STAKEHOLDER UPDATE 1 MAY 2020
We enter May and I hope the week has been to some degree productive on various fronts. Learning will play its part from a school point of view but I hope there has been productivity in other ways within your family; doing things together, talking together more and exercising / activity together are simple things but have a positive impact on us all. We continue to receive updates at National level and are trying to put the information into a context suitable for us in our specific setting at Leith Academy.
Some key points below;
Scottish Qualifications Authority – SQA
The Govt and SQA have issued their advice which schools and colleges must follow. As a result our staff teams are working together to establish outcomes for our S4,5,6 who would ordinarily be completing assessments internally (in Leith Academy) or sitting national exams. This info takes many weeks to process and is then sent to SQA where they apply national statistics before certificating youngsters early August.
Check their website for latest updates www.sqa.org.uk . Below is an extract for all S4,5,6 from their latest news;
Encourage your learners to get ‘results ready’ with MySQA
The easiest way for your learners to receive their National Qualifications results this summer is via our MySQA service. We are promoting MySQA across our own social channels, but we know that not all learners will see or engage with our messages. Any help you can offer by encouraging them to sign-up – either by sharing our messages through your own channels, or by simply directing learners towards MySQA – is greatly appreciated.
Learners must sign up at www.mysqa.org.uk before 5 pm on Tuesday 14 July 2020. To register, all they need is their Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) and a valid email address. They can then choose to receive their results by text and/or email.
For learners already registered for MySQA, we’re asking them to check their details are correct and update their preferences.
Learning from Home
We are continuing to develop our learning options for pupils to access at home from S1-S6. This largely happens through our website https://leithacademy.uk/pupils/pupil-online-resources/ . There are also platforms such as One Note and Microsoft Teams – your son / daughter will have log in details to access this work (more through the later year groups).
Our work is ongoing as we look to move into ‘new learning’ over the coming weeks and I will keep you informed when we are ready to make this move across the whole school.
There are certain platforms we may all be using through our social time at home, such as Zoom. Regrettably not every platform is authorised to be used by Schools as they must meet certain criteria through GDPR which is governed by the Council. Edinburgh Council is working continuously to keep as many appropriate platforms open as possible for Teachers and Pupils to use in a creative and impactful way. As updates arrive we will keep you informed.
There are many other learning opportunities out there which I’m sure you have seen, Young Scot for example sent this to us this week…
Hello Leith Academy
We are encouraging schools, parents, guardians and community learning hubs to use our digital information and resources to support learner activities. The information covers a range of topics that can facilitate learning across the curriculum.
To enhance this learning, we have created online resources and activities linked to the Experiences and Outcomes of the Curriculum for Excellence.
You can visit our learning resource here.
P7 into S1
Our transition Team are in close contact with our Primary Head Teachers and P7 colleagues to plan any information we can to help prepare. We will keep Schools updated as things develop. Ordinarily we would share our amended prospectus for 20/21 with Parents as there is useful information contained, our 19/20 version is available on our website here https://leithacademy.uk/parents/prospectus/ and this hopefully begins to provide some information.
We are working on other aspects of helping our young new Leithers familiarise themselves with the move and we will keep you updated as these emerge.
Next week – dates
Next week is (in ordinary times) a 3-day week for pupils in Edinburgh. Monday is an In-Service day and Friday is a ‘holiday’. Please bear this in mind as staff teams will take opportunities to come ‘off screen / device’ to plan and evaluate. The following week commencing 11th May is a usual Mon-Fri week.
As ever, have as nice a weekend as is possible in the situation and please continue to follow the guidance of staying at home as we all hope for light at the end of a tunnel.
M. Irving
Head Teacher
