Category: Communication

*New* Mental Health Booklet Available

Bell Baxter recognises that the ‘lockdown’ can bring many challenges, particularly with personal wellbeing.

Mrs McGinty from Bell Baxter Support Team has produced some useful wellbeing resources, inlcuding the *new* Teen Guide to Surviving Lockdown and Beyond

You can view these, and all our Mental Health information by clicking here.

 

The Fife Council Education Psychology Service Website has also recently been updated to include some helpful resources/advice on COVID-19. It can be found using this link:

https://www.fife.gov.uk/kb/docs/articles/education2/supporting-children-in-school/educational-psychology-service

It also contains contact details, should you want to get in touch with the them to discuss any concerns.

Rector Update & Letter from the Head of Education

Dear Parent/Carer,

 

I hope you are all safe and well.  Please find attached to this update a letter from Maria Lloyd, Head of Education with further information about SQA and how national qualifications are to be awarded this year.  As ever any questions or concerns do not hesitate to get in touch.

SQA estimates letter to parents 5 May

 

Teams Update

Thank you to all the parents who have supported us to get their young people set up in Teams to move our learning forward.  A number still have to go online and enter the appropriate code to allow access to learning.  Please try to ensure your child has done so by the end of the week so that there are no gaps in learning, as all programmes will be progressing as planned.

Next steps for Teams will be for us to use an analytical tool built into the system to monitor levels of pupil engagement, to track whether or not pupils are logging in to view materials, upload work and communicate with teachers.  We will feed back to you if we feel there are any issues and plan what we can do to support.

Please note that the timetable has not moved on as such, plans for this are in line with previous years and individual pupil timetables will be issued early June as normal.

 

Reporting

There will be no further reporting to parents for the remainder of the Session.  One of the clear advantages of us moving as a school to regular and succinct tracking reports throughout the year is that young people all received reports in Term 3 and therefore we will resume tracking of progress next Session.

 

PE Choice – S3

Thank you to young people for completing the Teams quiz and sharing choices for the S3 PE curriculum.  Obviously, as with all learning this term and next, participation will be dependent on the recovery plan set out by the Scottish Government and Fife Council with regards to our return to school.  Further information on this will follow as and when we hear more.

 

Bell Baxter Parent Council

We had a lovely meeting Monday evening with some members of the Parent Council – was great to see everyone, albeit remotely!  A key part of the discussion was thinking about delivery models for remote learning.  We had already established a working group within the school to consider this and pilot models however we would like to tap into any expertise/interest from parents out there.

If you would be interested in linking with the group, please email Karen Brown, the Chair of the Parent Council on bellbaxter.parentcouncil@gmail.com

 

P7 Transition

Sadly our transition programmes have been pretty much wiped out as a result of COVID.  However, we are working on a number of things behind the scenes to try to plan various ways of connecting with our primary 7s.  Further information to follow on this soon.

 

Awards Ceremonies

We are in the same position as above with awards ceremonies.  Again we are thinking creatively around this and will be sharing more in the next few weeks in terms of how we plan to conduct these extremely important celebrations of our young people’s hard work and achievements.

 

Guidance Contact

The Guidance Team are working through each of the young people in their year groups to make contact and check in with you all.  With between 250 – 300 young people per year this is a huge undertaking but well worth it.  They have now spoken to approximately 50% of their year groups each and will be continuing to work on speaking to you all over the coming days and weeks.  If you have any worries at all however please do not wait for them to call.  You can email each of them directly on the following emails:

S1 carron.pour@fife.gov.uk

S2 tara.pollock@fife.gov.uk

S3 kirsty.simcock@fife.gov.uk

S4 niall.duncan@fife.gov.uk

S5/6 anne-louise.cunneen@fife.gov.uk

 

I think that is everything!  As ever stay in touch and we will do our best to help you in this difficult time.

Best wishes

 

Carol Ann

 

Carol Ann Penrose

Rector

Bell Baxter High School
Carslogie Road
Cupar
Fife
KY15 4HY
Tel. 01334 659459
Online www.bbhs-online.co.uk
Twitter @BellBaxter_HS
Facebook @BellbaxterHS

SQA Update – 21st April, 2020

Message from Maria Lloyd – Head of Education at Fife Council

The SQA provided a further update today on how schools will determine estimate grades, bands and rank order to be submitted to SQA to allow them to make awarding decisions this year: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93920.html

Across all of our schools, we are working to ensure that our young people get recognition for their hard work and receive the qualifications they deserve. The SQA have asked us to subdivide each existing band, place learners within these band categories and then to rank order their learners within each estimated grade. The estimated grades submitted to SQA will then allow them to use this information along with, where available, prior attainment to ascertain whether a centre’s estimates this session are consistent with outcomes in previous years.  All of this information will be used by the SQA to finalise the award outcomes. The SQA will continue to support us in this process through online advice and our teachers will be able access this.

Be assured that our teachers have worked with our young people for a significant period of time and have a range of evidence to draw on, in order to make an accurate professional judgement of what they are capable of achieving. This analysis will allow teachers, departments and schools to arrive at an estimated grade which best reflects the work and the progress your child has made and therefore makes a best estimate of how they might have performed if they had completed coursework or folio and final exam.

To further support teachers and departments across schools, Fife has produced quality assurance materials and provided all necessary data to support our staff in making these estimates.

I again ask you for your continued cooperation and support in this process and not to contact schools for these estimates.

The SQA have also committed to further support through the post results service, which this year will be an appeal process.  Results will still be issued to young people by 4 August. We continue to strongly encourage all young people to sign-up to MySQA, the online and text service, as a direct way to receive their results. Further information is available for learners, parents and carers in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website.

While I accept that this whole process is very different to the normal exam diet, I am confident that by working in close partnership with SQA and across schools, the hard work of Fife’s young people will be properly recognised and accredited.

Free School Meals Update 3rd April, 2020

Free School Meals

Payments are now being made in lieu of free school meals.  Parents/carers will receive £11.50 per week, per child into their bank account every Wednesday.

Anyone who thinks they will now qualify for this payment can find the full list of entitlement criteria and application form at www.fife.gov.uk/schoolbenefits

Parents who had applied and whose children were receiving free meals prior to 23rd March, and had previously provided bank details for payment of school clothing grant, should have received their first payment on 25th March and a letter.

New applications are being dealt with as a priority and anyone who has made a new application should start receiving payments from the week after their application.

Anyone who thinks they will qualify for this payment but has not previously applied, or was not previously entitled and their income has now reduced, can find the full list of entitlement criteria and application form at www.fife.gov.uk/schoolbenefits.  If they don’t have internet access or experience issues submitting an application they can contact the Benefits & Council Tax Team on 0341 55 11 55 and the application will be taken over the phone.

If a child appears on the entitlement list but a payment hasn’t been received, or for any other queries or issues with their payment, parents should contact the team on 03451 55 11 55.

School clothing grants are also available for those on a low income.