Dear Parent/Carer,
I hope that your son/daughter has had a safe, happy and stimulating start to their time with us in the English Department here at Saint Ninian’s. We have certainly been impressed with their energy, enthusiasm and resilience in making the transition from Primary 7 to Secondary 1.
S1 Class Rearrangement
I am writing to inform all parents and carers of S1 pupils about the changes which will take place in all S1 English sets on Monday 29th October.
Upon arrival in August, S1 pupils have attended English in their “alpha” classes. Over the following weeks, up to the October break they developed various pieces of work such as “Coming to Saint Ninian’s” and “My Holiday Memories”. They also completed some Close Reading work and were carefully observed in class as they developed the core literacy skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Now that we have some direct knowledge of the pupils combined with some assessment data, we are in a position to arrange them into broadly banded classes which means that every pupil will be working at an appropriate pace and depth. They will remain in these classes until the end of S2 when at that point we look again at a broad range of assessment data and make a further set of adjustments.
This approach has been a long-standing part of the success we enjoy as a department, both in terms of meeting the needs of all learners and in terms of national qualifications. Broad banding at this point ensures pupils have the opportunity for attainment of appropriate literacy levels by the end of the Broad General Education in S3. This in turn offers the best possible opportunity for academic attainment in National Qualifications.
We ask for your continued support in our programme of family learning and engagement by supporting your son / daughter with their programme of homework.
Literacy Evening – Tuesday 27 November, 7pm
We will be holding an information evening at 7pm on Tuesday 27th November about our work promoting Literacy across the curriculum and the work of the English department in particular. We hope that you can come along to find out more about who we are, what we do and how you can help your child. Please follow our Twitter account @stninianseng for further updates.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s Pastoral Support Teacher.
Kind regards
Christopher Docherty
Principal Teacher of English and Literacy
