STEM

Diana Award 2020

Congratulations to Jenna Young on becoming the recipient of the Diana Award. This award recognises social action or humanitarian work and is one of the most prestigious accolades a young person aged 9-25 years can receive.

As leader of the Braidhurst STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Club, Jenna helped many pupils to successfully design, build and refine cutting edge technological systems. She is passionate about encouraging females into the world of engineering, is an excellent role model and demonstrates an on-going commitment to the Scottish Government’s STEM strategy by selflessly dedicating her time to help and encourage others. Jenna inspires pupils of all ages to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects in school which she hopes will enable likeminded people to maximise their future career opportunities.

For many years, Jenna has devoted her lunchtimes and afternoons to lead a successful and popular Robotics club within Braidhurst High School. She has successfully created a fun and welcoming learning environment and fulfilled her aim of encouraging other pupils to both appreciate and enjoy STEM subjects by using up-to-date technology.

This young ambassador has encouraged and stimulated the interest of younger pupils by ensuring that the robotics club maintains a profile at school events. It is hoped that this exposure to STEM concepts will nurture creative advancement in robotics and electronics, allow others to develop their skills in leadership, communication and teamwork and so much more. The foundations of building our future engineers are being fostered by the club.

Well done Jenna, we are all very proud of your achievement!

Whole School News

Return to school: Update

Today’s announcement from the Scottish Government outlines the plan to reopen all schools on a full time basis from August.

We are currently considering the practicalities and implications of this announcement and will await further clarification and guidance from government, particularly in relation to public health and scientific advice.

Our priority is the safety of our pupils and staff across our network of primary, secondary and ASN schools, as well as our early learning and childcare settings.

We understand that you will have questions, and as this news was only announced today, we will make further information available on how this impacts on our schools and facilities in the coming days.

We are preparing for pupils to return full-time to school on 12 August and we will be working closely with our schools and partners, including our early years and childcare provision to establish our plans, which we will communicate as soon as we are in a position to.

 

Gerard McLaughlin

Head of Education (North)

Whole School News

Return to School in August

As we prepare for next session our biggest challenge has been accommodation. Keeping desks 2m apart has restricted class sizes to an average of 10 pupils. As current advice indicates children will return to a “blended” model of learning, attending school for two days each week and then completing home learning tasks during the remaining three days. As per council advice we will continue to use Microsoft Teams as a platform for any digital learning. Although we are waiting on final confirmation from education and families our provisional days for next term are as follows:

S1: Monday and Tuesday

S2: Tuesday and Friday

S3: Monday and Friday

S4: Wednesday and Thursday

S5/6: Wednesday and Thursday

This may change over the holidays depending on advice from Scottish Government. We have split each day into three larger blocks, effectively double periods, to ensure pupils receive an appropriate balance of subjects while also minimising any travel around the school.

We may also have to slightly alter our school day to minimise the number of children entering and exiting the building at any one time. We have also spent a considerable amount of time working out how pupils will safely access the building and routes around it. I will issue more detailed information on all of the above nearer the date we are due to return to school.

Pupils will have to preorder a snack for interval and a lunch if required. They will be unable to access the water machines so should bring a bottle of water with them if required.

Pupils should receive their SQA results on Tuesday 4th of August. If any pupils would like to discuss possible subject changes for next session our re-coursing day will be on Wednesday 5th August from 9.30am – 1.30pm. As August will be very busy it is essential that if you want to make any changes then you make every effort to attend the re-coursing session.

Pupils will return on Wednesday 12th of August, if scheduled to attend that day.

These arrangements will stay in place until the Scottish Government and North Lanarkshire Council make any changes in line with the roadmap out of lockdown.

I would like to thank you all for your continued support throughout these very challenging times.

Whole School News

Liam Scott

We are deeply saddened to hear of the untimely death of Liam Scott as a result of a tragic accident. Liam was a much loved and valued member of our school community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Top Picture: Representing the school at the 2019 International Conference, Liam is 2nd from right (backrow)

Bottom Picture: School trip to Benfica 2016 (Liam pictured 3rd from right)

Whole School News

NLC letter to parents

Dear Parent / Carer

Clarification of Arrangements for August

You may recall that I wrote to you earlier in the month with information about our emerging plans for August. At that point, we were still awaiting government guidance regarding the planned return of pupils as part of phase three of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Route Map to Recovery. Since then we have been undertaking detailed consultation with stakeholders about our plans to support all children and young people.

Firstly, we are making plans based on the information we currently have available to us, and that the assumptions we are making for how schools will operate in August are still subject to change. Due to the two-metre physical distancing guidance, our schools will be able to admit between 40% and 50% of pupils at any given time, although this may vary positively in some locations due to the size of school building itself and any suitable surrounding facilities which could be utilised. We are planning to offer a minimum of two days of in-school education for all pupils, with access to enhanced in-school learning provided as and when we are able to expand our models locally.

This will be directly supported by a much enhanced digital learning model, which will be an additional support for pupils’ in-school learning, and which will be coordinated through our new digital school. Planning for this is taking account of feedback from parents we have consulted.

Following consultation with trade unions and with our Parent Council Chairs we are proposing to run a four and a half day school week for primary children, with the half day being on a Wednesday, with a key focus around support for our most vulnerable children. The model for secondary schools involves flexible arrangements which will be arranged by schools themselves. Schools will write to parents as soon as possible to clarify specific arrangements for children, including which days of the week each year group will attend. In ASN schools, timetabling arrangements will mirror those of primary schools with Wednesdays being a key focus for our most vulnerable children.

We are restating out commitment to family-focused planning by asking schools to ensure that siblings are supported to come to school on the same day.

We also intend to have one in-service day on Tuesday 11 August, with pupils starting back at school on Wednesday 12 August, as per government guidance. The week will be organised and communicated at a school level, but the expectation of North Lanarkshire Council is that all pupils will be in school for at least part of that first week.

The second in-service day is still required under national arrangements and we intend that it is scheduled for Thursday 24 September.

Naturally, should there be any substantial change to national policy which allows us to bring pupils back for a greater proportion of the school week, or indeed, further expand educational resources out with traditional school facilities, we will be in touch again to outline how we intend to accomplish this.

Once again, we wish to thank you all for your and support in helping us to plan these interim arrangements.

Yours sincerely

Derek Brown (Executive Director, Education & Families)

Councillor Frank McNally (Convener of Education & Families)

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