Friday 4th June 2021
Dear Parent/Carer
Parent Update – Learning and Teaching from 8 June 2021
Senior Phase (S4-S6) Assessments and Provisional Results
Our Assessment Schedule finished on Friday 4 June. The week beginning 7 June we have arrangements in place for students to sit missed assessments.
We want to take this opportunity to commend our senior students for showing maturity and focus during what has been an extremely challenging period in their school career. We wish to thank parents and carers for the support they have provided. Our teaching staff and support staff worked tirelessly to ensure our assessment period ran smoothly.
Staff are now in the process of marking and moderating assessments. Once the moderation process has been completed staff will start to share assessment results and Provisional Grades with students, either face to face or via Google Classroom. These will be the Provisional Grades we send to the SQA. There is not a set timescale for the sharing to take place; this is dependent on each department’s moderation process. We understand that receiving results will cause different levels of anxiety for our students therefore during the next 3 weeks our Pupil Support Department will provide additional support for any students who are concerned about their Provisional Grades.
On 23 June all students will receive a Provisional Grades Report stating their Provisional Grade for each subject. These Provisional Grades are what students should expect to find on their SQA certificate on 10 August. Students should be assured that SQA will not change the provisional result submitted by the school and that once Provisional Results are submitted the SQA will only check for administrative errors and will resolve these with the school.
The SQA have released information regarding their Appeals Process. The link below will provide further information, we have also attached a PDF version of the SQA Appeals Booklet for Students.
https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/79049.html
SQA Appeals 2021 Student Booklet
In line with Local Authority arrangements we will not start our new timetable until August; new timetables will be issued at the start of next term. Recovery of Learning and Teaching will remain our priority until the end of this term. Please see the arrangements below for specific groups:
Learning and Teaching for Broad General Education students (S1-S3) from 8 June
All S1-S3 classes will not “move up a year” as would be the normal procedure for June. S1-S3 students will continue to work on material for their current year level as part of our recovery and consolidation phase. They will move to the next year group in August.
Learning and Teaching for Senior Phase students (S4-S6) from 8 June
In most subject areas staff will start to introduce new courses. Without a change of timetable we have had to adopt a creative approach. All students will continue to attend their current timetabled classes, even in circumstances where they do not plan to continue with the subject next session.
Some departments are making their own internal arrangements based on the nature of their subject. Other departments will create Google Classrooms for new 2021-2022 senior phase classes and post introductory material/tasks for students who will be taking the subject next session. If a student is continuing to study the subject (for example, from National 5 to Higher) they will receive face-to-face delivery of the Google Classroom introductory material. If a student is still in a class but will not be progressing in the subject next session they should use the time to work independently in the classroom, accessing relevant introductory material for their other subjects via Google Classroom. To that end, all students who currently have a chromebook should ensure they bring this to school. It would be beneficial if students can use their own devices (a mobile phone or similar) to access any online material but we remind parents/carers that any personal device brought to school is at the student’s own risk. We appreciate that this is not ideal but it ensures we continue to provide an engaging learning and teaching environment for the rest of this session, the expectation is that students attend school and all lessons until 25 June. Where a student does not have a suitable device/internet access, we will provide support.
If you have any further queries please email the school office: penicuik_hs@midlothian.gov.uk
Miss H Lyon
Depute Head Teacher (Acting)
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