Tuesday 24 March 2020

Following the announcement by the First Minister on Sunday, that no young person with SQA coursework to complete should attend school to do so, we continue to work hard on how we should take coursework evidence into account, in determining young people’s final grades.

Everyone here at SQA will do their utmost, given the current situation, and with the support of the education system, to ensure that learners’ hard work is rightly and fairly recognised and allows them to proceed to further learning or work.

The current public health advice has meant that we have had to make some really difficult decisions about coursework. This means that for this year, schools and colleges are not required to submit learner coursework for marking, in Higher and Advanced Higher courses.

We have taken this difficult decision to be as fair as possible to all Higher and Advanced Higher candidates, whilst taking on board the current public health advice, the many varied coursework requirements across different subjects, and how these are managed in schools and colleges across the country.

I appreciate that some learners may have already completed their coursework for Higher and Advanced Higher courses. This work can still be used as part of the suite of evidence for teachers and lecturers to draw on as they consider estimated grades.

We have received coursework for a range of National 5 subjects and have contacted National 5 coursework markers to confirm marking arrangements. All National 5 coursework, due to be uplifted in April and May, will not be submitted for marking.

We will provide further details on the estimation of grades, that we will need from teachers and lecturers to inform certification, and fuller details of our approach to certification, as soon as possible.

This is an unprecedented situation for us all, and circumstances are rapidly changing. With every change in circumstances, we continue to consider how best to recognise learner achievement in as fair a way as possible.

Please be assured that everyone here at SQA is fully committed to working with you to deliver for Scotland’s young people. Thank you for your patience and continued co-operation.
Fiona Robertson
SQA Chief Executive and Scotland’s Chief Examiner

Original post: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93658.html

Dear colleague

I am writing to provide you with an update on the activities that UCAS is undertaking in response COVID-19, and assure you that UCAS has the flexibility and expertise to support all audiences during this time.

UCAS set up a cross-business coronavirus working group in early February to identify and understand risks and issues relating to our services, review contingency planning, and coordinate communications and risk mitigation activities – this group now meets daily to ensure we are responding to the fast evolving environment, and are well positioned to support the universities, colleges, schools and students.

Most undergraduate applicants are already in the UCAS system. There are currently nearly 600,000 undergraduate applicants, and just under half are UK 18 year olds. The majority of these applicants will be holding an offer and have pending qualifications, such as A levels or Highers.

We continue to operate the admissions process as normal – we are continuing to support customers via our Customer Experience Centre and will continue to keep students informed of the latest developments via our established communication channels.For our customers, we are publishing the latest updates online in three main places:

[ https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/coronavirus-covid-19-latest-updates ] for students, also linked to from the homepage of UCAS.com

[ https://www.ucas.com/advisers/guides-and-resources/adviser-news/news/coronavirus-update ] for advisers in the relevant area of ucas.com

[ https://www.ucas.com/providers/coronavirus-update ] and for universities and colleges, in an open-access area of the providers section of our site.

However, with the cancellation of examinations across the UK, we recognise that the way in which students are accepted to higher education this year will be different to previous years. We are working extensively with the relevant government departments, regulators and sector bodies, such as Department for Education, UUK Ofqual, Scottish Government and Office for Students, to ensure that there is shared information and understanding as the situation developments.

I am confident UCAS has the flexibility to accommodate any changes to the examination awarding process. We will be providing further information about this once there is clarity regarding the awarding process and timeline. However, when reviewing how we can flex the cycle to accommodate the cycle, our paramount consideration will be fairness to students.

We’re also currently undertaking modelling exercises to understand how potential changes to the application cycle could alter behaviour in both the 2020 and 2021 admissions cycle. We will be able to share some of this intelligence in due course in order to support their sector with their own planning.

UCAS is ready to play a key role in supporting the sector to reduce the impact of the pandemic on admissions to higher education. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss further, particularly if you feel UCAS can offer you support.

Yours faithfully

Clare

Clare Marchant

Chief Executive

If you need support with GLOW (username or password reset), Office 365, Teams etc please contact us here: GLOW support 

We would ask that parents/carers please bear with us at this very difficult time. Every department is currently focused on our S4-S6 pupils and the requirements that may be required for SQA assessment (we are currently waiting on an update from SQA and will provide more information as soon as we can).

In due course we will be providing online learning materials and resources for our BGE pupils (S1-S3). Some departments have already started to use school websites, GLOW, MS Teams, Twitter or a combination to get the info to our pupils.

You child may have been added to a MS team however there may not currently be any materials or tasks posted. This is very much a work in progress and again we ask for our parents/carers understanding at this time.

NEW: How-to guides for GLOW

We will keep our school website (www.braidhurst.org) up to date with the most recent information about online learning opportunities as well as advice from the North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Government and the SQA.

We would also encourage everyone to follow us on Twitter (@braidhurst) and sign up for our school app.

Dear Parent/Carer,

Although all schools officially closed on Friday afternoon at 3pm, we recognise our duty to support Key Workers in posts which ensure that essential services can be delivered and cover tasks within the local community which support the vulnerable and aid community resilience. Definitions of key workers and eligibility are outlined in Appendix A. This service is for families where both parents/carers are key workers or in the case of single parent families, where the main care giver is a key worker.

It is essential to stop the spread of COVID-19 that people who can work from home do work from home.  The remaining education support service should only be accessed by those who absolutely require it to enable National Health Service and other critical services to continue and also for vulnerable young people. We appreciate your cooperation with this.

Arrangements for week beginning Monday 23^rd March 2020

If you are an eligible key worker, who has no other suitable childcare arrangements then your child can attend school as normal on Monday 23^rd March, school transport will run as normal.  If you are able to go in person to school or establishment, staff will ask you to complete a proforma.  If you are unable to do that then the school or establishment will contact you to gather information.

Future Plans

Over the course of this transition week, the council will collect data from across Schools and Centres and use this data to inform its planning.  This may involve closing some schools and moving to a cluster/hub model, with only identified schools and centres remaining open to support Key workers who have no alternative childcare in place.  In practice, this may mean that your child attends a different school, but within their locality.

Meeting your needs

This week, you will be asked to complete a form to provide us with essential information about you and your child.  This will include information about your employment, work patterns and emergency contact details. This information will be used by the council to build up a picture of the requirement for education services across each locality. The more information you provide the more prepared we can be.  Further information will be provided about this later in the week.

Key Workers Pro Forma – PDF format

Key Workers Pro Forma – MS Word format

School Meals

All children who are entitled to free school meals will be able to access these meals. If you need to access this support please take your child to their usual school at the school’s normal lunchtime.

Breakfast clubs will be open in those schools that normally offer them.

SQA Course Work

Scottish Government have clarified your child should not attend school to complete any SQA course work.  The school may ask you to complete course work remotely.

Teachers know your children well and already have a wide range of evidence on which to base their professional judgement. Estimated grades will be based on predicted attainment, coursework and assessment. They will NOT only be based on prelim marks. Since all estimates and professional judgements have not yet been carried out, I would ask that you do not contact the school at this time for that information. Although there is no process for appealing professional judgement, the SQA have indicated that their post results service will be free of charge this year. Further information on this will be issued in due course.

Finally, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should any child who has symptoms of coronavirus, or who lives in a household where someone has symptoms, present at school. The whole family must follow the self-isolation advice.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and support.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Rooney

Head Teacher