Term 2, Week 8

Dear Parents and Carers
 
Whilst we have had very few cases of covid in our school community, we are aware that there are instances in the wider community so thank you for your support in reminding pupils to: bring a face covering to school each day and to complete an LFD test twice-weekly, reporting the results online. Pupils continue to behave in a considerate manner in school, wearing their face coverings, sanitising their hands regularly and keeping their distance, where possible, and we are incredibly proud of how responsible they are acting.

In the event of a pupil needing to isolate, they can access the resources from their lessons on Teams.  If any pupil has difficulty accessing this, they can always contact their Guidance Teacher who will be happy to help.

Orkney Islands Council, working with the Scottish Government, are keen to ensure that all pupils have access to a device at home – whether for their homework, revision or if they need to access learning remotely due to isolating.  If your child has limited or no access to their own device, please contact your child’s Guidance Teacher who will liaise with OIC on your behalf about the possibility of receiving a Chromebook.
 

Securing the Best Outcomes – Mr Ewing

SQA have released information for parents about carers about this year’s qualifications: National exams in 2022 – information for parents and carers on next year’s National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses - Qualifications 2022 National, exams, 2022, assessment, information, parents (sqa.org.uk)
 
We are also spreading the news about e-Sgoil Study Support sessions.  Each week there are live webinar lessons designed to support pupils across Scotland with their school subjects.  This week's timetable is below and it tends to be similar each week. The webinars have been getting rave reviews and more information can be found here: https://www.e-sgoil.com/media/1279/dl-6pp-pupils-web.pdf To attend an online event pupils need to register here: https://e-sgoil.com/study-support/ Once registered pupils just pick the subjects they would like to attend. The sessions run after school so it's an excellent way to get extra support.
 
 
Universal Support – Ms Devlin

We would like to remind all parents about the new button on the school website homepage of links to financial support, which we hope may be useful.  Your child’s Guidance Teacher would be happy to chat through some of these links if that would be helpful.
 

Promoting Positive Behaviour and Relationships – Mr Harvey and Mrs Watson

The school had seen an increasing number of pupils arriving to school late.  (As a reminder, pupils need to be in their registration room by 08:35 each morning.)  We are incredibly grateful for your support in addressing this and we are really pleased to report that the number of pupils regularly arriving late now has significantly reduced. From January, we aim to keep parents updated about their child’s punctuality so that we can work together to ensure they have the very best start to each day. 
 
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Finally, our carol service is due to go live at 19:30 on Tuesday. The video will appear on our YouTube channel, and we’ll share the link with you on Tuesday.  We look forward to watching it online with you!

We hope you have a lovely weekend,
 
Miss Claire Meakin