S1-3 Pupils
Transport to our three partner schools ran really smoothly today. I am very proud of our young people (but not surprised) who have shown themselves to be well organised, reliable and very positive about our current arrangements. The plans for transport will remain constant throughout this next three week period. Feedback from all three schools today has been very positive. By and large, operational aspects of our first day worked really well in all locations. We will post updates on our twitter account @balfronhs as usual to give you a flavour of the activities going on in each location.
Senior Phase Pupils (S4-6)
Music and Music Technology exams ran smoothly today. Some of our senior pupils have been in school to complete unit assessments as previously planned. Although most staff are deployed to partner schools, some remain here to provide support to pupils who need to complete assessments. Please remind all young people to arrive in full school uniform when coming in to work on campus. Our pupils who attend Forth Valley College participated as normal today.
Mrs Short, our SQA exam coordinator, has been in touch with colleagues at the SQA to ensure they are up to speed with our arrangements. Kevin Boyle from SQA has asked me to share the following statement with you:
SQA is working closely with Stirling Council and the senior management of Balfron High School to support them in the practical arrangements for the exams. The national timetable of exams will continue as planned and pupils should continue with their studies and be ready to sit their exams on the dates in the published exam timetable.
What should I do if I think my child has not performed as expected in an exam for one of their subjects?
SQA’s Results Services is made up of two services – Exceptional Circumstances and Post Results Service. The Exceptional Circumstances service supports individual candidates who are taking subjects that include a timetabled exam that is marked by SQA. The service is only available before the results are published and can only be made for the SQA marked exam part of the qualification. The service does not cover the SQA marked coursework or the units of the qualification. The service is for individuals who know in advance that due to personal exceptional circumstances, such as bereavement or illness, they will be unable to sit a specific timetabled exam, or whose performance may have been fundamentally affected as a result of an incident beyond their control, for example illness. The service cannot be used for groups of candidates nor for individual candidates who believe they may not have performed well on the day of the exam. Exam stress, minor distraction and loss of concentration are not considered valid exceptional circumstance reasons. If you feel that the disruption has impacted on your child’s performance in a specific exam then you should speak to your school, to explain why you think that is the case. If the school agrees with you, then they can submit an exceptional circumstances request, which must be made within 10 working days of each exam. We will then look at the candidate’s performance in the exam and review additional evidence submitted by the school, for example coursework, class assessments or a prelim exam. Find out more – www.sqa.org.uk/resultsservices
General Update
We are now planning the next phase of our return to Balfron High School. We are waiting for the final results of the investigation work. This will help us plan around work that may need to be carried out on site. Just a reminder that all communication should continue to go through Balfron High School. Our admin team will ensure that you can link with the appropriate staff at the assigned school. Please continue to make calls to Balfron High in the first instance and not directly to the partner school. A call back will be organised as a priority. This includes pupil absence, questions and messages. We are keen to handle this centrally in the usual way. We really appreciate your support with this.
Once again, I would like to thank you for your support and patience.
Elaine Bannatyne
