SQA Achievements 2021

Once again pupils in Our Lady’s have achieved fantastic SQA results.

In S4, an outstanding 70% of pupils attained five or more National 5 Awards at Grade C or above. This is a fantastic achievement, and our students should be very proud of this.

Congratulations also go to 26 pupils in S4 who attained 7 As in their National 5 awards – a phenomenal achievement. They are Olivia Akindele, Judin Alex, Lisa Bryant, Harris Carberry, Chiara Coletto, Lily De Jong, Lee Donaldson, Hannah Dutton, Mia Eaglesham, Joseph Friel, Andrew Hamill, Ciaran Hegarty, Olivia Hughes, Hannah McCallum, Alasdair McCurrach, Ryan McEnaney, Matthew McGarry, Millar McGroarty, Aiden McGrory, Aiden McKeown, Kaylah McLaughlin, Neve McLay, Christina McMillan, Hannah McSheffrey, Niamh O’Rourke and Amy Walker.

Our S5 pupils also worked hard to ensure success this year. 23 pupils in S5 attained 5 As in their Highers, which was a fantastic achievement. Congratulations to Madison Adams, Imran Ali, Alix Anderson, Nicholas Colella, Patrick Connolly, Jessica Cox, Grace Croal, Gareth Finnieston, Lily-Anna Govan, Keira MacDonagh, Calum Mackenzie, Flynn Malcolm, Rebekah McDermott, Ciara McGrath, Mark McKay, Lucy Morrison, Sarah O’Donnell, Alexander Peters, Roksana Putowska, Liam Sharp, Katie Shearer, Heather Stirling and Jodie Sullivan.

Additionally, 24% of our pupils achieved 5 Highers, 58% achieved 3 or more Highers, and 73% achieved at least one Higher in S5.

Well done to all our pupils for their SQA achievements this year. Even though we cannot recognise this formally at our usual Awards Ceremony we are still extremely proud of their achievements.

House Ambassadors 2021-22

This year we continue with the Our Lady’s Way Ambassador Programme which will provide many leadership opportunities for our senior pupils. The programme includes roles such as Subject Ambassadors, Pupil Voice Ambassadors and House Ambassadors.

This year we are delighted to announce our House Ambassadors for 20-21:

St. Columba House – Roksana Putowska, St. John Ogilvie House – Jessica Cox, St Margaret House – Flynn Malcolm, St. Mungo House – Daniel Shaw and St. Thenew House – Katie Cassidy.

Well done to our young people!

Scotland Basketball Success

Congratulations to Alexander Peters (S6) who has been selected for the Under 18 Scotland Basketball Squad. A great achievement! Well done!

Covid-19 Information Letter

To access a Covid-19 information letter for the new term please click here.

Future Fridays

From the new term in August school will finish at 12.30pm on a Friday but young people have the opportunity to participate in a range of activities on the Friday afternoon as part of the #Future programme. Cast your eye over what’s on offer here…..

To access a printable version click here.

School Uniform

To access a printable version of the school uniform order form please click here.

National Qualifications – What You Need To Know

Please click here to access an information booklet from the SQA entitled National Qualifications – What you need to know.

The booklet outlines the Alternative Certification Model  created by the National Qualifications Group in order to deliver results for young people undertaking National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses in session 20-21.

This year teachers are asked to use the assessments that young people undertake as evidence to decide on provisional results.  This is referred to as using Demonstrated Attainment.

A strong set of checks will be done in school, across schools and nationally to support teachers’ decisions and this is called Quality Assurance.   Quality Assurance helps to make sure that results are decided consistently across the country.

There is also a video that explains the procedure and a section of the SQA website with more information which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTrPgWF6dfo

Further information can be found at https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/84154.html

Kind regards

Mrs Cunningham

Safer Internet Day 2021

Safer Internet Day will be on the 9th February 2021

Safer Internet Day 2021 will be celebrated in the UK with the theme:

An internet we trust: exploring reliability in the online world

This year in the UK, Safer Internet Day explores reliability online. The internet has an amazing range of information and opportunities online, but how do we separate fact from fiction?

Safer Internet Day will be celebrated globally with the slogan: Together for a better internet.

For more information and resources please click on the image below

Message from Mrs Cunningham

The following message was sent to all parents/carers this week:

Dear Parent/Carer

I am writing to you following the Scottish Government announcement yesterday that schools will not open until at least mid-February.  A further update is expected at the beginning of February.

The staff of Our Lady’s are very much looking forward to welcoming all of our pupils back into the school building as soon as we are given the go ahead. Until then we are continuing with online lessons on Microsoft Teams.  Despite some initial problems with the software at the start of last week, things have settled down.  Sometimes a little patience is need when joining a team but things are getting easier for everyone as we get used to the system and this different way of learning and teaching.

I want to once again acknowledge that online learning and teaching can be difficult for families, especially where young people are sharing devices.  While the ideal is for young people to be following their timetable during the day, we are fully aware that some young people can’t access Teams at that time.  A record of the meeting and any work set will be available for any young person joining out with class time.
I have attached two documents to this email.  The first one gives instructions on how to access Teams using a games console such as Xbox or PlayStation. The second document details how to download a free copy of office365 for every young person using their Glow login details.

We want to support our families and our young people as much as we can during this difficult time.  If there is anything we can do, especially to support online learning, please phone the school on 01236 632159 or email enquiries@ourladys.n-lanark.sch.uk

North Lanarkshire Child Payment 

Families whose children receive a free school meal because of low family income, will receive £100 per child directly into their bank account during the last week in January.
In addition NLC are also supporting families at weekends and during the holidays with the Club365 food voucher scheme as well as providing vouchers to cover the cost of lunches during the current lockdown.
be made automatically, and parents/guardians do not need to apply. However, if you have not received a payment by mid-February, email NLChildPayment@northlan.gov.uk

If your family’s circumstances have changed recently and you would like to apply for your child to receive a free school meal please visit: https://bit.ly/39BhUTG

Resources

Jotters and stationary can be collected from the school office.  Please contact us in advance to arrange this.  We also anticipate that jotters will be available from the following local shops after this weekend: Co-op Muirhead, Co-op Stepps, Farm Shop Carrickstone, Spar Abronhill, Spar The Village, Stoneylee Stores North Carbrain, Day Today Greenfaulds and Premier Balloch.

Absence from Online Learning
If you child is unwell or has an appointment and will not be engaging on their online learning, please contact the school office or the enquiries email address and this will be communicated to class teachers.

Kind regards

Mrs Cunningham
Head Teacher

Click here to access the instructions for accessing Glow on your console.

Click here to access the instructions for downloading Office 365 from Glow to a computer.

Message from Mrs Cunningham

I write to you at the start of another unusual term and wish I could indicate a more settled start to 2021.  However, as always we will work with you to ensure that learning continues to take place for all of our young people.

Please find below our arrangements from Monday 11 January.  These will apply until further notice.

Online Learning

From Monday all pupils (S1-S6) and staff should be following their normal timetable online as if they were in the school building.  Monday 11 January will be ‘week 1’ so if a pupil has, for example, English period 1 and 2 on their timetable then they should log in to Teams and they will be invited to join/or already have an invite to join their English class team. Pupils should then follow the work set out by the class teacher who will be present online during the double period for instruction, support, guidance and feedback.  The teacher may choose to type in the chat function, speak online or turn on their camera.  Pupils should take a break during the normal interval and be ready for period 3 and 4, have lunch and then be ready for the afternoon lessons.

The timetable will move to ‘week 2’ week beginning 18 January and then continue to alternate between ‘week 1 and 2’ as their normal timetable does.

Online learning will be as close to classroom teaching as possible and staff will make every effort to support all of our young people.  However, we acknowledge that this situation is not easy for staff and pupils and we will endeavour to adapt to our new way of working.

Work will be available on the class team after each class has met for pupils to refer back to and complete.  Due to individual circumstances and availability of devices, we understand that a pupil may not be able to join the team during class time but they are encouraged to complete work at a time that is more suitable. They can leave questions for their teacher and submit work at any time. However, these questions may not be answered until the next time the class meets.

Children of Key Workers

Please note the school will be open to the children of key workers and a small number of vulnerable children.  In the case of key workers an application to NLC must be completed online.  The children who attend school will be supervised by staff and will attend a computer suite each day.  They will then access their class teams and complete work in exactly the same way as their peers who are learning at home.

Parents of Senior Phase Pupils

The results of S4/5/6 prelims will be communicated to all parents in the Senior Phase Report that will be issued later in the month.   The reports will be available to view online via Parents Portal. If you have not signed up to the portal then you may wish to consider doing so. The school office will be happy to help with any Parents Portal issues. Several emails have already been sent to parents with instructions on how to sign up.

It is important to note that prelim results will not be the only evidence taken into account when we are asked to submit predicated grades to SQA later in the year.

At this time pupils should continue to engage with their individual classes on Teams and submit all work as requested.

We understand that this is a particularly stressful time for our pupils and we encourage them not to worry. We want to reassure all pupils that the school will support them in every way we can.

We realise that you will have many unanswered questions regarding SQA, predicted grades etc. We will send any updated information from the SQA as soon as we receive it.

IT Access

If there any issues around pupil access, passwords, logins etc. then please email enquiries@ourladys.n-lanark.sch.uk with your child’s name and class.

18 January 2021

The Scottish Government are due to give an update around school closures on 18 January. I will be in touch soon after that with any updated arrangements.

Please click on the image below to access our Online Learning Guidance Booklet.