24/04/2020

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
Technologies	Monday 27th April	S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year
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	Thursday 30th April	S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year
Health & Wellbeing	Friday 1st May	S1 same class. S2-S5 move on a year
Science	Friday 1st May	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

23/04/2020

Weekly Learning Overviews for Week Beginning 20/04/20

Please find attached the Weekly Learning Overview for your child’s year group.

The overview provides basic information on the area of study from each faculty in Bell Baxter.

Home Learning Overview – S1 WB20.04.20

Home Learning Overview – S2 WB20.04.20

Home Learning Overview – S3 WB20.04.20

We will be sending future overviews every Monday so that you are aware of the work as early as possible in the week.We are also aware that there are challenges around access to IT and it may not be possible to complete all tasks every week.

We are currently exploring with our staff ways in which we might move some classes’ learning forward into the new timetable in order to keep all year groups engaged. Further information will be shared on the arrangements for this in the next few days.

If you require assistance around accessing the work, please contact the school using the following email address and we will get back to you as soon as we can:

Bellbaxterhs.Enquiries@fife.gov.uk

23/04/2020

School Trips Update – 23rd April, 2020

Please see the below letter from Neil Finnie, Service Manager at Fife Council, regarding school trips.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch by emailing bellbaxterhs.enquiries@fife.gov.uk.

Education & Children’s Services Directorate

Education.Services@fife.gov.uk

Our Ref: NF/CM

Date: 23 April 2020

Dear Parent/Carer

SCHOOL TRIPS

Those of you who have committed to your child taking part in an excursion over the coming months will be aware that the UK government has issued instructions to Local Authorities.

In the case of overseas excursions, they are advising against non-essential travel for an indefinite period. For UK based excursions, they are advising that both residential and non-residential trips should not be organised, primarily to protect social distancing measures.

As lockdown restrictions are progressively lifted and the availability of international travel improves, this position will change, however, we do not know when this will happen.

Consequently, schools are working with tour operators and external providers to determine the most efficient way to refund monies paid to families where excursions are cancelled on the basis of this UK Government advice.

In most cases, we are bound by their terms and conditions, with an element of monies paid directly to them being a non-refundable deposit. You would have been advised of this at the time of securing your child’s place on the excursion. Non-refundable deposits cover fixed costs incurred by providers and without retaining these, many will struggle to remain operational whilst their businesses cannot generate an income.

However, we absolutely understand that for some families, your circumstances may have been impacted by the virus. Schools are working with their tour operators and external providers individually and are doing their upmost to return all monies paid by you. This is taking some time to work through, and we would ask you for your continued patience.

Your school will maintain contact with you to keep you informed of progress. For specific enquiries, please contact your child’s school by email at this time.

Yours faithfully

Neil Finnie

Neil Finnie

Service Manager (Policy & Prevention)

Education & Children’s Services Directorate,

Directorate Operations Team,

4^th Floor Rothesay House,

Rothesay Place,

Glenrothes, KY7 5PQ

21/04/2020

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.

03/04/2020

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.