Principal's Letter, 9 October 2020

Well-Being
To support World Mental Health Day, which falls tomorrow, students have been looking at ways they can enhance their mental health and adapt to a positive mind-set to the challenges we face, how we can work together and support each other. Today, the students in tutor time wrote a positive action that they can use to help the wellbeing of others.

We would recommend conversations with your family to extend this to our wider community and how we can make our school community a more emotionally resilient place.

Ms Molineaux-Inglis will be continuing this theme in assemblies next week.

Year 11 Mocks
Scotland have now cancelled their formal exams. We are awaiting information from the DfE as to what formal GCSEs will take this academic year. It is vital that you are working with your child to revise for the November mock exams which are rapidly approaching.

We anticipate that the data from this set of mocks may be needed should the government go down the route of Teacher Assessed Grades.

Year 7 Tutor Phone Calls
Year 7 tutors are looking forward to keeping their telephone appointments with the parents and carers of Year 7 students across next week. Tutors will review classwork and homework, preparedness for lessons, engagement in lessons and behaviour for learning. Parents and carers will also have the opportunity to ask any questions.

If you have not yet made your appointment, please contact Mrs Danilovic on [email protected] who will be able to assist.

Equipment
Now that we are four weeks in, I would recommend that parents and carers take stock of their child’s equipment and pencil cases. The majority of our children are coming to school equipped with all necessary items including a face mask and hand gel. However, some students are not arriving ready for learning. Telephone calls will be made by staff as necessary to ensure that you are aware if your child is not properly equipped. May I recommend that you are proactive in encouraging your child to pack their school bag the night before.

Satchel One
Please note that students will not be able to submit work or have full availability to work if they are logged in with their parents’ Satchel One account. The student must be logged in as themselves in order to submit their work.

We have had several reports that students have been trying to submit work whilst logged in on their parent account which will not work.

If you have any further questions related to this please contact Mr Case, Assistant Principal, on
[email protected].

Bus Passes
As indicated in a previous letter to you, the bus inspectors arrived on site earlier this week to inspect bus routines. I am pleased to report that children were wearing their masks suitably and behaving well. We were commended by the bus inspectors for the good conduct of our student body.

However, the bus inspectors also noted that a number of pupils were not using current bus passes and in some cases were not on the correct bus. As a result of this, we have been advised that the inspectors will be returning to check bus passes in the near future. Any student attempting to travel without a valid pass will be required to pay for their journey. Please note that it is the responsibility of parents and carers to ensure that their child has an up to date bus pass. If your child does not have this, please contact County Transport at your earliest convenience.

Mr P Slaughter, Principal