This presentation will provide a solid foundation of starting a personal statement, including tips to help you with your personal statement.
Category: S4 to S6
School Update – 24th April, 2020
Dear Parents/Carers,
I hope you are all safe and well, coping as best you can with life under COVID-19. Welcome back after the Easter holidays. I have to say that this is the most surreal first week back to school I have experienced in my career, and I know you will all be feeling the same. National information, both in terms of health & safety and SQA qualifications, is moving at a pace, and we are working hard as a team to digest this information and share what this means for you and your families in terms of impact on education. This takes time to embed and I thank you sincerely for your very strong support for myself, the staff and the school – it has been very moving and means such an awful lot to us to know you are there for us also.
SQA Qualifications
Further information from both SQA and our Head of Education, Maria Lloyd, on the processes being used to provide young people with qualifications in the scenario of no examinations, was sent out on Monday evening. In short, we are being asked to submit estimates for every course studied, by 29th May, 2020. Estimates will be arrived at holistically, on the basis of a range of data including formal internal examinations, (such as prelims), end of unit tests, classwork, homework and teacher professional judgement. There will be robust quality assurance of the estimates submitted by Faculties and myself, Faculty PTs and Alastair Lownie, Depute Rector, will analyse submissions in detail, triangulating data against the additional attainment we have been provided by Fife to support us with this.
Please be aware that estimates submitted by the school are not final results and may change.
Once SQA receive our estimates, they will then undertake their own quality assurance and final results will be sent to young people on 4 August. To ensure your son/daughter receives results on this day please ensure that they are signed up to mySQA. I appreciate that this is a very unusual and worrying time for many young people and their families. Our aim is, as always, to put young people first and ensure that their results reflect what they would have been likely to achieve were they able to progress to examinations. If you are concerned, I would be grateful if you did not contact class teachers or Faculty PTs at this point. Rather, please email your son/daughter’s Guidance teacher in the first instance.
S4: Niall Duncan – niall.duncan@fife.gov.uk.
S5/S6: Anne-Louise Cunneen – annelouise.cunneen@fife.gov.uk.
Learning at Home
Thank you for the many emails we have received recognising teachers’ efforts to keep learning ongoing. For many of us this has been a steep learning curve and I am delighted with all teachers’ work in up-skilling themselves in the use of digital technologies. We seem to have resolved most of the hardware issues for staff and all should be up and running, setting work for classes on a weekly basis as a minimum.
The entirety of our remote learning has been set up on Teams and we have shared help guides with you previously around how to access this. Should anyone require additional copies to be sent out then please email: Bellbaxterhs.Enquiries@fife.gov.uk.
It has become increasingly clear (even more so after the First Minister’s statement last night) that we will not return to school before summer and that, until a vaccine is produced, ‘normality’ will be very different from what we are used to, with social distancing measures continuing in some form. This has obvious implications for schools and we will be working closely with our colleagues in Fife and listening to national advice, to put some detail out to you over the next weeks and months.
In the meantime, however, we are keen to keep the learning relevant and maximise engagement in courses by moving learning forward a month early from the week beginning Monday 4th May. In most subjects this will apply from S2 to S5 however there are a few exceptions as noted below. We feel this is a real opportunity to consolidate on work and move on into the next level, importantly, in the courses that our young people have chosen for next year.
New Timetable Set-Up on Teams
Firstly, it is safe to say that setting up classes for a new timetable on Teams and doing so remotely is a huge logistical task! I am extremely grateful to the PTs and wider staff for their solution-focused approach and administrative support around doing this. It shows how much Bell Baxter is focused around putting our young people at the heart and it gives me a lot of pride to know that. Much appreciated.
Set up will take place next week from Monday 27th April. Each Faculty will have a different day for set up (see table below). Set up involves all parents being emailed a Teams code for their young person on that day. It is important that you give this to your young person and ensure they go into Teams, find their class and enter the code. Once they do so, they become a member of that teacher’s Team and can access specific work from Monday 4th May 2020.
|
Faculty |
Teams Set up Day |
Year groups moving class? |
|
|
Languages |
Monday 27th April |
S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year |
|
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Technologies |
S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year |
||
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Maths & Computing |
Tuesday 28th April |
S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year |
|
|
Social Subjects |
Wednesday 29th April |
S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year |
|
|
English |
Thursday 30th April |
S1-S3 same class. S4 & S5 move on a year |
|
|
Expressive Arts |
S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year |
||
|
Health & Wellbeing |
Friday 1st May |
S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year |
|
|
Science |
S1-S2 same class. S3-S5 move on a year. |
||
Monitoring Pupil Engagement in Learning
As we progress it will be important that we know as a school who is and isn’t engaging with their learning on a regular basis. Whilst I am very sensitive to the range of difficulties you may be managing as a family, we are here to support and minimise any negative impact on your child’s learning. Gathering information in this way allows us to understand the scale of learning that is taking place and address any barriers to learning working alongside you.
At the moment I am asking teachers to set work a minimum of once per week, providing tasks and activities that will sustain learning for the week however more may be required depending on the year group and course. If anyone is struggling to manage, again please let us know by emailing the Guidance teacher directly and help will be forthcoming. Guidance direct emails are listed below.
| 2020/21 | ||
| S1 Guidance (new) | Anne-Louise Cunneen | anne-louise.cunneen@fife.gov.uk |
| S2 Guidance | Carron Pour | carron.pour@fife.gov.uk |
| S3 Guidance | Tara Pollock | tara.pollock@fife.gov.uk |
| S4 Guidance | Kirsty Simcock | kirsty.simcock@fife.gov.uk |
| S5/6 Guidance | Niall Duncan | niall.duncan@fife.gov.uk |
Fife Music Instructors on Teams
For those young people who receive music instruction from the school, please be aware that there is also a Teams set up for these classes to allow ongoing practice. If anyone has any questions or issues with accessing instructors please either email the Principal Teacher of Expressive Arts, David Beckett (david.beckett@fife.gov.uk) or alternatively you can speak to Fife’s Music Co-ordinator, Mrs Sandra Taylor (sandra.taylor@fife.gov.uk). Either would be more than happy to help.
Talk to us!
Finally, we love hearing from parents and, particularly in these times, it makes us all feel a wee bit less isolated from each other. Over the next weeks we will be exploring ways to build that ongoing dialogue with our parent community, so that you can give us feedback on how we are doing, what is working well, what could be better and ideas for how we might improve. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to email the school and share, it would be great to get some inspiration!
Look out also for the new school website that we are hoping to launch soon…more to follow!
In the meantime, it looks as if it is going to be another beautiful day – thank goodness for a bit of sunshine to keep us all going! I wish you all well. Keep safe and I’ll be back in touch soon.
Best wishes
Carol Ann
Carol Ann Penrose
Rector
Bell Baxter High School
Carslogie Road
Cupar
KY15 4HY
Tel: 01334 659459
VOIP 451741
Website: http://www.bbhs-online.co.uk
Twitter: @Bellbaxter_HS
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.
SQA Exam Diet and Skills Development Scotland Support Update
EDUCATION AND CHILDREN’S SERVICES DIRECTORATE
Maria.Lloyd@fife.gov.uk
03451 555555 ext. 480217
Your Ref:
Our Ref: ML/EF
Our Ref: ML/EF
25 March 2020
Dear Parent / Carer
SQA Exam Diet and Skills Development Scotland Support
You will now be fully aware the 2020 exam diet has been cancelled. Inevitably this means there will be some uncertainty for our young people who were preparing for exams. I want to reassure you and your children that teachers, who know your children best as learners, will be doing everything they can to ensure they are awarded their best possible qualification(s).
Part of what teachers do already is to gather ongoing evidence throughout the year for completing courses for qualifications. This includes completing coursework, assignments and folios.
Our teachers will work hard to use all available evidence to support their professional judgement to give accurate predictions. I want to emphasise that there is no need for your child to be in school to complete work. We now know following the updated announcement by the SQA on 24 March that certification will be based on predicted attainment, coursework and assessment from throughout the year.
The SQA will provide further details on the estimation of grades as soon as possible and they will inform us of what they will need from teachers and the approach that will be taken to certification. At this stage I would ask you not to contact your child’s school as we are still awaiting further instructions from SQA.
The SQA have indicated that their post-results service will be free of charge this year. This service is when the school are concerned about the grade your child has been awarded and they can request a clerical review. Parents cannot request this directly to the SQA.
The current SQA system has a large amount of statistical information that will allow for checks and balances to be made to ensure a fair outcome for your child. This includes statistical checks on the normal pattern of attainment across a school, a subject area and across the local authority. We will continue to work with SQA to ensure the hard work of our young people has been properly recognised and accredited fairly.
Skills Development Scotland (SDS)
I also wanted to take this opportunity to inform you that SDS are still continuing to do the following: –
- Provide career, information, advice and guidance for all young people. Our school careers advisers are endeavouring to maintain contact with pupils and they are looking at how we can further develop on-line services to support them. This will be done via telephone, Skype or online. To speak to a Careers Adviser call your local centre on 01592 645180 (Kirkcaldy Centre) and 01383 745610 (Dunfermline Centre). Details of all our centres can be found on My World of Work. Calls are being automatically re-routed to advisers (all of whom are home-working). Messaging can be provided for your comms channels if needed. Please be reassured that SDS Careers Advisers will continue to proactively contact pupils to offer them ongoing support.
- Work with the SQA and other awarding bodies in relation to Foundation Apprenticeships. This work will support their guidance for individuals and learning providers to ensure that the effects of disruption are minimised and that wherever possible, apprentices and learners are not negatively impacted in the longer term.
- Share social media posts from SDS social channels to inform teachers, pupils, parents and carers of our ongoing support.
As soon as we have any further information we will share this with you. Thank you in anticipation of your ongoing support.
Yours sincerely
Maria Lloyd
Head of Education (Secondary Schools and Specialist Support)
SCHOLAR – now available to S3
Covid-19 Additional Support
Temporary guest account for S3 learners
Learners in S3 studying level 4 material as part of the broad general education (BGE), often cover topics common to National 5 courses and may find access to SCHOLAR National 5 courses useful.
If S3 students have not yet been enrolled, to let them work on the course materials, for the next 28 days they will be able to access our National 5 courses using the account details below. Please note, when using this account their teacher will not be able to track their progress, review their performance or mark any extended answers.
Username: ges3nat5
Password: bird70pear
Best wishes,
SCHOLAR Team
