We enter the last week of January next week with 10 working days until the February half term ‘break’. Clearly it will be a break from work but it will continue to be a frustrating and difficult time as we live and work within tight restrictions in order to keep ourselves and others safe.
Hopefully there is some ‘routine’ beginning to come through with the planned weekly interactive sessions as we enter week 3. If you have any questions or problems please continue to link in with your child’s House Head or email us at admin@Leith.edin.sch.uk and we will support and help where we can.
Some points for this week;
First Minister Update
The country remains in a ‘Stay at Home’ lockdown position if at all possible. The specific school picture is being reviewed regularly, the next review is planned for 1st / 2nd Feb to decide if Schools can return mid Feb. We will be ready to adapt to the First minister’s updates as they are announced.
Edinburgh Council SQA Update for Pupils, Parents
Attached is a City of Edinburgh information paper for Pupils and Parents. This information can also be found on the SQA website. We hope you find it useful, we will keep you updated on further developments as they arise. We continue to press SQA for speedy info that can help young adults and their families.
Assembly Monday
To kick off next week’s online learning on Monday morning, Depute Head Teacher, Ms Watson will be delivering an important assembly for all Pupils (and Parents can listen) on how we use Teams and how we can get the most out of our online sessions. We are clearly doing far more of our work online and there will be important points on how young adults should handle this responsibility. Pupils for S1-S6 have had Teams invites sent to their SCHOOL EMAIL ACCOUNT which should be accepted.
Parent and Pupil step by step guide for Teams – Ms Watson, Depute Head Teacher has made a short video which we hope further helps families to navigate Microsoft Teams, the link is here https://clickv.ie/w/Hsjp
Teams Session Attendance
We have been encouraged by our pupils in the way they have tried to embrace and engage online learning from home. It is not school, it is challenging and we all know it is far from what we want; that said we (staff, pupils, families) are all working hard at doing the best we can. From next week, we will support Pupils and Parents by letting you know via email / text if your child was not in a planned Teams session, just to check in and make sure he/she has the support they need.
This will initially be for S4-6 with a plan of extending to S1-3. Pupils have their planned interactive sessions in their Teams calendar and this can help pupil / family planning for the week.
Parent Council
Laura Brown, PC Chair has emailed Parents to keep them informed of our meeting on Thursday 28th Jan at 7pm on Teams. As ever these are positive, supportive meetings where we work together through current matters and plan for the future. A Microsoft Teams link will be set up early next week.
Reports to Parents
We have tried to keep to our reporting timeline to Parents despite the challenges of Covid. Last week, for the first time we were able to send our S2 reports direct to Parents by email, the feedback was very positive on this. The platform / software we use for reporting in schools ‘can only’ be completed in the building, clearly this is presenting challenges for us going forward given the current lockdown, but Ms Watson is working through this with the reporting company to find solutions if possible. We will keep you updated as ever.
Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January 2021 – In normal circumstances, Leith Academy pupils and staff are invited to represent the school at a Holocaust Memorial Day event hosted in Edinburgh. However, as this is not possible this year, we thought we would let you know about two virtual online events.
The UK Holocaust Memorial Day 2021 Ceremony – further info is here https://www.hmd.org.uk/uk-holocaust-memorial-day-2021-ceremony/
The Anne Frank Trust has arranged a virtual lecture by the Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke BEM who was born in Mauthausen concentration camp. Further info is here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-interview-with-holocaust-survivor-eva-clarke-bem-tickets-136400873685 .
Three of our 3rd Year RMPS pupils have kindly agreed to share the emotive and challenging poems about Anne Frank that they wrote as part of the Anne Frank Creative Writing Competition. The poems are attached. Thank you from our Religious Moral Philosophical Studies Team.
COMPETITION FOR PUPILS – Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland (RSE YAS)
To compliment online / home learning, this competition is called “Tomorrow….Reimagining Our World”. Pupils are invited to produce a digital poster or short animation clip to communicate an idea that would improve quality of life in Scotland (and across the world) – within five (quite broad) ‘Grand Challenge’ areas. The deadline for entries is 15th February. Here is a link with further information:
https://www.youngacademyofscotland.org.uk/our-work/smarter/tomorrow-reimagining-our-world/
We hope you have a good weekend from all at Leith Academy.
