We are looking forward to welcoming some of you back from Monday to make progress in a range of your certificate courses. If this applies to you, details of which day you are to visit will have been posted in your Google Classroom.
I am very aware of the importance of this moment and how much it matters that we do it right. If we do so, and the R rate and infection numbers continue to fall, more pupils will soon be spending more time in school. If we don’t and infection rates rise, the current arrangements will last longer. Forgive the tone of what follows but I need to be absolutely certain that we all understand that this is not like August when pupils returned with no expectation of social distancing and initially no face masks. Please therefore read carefully the list of bullet points and be ready to work to these standards from the moment you leave your house.
- When you arrive please make your way to the subject area immediately.
- Unless you have a medical exemption you are expected to wear a face-covering at all times unless eating.
- You are expected to maintain social distancing of 2 metres at all times and classrooms; the social area and the one way system are all designed to support this.
- We will organise two lunch-time sittings and different toilets for different subjects to maintain distancing. Your teacher will confirm the arrangements to you.
- The invitation is for a whole day to give you and the teachers an opportunity to make real progress. You will of course get break and lunch but I am urging you to remain in the school grounds at lunch.
- The canteen have devised an order form which you can collect from in front of the tuck shop in the morning and see the daily menu there. Someone will come to classrooms about 9.30 to collect the forms.
- We know that a few of you may have been invited in for more than one subject on a particular day. We are sorry that this happened but unfortunately clashes such as these are unavoidable with the limited time that we have at this stage and the range of courses that we are trying to support- each with different pressures. If this affects you, you must attend initially to the subject you normally have in that column (or to put it another way, go to each subject once). In later weeks you may have the opportunity to attend the other subject and additional sessions can be scheduled after Easter if required. SQA have pushed the date for submission of provisional grades back again so we still have months to cover all that we need and teachers will be mindful if pupils need extra time after this phase is over.
When you are in if you have suggestions about how we can make the experience safer or better then please share them with your teacher who will pass them on to me. Senior Management will review what went well/ could be improved.
Dr J Vance