Dear Parent/Carer

It’s been quite a week in school, with significant numbers of young people in for lessons for the first time since December 2020.

I have to say that this has been an absolute joy. On behalf of all of the staff, welcome back to all our young people. We have shared and enjoyed each other’s company, smiles and laughter this week. I wonder if you detected that I was a wee bit dubious about the phased return and blended learning? I must admit that I was, and not for the first time I was quite wrong. Catching up and “touching base” this side of the Easter break has been the right thing to do. It lets us all get used to the old routine and be ready to really get back to serious face to face learning from April 12. The glorious weather has helped, allowing us to work outside without face coverings in many cases. Our emphasis on “wellbeing” has been the right one and I am proud of all of our school community.

And Covid trends are clearly hopeful enough for us to fully reopen after Easter. Once again, the good sense and resilience of our kids is quite inspiring. They have followed all the distancing, face covering and hygiene rules without question. Above all, I have been so impressed by their willingness to be involved in asymptomatic Covid testing as an extra precaution. At this time, it’s for S4-6 only, but from 12 April, all high school pupils are being offered the chance to test. We need the consent of parents/carers as well as that of the young people and I’ll put out a separate email later today with a link to allow you to do that online. The plan is to distribute test kits to S1-3 pupils on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next week. Please get back to me if you will not be providing consent for any reason and advise your son or daughter to decline the offer of test boxes. As I’ve said before, it’s not compulsory, but we strongly recommend it as an additional mitigation.

We had a Parent Council meeting on Tuesday and that went very well, with 25 parent/carers in attendance. We discussed our reopening plans, including testing, and the arrangements for SQA qualifications this year. One of the queries was actually about LFD testing. If a test is positive then this needs to be confirmed by a more reliable PCR test taken at a test centre. Any pupil affected needs to stay off school until that test is completed. I can confirm that the official line in Scotland is that a negative PCR test means that a pupil can return to school. I understand that this is not necessarily the case in other parts of the UK.

As for the details of the SQA Alternative Certification Model, I shared a link to the online information last week. Candidates will get to know their “provisional result” before summer, but only when we are sure that they have achieved the best standard of which they are capable. For some pupils this might be after class tests in May, but for others it might well take until June for us to be satisfied that no further improvement is possible. This might mean that some young people will “stay on” past the usual school leaving date of 31 May. For those going into a job or training place, we will still make opportunities available to achieve the best SQA result possible. On that theme of employability, I am grateful to Mr Paterson for compiling this week’s jobs bulletin (attached).

At the Parent Council, which was attended by local politicians, we discussed the recent incidents of anti-social behaviour which have taken place at Ravenscraig Park, Chapel Neighbourhood Centre, Chapelhill and other locations. Several of our families are very concerned. As the weather improves, we are seeing large and often unruly gatherings of young people in the evenings. With the distancing rules, it’s not safe. Neither is it fair on other park users or residents. Please do what you can to ensure that your son or daughter is not involved. That would be greatly appreciated.

We’ve also had problems with unregistered dirt bikes and a quad bike this week with riders driving dangerously around Dunnikier Park at times when our pupils have been out and about. We have called the Police and know that at least one arrest has been made and a bike impounded. If you have any information, please call 101 and report it. We have lots of good CCTV footage. I’m genuinely afraid that someone will be hurt soon.

By way of a reminder, here’s a note of next week’s schedule;

• Monday 22 March: S4-6 pupils H-N (some teachers available to look after home learning)
• Tuesday 23 March: S4-6 pupils O-Z (some teachers available to look after home learning)
• Wednesday 24 March: All pupils with surname A-G. Covid kits for S1-3
• Thursday 25 March: All pupils with surname H-N. Covid kits for S1-3
• Friday 26 March: All pupils with surname O-Z. Covid kits for S1-3. Closed until 12 April.

As always, thanks to you for your support and confidence. Together, we are making the best of a difficult situation. However, it’s increasingly looking like we can anticipate better times soon. Saturday is the Vernal Equinox and the start of the astronomical spring. The sun and the daffodils are out and the birds are in song. Possibilities now need to be our focus and we shouldn’t dwell on what we couldn’t achieve for a while. Learning has to be an optimistic process of improvement over time. That must sum up our collective attitude going forward.

Take care

Derek Allan

RECTOR

19 March 2021