Following the recent successful Developing the Young Workforce Focus Day we would like to make you aware of the support available offered by Skills Development Scotland. SDS’s My World of Work website which students were introduced to during the focus day is a really useful resource – further information from SDS is outlined in the link below.

Click Here

The following school’s update has been issued by North Lanarkshire Council;

Schools update 16.2.21

Following confirmation from the First Minister, all children attending early years establishments (those eligible will continue to receive  1140 hours), pupils in primaries 1 to 3 and a small number of senior pupils on a limited basis will return to schools and centres from Monday 22 February 2021.
This includes children and young people in additional support needs (ASN) schools.

Early Years: All children should return to centres and nurseries as normal including partner providers.

P1-3: All children should return to school as normal including ASN pupils. School transport will be in place for those who are eligible. For those in composite classes, only children in P3 should attend school and those in P4 will be taught via online learning. All children in P1-3 will receive universal free school meal provision on return to school.

Please note that shielding children and young people should continue to shield under current lockdown guidelines, unless otherwise directed by a clinician.

Senior phase: Schools will be in touch with young people directly to outline when they should attend school to complete critical practical work in relation to qualifications. There will only ever be around 5-8% of the secondary school roll in school at any one time (excluding vulnerable children and key worker children). Arrangements will be made locally but for those who are eligible for school transport, this will be in place twice a day (morning and afternoon) and pupils should attend normal pick-up points. Those who are eligible for taxi transport, normal arrangements will resume from Monday 22 February.

Senior phase pupils in S4-6 are reminded that they must ensure they maintain two-metre social distancing in school and on school transport, as well as adhering to normal restrictions outside of school. School meals will be available for purchase (free for those who are eligible). In addition, at-home lateral flow testing kits will be available to senior phase pupils twice a week through their school and schools will be in direct contact to outline arrangements for distribution.

ASN pupils: Head teachers will be in touch directly with parents/carers of ASN children and young people in S4-6 to work with them to agree arrangements for in-school support should it be required. For those who are eligible for transport (taxi or ASN transport), the school or transport operator will be in touch to make arrangements.

Schools continue to remain open to provide learning and support for vulnerable children and children of key workers only.

Please click on our link below to access the Greenfaulds High School Health & Wellbeing Newsletter.

Click Here: Health and Wellbeing Newsletter

Click on the image below to see all the activities available in the February Funfest organised by Cumbernauld Together.

Due to current restrictions this year’s Primary 7 Transition Information Evening with be a virtual event. Information can be found below. The meeting will be hosted on Webex.

Date: Tuesday 26th January

Time: 6.30pm

Meeting Information

Meeting Link

https://meetingsemea27.webex.com/meetingsemea27/j.php?MTID=mcda804d463f671f5f90297adf33e897d
Meeting number:  175 741 2901
Password: JJzsrCqB246 (55977272 from video systems)
Host key: 167940

Please click on the link below to access the GHS Library newsletter. This is full of useful and interesting information on how you can access reading and listening resources remotely whilst we all learn from home.

Click Here: Library Newsletter

Each year as part of our S2 options process we try to share as much real-life information and experiences with our young people as we can to help guide them in their subject choice. Part of this process is asking parents if they would be willing to share their own lifelong learning career journey with our young people as part of our annual Developing the Young Workforce conference. The ongoing pandemic means that we can no longer deliver this in the normal way by hosting an in-house conference with visitors, pupils and parents present. We are therefore having to think of different ways in which we can continue to offer our young people this invaluable information and we are hoping to undertake a virtual delivery for our students. Click on the link below for more info.

Click Here:

Please find attached a link to NLC’s digital offering to supplement that which is already on offer from individual schools.

Click Here: Digital Offering – Jan 2021

You will be aware from national media today that there have been significant access issues which have prevented users – pupils AND staff – from having access today to TEAMS.  This is something which has affected the whole of Scotland and is not a school or a local authority issue.  I appreciate how frustrating this has been for all of us, but it is something which is completely outwith our control.

A few things have arisen today as a result of parental enquiries, and I am happy to try and summarise these as FAQs as matters arise:

Attendance – all pupils are credited with attendance during this period of school closure.  Pupils do not have to log in to live classes over the course of the day to get their ‘attendance mark’.  As mentioned in Friday’s newsletter there will be many reasons why pupils cannot or do not come online at the same time as the scheduled class.  That is OK!

Engagement – we will be monitoring engagement of pupils (not necessarily at ‘live’ times) so that we can see whether or not pupils are able to access the work which is being set.  This engagement will be monitored through the insight facility within Teams and the school will contact families if it looks as if there could be an access problem.  Please be assured this is there to support families and to see if there is anything which we could do to ensure that we widen access to teaching materials in order to support as many young people as we can.  We understand that there can be many reasons why pupils cannot be online at any given time.

Live Lessons – this phrase does NOT necessarily mean that the teacher stands and delivers a lesson in front of the virtual class.  It can take many forms – preloaded video explanations or demonstrations; powerpoints with commentary etc.  The best summary of the different methods of presenting is that the teacher will be present in ‘real time’ – ie on the live chat – when the lesson is underway.  If a pupil is unable to attend at this time, he/she can email or leave a comment on the Teams chat which the teacher will respond to at a time when not involved in teaching other groups.

Password resets – the mailbox for password resets is monitored during working hours every day and all requests are answered.  If there is a problem with being missing from a class list then please contact the school and the request will be directed to the appropriate department. There is also a email form in the Remote Learning tab on the homepage where you can contact Faculty Heads.

It is understandable that as we face these new challenges, everyone just wants everything to fall into place and work.  Sadly the reality is the same as with the change to any new system – there will be teething problems along the way. It is important for all of us that compassion and kindness remains at the forefront of what we do – the situation we are currently in is unprecedented and is no one’s fault.  The gulf which remote learning creates makes it very difficult not to be hard on ourselves and each other that when things don’t work that it’s just not good enough.  The fact that we are trying to support each other is what makes us a tight knit community.  If technology gets in the way and is causing stress then walk away from the computer.  Tasks will still be there when the ICT highway can cope with the volume of users trying to access it.  Here’s hoping for a less technology stressful day tomorrow!

Can we ask that any requests for GLOW logins or passwords are made by the pupils. Due to GDPR regulations we can only pass this information onto the user of the account. Thanks

You can find a link to an electronic request form in the top bar of the webpage.