Dear students and parents,
Please have a read at our highlights from this week:
Setting Work within the Virtual Learning Timetables
We have received some feedback from parents regarding the formatting of documents we attach for students to complete work. This has been difficult because some students and parents prefer documents in PDF format and some in Word, for example. Our staff will work to ensure they issue work in the best format they can, based on what is most appropriate for the task. Please remember, you can always communicate any issues with us through these online forums but also by emailing our admin team: admin@forrester.edin.sch.uk
We are exploring whether it is better to exclusively use Microsoft Teams for senior students to complete work, and only use Show My Homework to communicate the work so that parents can see what has been requested. This might be a good way of cutting down on some confusion for families with regards to Show My Homework notifications. More to follow on that….
Continuing Delivery of Resource Packs
This week we have yet again made various deliveries of essential resources to families in our school community. My thanks go to the Pupil Equity Team and assistants for their sterling efforts in making sure our community gets what it needs from us. Amazon have also delivered 49 breakfast parcels via our partners, Magic Breakfast, and they have said households with more than one child can request more than one pack per family so this is great news! My thanks also go to the Broomhouse One Stop Shop who continue to help us get food parcels from Edinburgh Council to families in need.
Cash for Kids Grant
On Wednesday past, the school was successful in gaining a Cash for Kids grant for over £1300 to help our most vulnerable families. This support will temporarily ease some of the financial difficulties our community is currently facing. More details to follow on this from our Pupil Equity Team.
Surveys
I mentioned last week that we plan to survey students, parents and staff to get an overview of how everyone is managing at this time. The results of these will inform our next steps in terms of providing particular supports on offer. The surveys are now almost complete and will make their way to you early next week.
Mental Health Awareness Week
We have compiled a video from staff to students on what is Mental Health Awareness Week. You can see the video on Twitter but also here. Special thanks goes to Miss Christie, Curriculum Leader of PE, for putting this together.
Transition Work
We have a lot of work going on behind the scenes to support the transition of primary 7 students into our S1 at Forrester. Our S6 students have been posting support letters for P7 pupils on our Twitter feed. We have various documents and videos ready to go to our primary schools from next week and this should really help pupils in preparing for the exciting move to a new school setting.
News on School Recovery Plans
You may well have heard the news from the First Minister yesterday in terms of plans afoot to get students back to school. Please be assured that as soon as we have more details of what this looks like, we will be in touch with all parents. We will of course work with the Parent Council when the time comes, to establish support in creating a Blended Learning model.
As always, I hope everyone is managing to stay safe and healthy and I wish you all a pleasant weekend.
Kind regards
Martin Ennis
Acting Head Teacher