Kingussie High: 'Not the start we'd hoped for'
In welcoming parents and pupils back this week, Kingussie High's head teacher put it mildly in his email:
"Happy New Year and welcome back to the new school term. It’s not the start to the term that we had all hoped for..."
Ian Adamson pointed out: "We return to online learning but we have been here before and got through it together. I want to emphasise that we are here to support you and your child through this period of online learning."
In the extraordinary circumstances with the Covid pandemic still roaring, the school population has been reminded of the statutory requirement for all pupils to be registered each day during the lockdown, just a in normal days.
"There will be a question posted each day on your child’s google classroom in KHS Junior registration (S1-S3) and KHS Senior Registration (S4-S6). It is important that pupils answer the question by 11am as we will send an attendance text message to parents/carers to alert you if your child does not register. The question will also help us gauge the wellbeing of your child and target support if required."
The head continued: "We have learned a lot from our last lockdown and one of the most important aspects was that it is unrealistic to expect pupils to follow their school timetable from home. Starting at 8.50am and working through to 3.55pm is too much for most young people. Timetables have been emailed to you and your child so please check your email inbox."
Feedback, he said, has been that the face to face tutorials using Google Meet were very useful.
"We have built these in this year. This is something that staff have volunteered to do and the teaching unions are clear that Head Teachers cannot insist that this happens. As parent/carers I ask that you do everything you can to engage your child with the timetable we have provided as we want to support the learning and progress of every child during this time.
"Teachers ask that pupils give tasks/activities their best effort and this allows us to give feedback and support to individuals.
Regarding the SQA situation, Mr Adamson understood that there was anxiety for some over the qualifications: "I am still waiting for an update from SQA as to how things will progress this year and I will keep you updated as things develop.
"At the moment we are planning to run the assessment window when the school reopens. If we are back to school on February 1 as currently planned, we will start the assessment period on the week beginning February 5. We will confirm these dates as soon as we have confirmation of Kingussie High School School reopening. In the meantime we would encourage pupils to engage with online learning to ensure they are ready for these assessments as content will still be covered in many subjects online."