Learning from Home

Yesterday our staff met in school to plan for the online learning due to begin on the 11th January. As you know pupils will not return to school until at least 1st February. We have been asked by the Scottish Government to provide learning in school for pupils whose parent or parents have been classed as key workers. We have also been asked to provide places for pupils who may require additional support due to circumstances (vulnerable group). School Transport will run as normal  but may change as the lockdown goes on depending on demand.

To cut down on the amount of movement around the school and reduce the risk of spreading the virus we introduced a Red/Blue week timetable. There will be no Red/Blue timetable during this lockdown, this applies to the pupils working from home and the keyworker/vulnerable pupils attending school.

We do not intend at this time to have live online lessons, our experience from the last lockdown was that they were fraught with difficulty and it was much easier for pupils if staff uploaded Presentations and set weekly assignments.   Pupils should engage with their learning on a regular basis, obviously some sort of routine, e.g. a timetable that had been agreed within the family, would be best.

We expect that pupils will be always respectful when engaging with GLOW and TEAMS.

For those pupils whose circumstances mean that they are attending school they will be supported by staff to complete the work set by their subject teachers. In order for staff to prepare, deliver and provide feedback for online learning the supervision of pupils in school will be carried out on a rota basis. I tended to use the phrase, well known to parents across the world, “What do you think the teacher means by that?” when supervising Primary Pupils during the last lockdown.

Year group Assembly on Tuesday 12th January

We plan to have online assemblies on Tuesday morning for all year groups. Pupils will be invited on Tuesday morning to join their assembly through their Year group Team.  A message will appear on Tuesday morning in their Year group Team with a JOIN button, just click it when it is time for your Assembly.

Assembly Times

S5/6 1030

S4 1100

S3 1130

S2 1200

S1 1230

I hope you have had a good holiday. Similar to the last TEAMS Assemblies that we had in June 2020 pupils can post questions in the chat section and I will try to answer them at the end of my presentation.  All cameras and microphones should be turned off, this will help with the quality of the video feed from the school.

Online Resources

The following online resources are available and are highly recommended:

For all pupils BBC BiteSize, materials and resources

For S3 to S6 pupils

SCHOLAR courses, tutorials and resources

Bright Red course materials

E-Sgoil resources and live online lessons

You can find more information and resources on our ‘Learning at Home‘ page.

No Broadband Connection?

The Government website is promoting a scheme for pupils who do not have a fixed broadband connection : “Who can get help? This scheme is open to children and young people who:

• don’t have access to a fixed broadband connection
• cannot afford the additional data needed to access educational resources or social care services
• have access to a mobile device that uses a participating network
• are facing disruption to their face-to-face education, or have been advised not to attend school

Please click the link below for more details:

https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/about-increasing-mobile-data

Can I remind parents, carers and pupils that we are here to help. If there is something bothering you or you are unsure about then please ask. No such thing as a daft question during a lockdown!

Take care,

John Robertson

Headteacher

Calderhead High School