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As you know, Thursday 6th May is an In-Service Day and the school is closed to all pupils. In addition the Scottish Government has allocated two additional In-Service Days, which in Highland will be:

• Monday 7th June (All Schools)
• Tuesday 8th June (Secondary Schools ONLY)

The letter below clarifies the rationale and arrangements for these additional In-Service Days.

At the end of last week, two positive cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in school. Parents of those pupils who have been identified as close contacts have been informed and the pupils concerned are isolating for a period of 10 days.

Please see the the letter below from NHS Highland for more details.

Staff in school have produced a guide to revision and study skills that may prove useful in helping students prepare for future assessments. The guide below features advice about:

• Organisation and Resources
• Routine and Scheduling
• Learning Styles
• Revision Techniques
• Revision Games
• Revision Resources

The Scottish Government has confirmed that all pupils will return to school after the Easter Break, from Monday 19th April. Please see the letter below from Dr Vance with details about what this means for pupils.

Do you know a young person interested in becoming a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliamemt for Highland?

Are you a young person interested in becoming a MSYP

The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) represents Scotland’s young people. SYP has democratically elected members, aged 14-25 who listen to and recognise the issues that are most important to young people, ensuring that their voices are heard by decision makers. SYP encourage all of Scotland’s young people to play their part in achieving their vision and provide a national platform for their participation in democracy.

In Highland, there is the opportunity for 6 young people who are 14-25 years old to stand as MSYPs:

• 2 in Inverness and Nairn
• 2 in Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch
• 2 in Caitlhness, Sutherland and Ross

Nominations officially open TODAY, 1st April 2021. Candidate Expressions of Interest must be received by 30th June 2021.

Please see the link below for more information.

Anyone aged 16 or over is able to vote in the Scottish Parliament Elections on 6th May 2021. You must register before you can vote and the deadline for this is 19th April. This can be done online. You must also be either a British citizen, an Irish citizen or a citizen of another country living in Scotland who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need permission. Please see the slides on the link below or watch the short video explaining how elections to the Scottish Parliament work.

Like all Scottish secondary schools, we are using the alternative certification model to deliver results for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher courses this session. Our teachers will use assessments that pupils have taken part in over the course of the year as evidence to decide the grades that our pupils should be awarded. Unlike last session, all grades will be awarded based on a young person’s demonstrated attainment. It was always our intention to carry out further assessments towards the end of the year and give our pupils the opportunity to be assessed when they had completed their learning. Please see the link below for details of our plans for carrying out these assessments and a calendar of when they will take place.

Dr. Vance invited questions from parents / carers and pupils about the re-opening on 15th March. Please see the link below for answers to the questions we have received.

From Monday 15 March, pupils in S4 to S6 who are taking national qualifications will begin their return to school and will have priority for face-to-face lessons. Learning and teaching, whether in school or through remote learning, will continue to enable both teachers and pupils to review and consolidate all learning, before moving on to focus on completing assessment evidence.

The number of assessments which pupils will undertake for qualifications purposes may vary across their subjects. This is due to the nature of individual subjects and how they are taught. Pupils should talk to their teachers if they have any questions about what work will count towards assessment evidence.

With the SQA exams being cancelled this year, teachers will use their professional judgement to decide results at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher based on the marked evidence from pupils’ assessments. These will remain provisional results until all quality assurance checks have been carried out.

To ensure provisional results are fair and credible across the whole of Scotland, quality assurance processes will be applied in two phases:

• In the first instance quality assurance will be carried out by the school, with support from the local authority. This includes discussing and agreeing the marking of pupils’ work across all classes and local schools.

• Alongside this SQA will also carry out quality assurance as support for teachers. For example, reviewing their assessment and marking standards. This is to ensure that when teachers conduct assessments, that national standards are applied reliably and consistently across Scotland.

Schools will submit provisional results to SQA by 25 June.

SQA will not adjust provisional results. It will check for administrative errors that might have happened when schools were sending the quality assured results to SQA. When that check is completed, provisional results will become final.

Pupils will receive their results by post on Tuesday 10 August 2021. They will also receive their results by text and/or email if they decided to sign up for this service at www.mysqa.org.uk.

SQA has created an information booklet outlining ‘What you need to know for 2021 – National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher’ qualifications. This includes further details on how results will be arrived at and about the quality assurance process for this year.

The booklet is available to download from the SQA website and will be posted directly to your child w/c 15 March.

You can stay up to date on the 2021 National Qualifications by visiting sqa.org.uk/NQ2021.