they should make Mr Boag aware. It is likely that your new assessor will be one of the DOFE staff within school.

DOFE Messages

Can I highlight to all students the messaging system within eDOFE.  The DOFE Manager has sent all DOFE students an important message highlighting the changes above and also two social media accounts that may be of interest:

Messages can be accessed by logging into you eDOFE account and looking at the top right-hand corner of the screen (See image below. Image taken while accessing eDOFE using a laptop)

Social Media Accounts

I would urge all DOFE students to follow the two social media accounts below:

1. DOFE Facebook account – DOFE EastRen is East Renfrewshire’s DOFE account. This will be updated regularly with all changes that are taking place, but also some fun and mindfulness techniques that may relieve some boredom (even for a while).
2. Instagram account – CLDEastRen brings together a number of services within East Renfrewshire (formerly Young Persons Services & the Communities Team)

Finally

Most S4 DOFE students were almost finished all sections of the award, and I am aware that Mrs Kirkpatrick has been contacting a number of you to encourage to get the award completed as soon as you can. I am, therefore, not expecting wholesale changes to sections other than where it is simply not possible to complete the award without such a change.

As ever, if students need further advice or guidance, then please get in touch using the DOFE Google Classroom.

Our Parent Council meeting will take place on Monday, 11th May 2020 from 7pm.

All parents and guardians are welcome to attend.