Dear Parent
Despite the great effort of everyone here at school and all of you at home, the progress being made in suppressing the COVID-19 virus is moving more slowly than we would all like. With an increase in the restrictions on our lives, we were reminded this week that we must continue to be vigilant and to do everything we can to contain the spread of this illness.
Please follow the link below for the City of Edinburgh Council’s COVID-19 FAQs for Parents and Carers. This contains useful information including advice about what to do if your child or someone they live with develops symptoms.
Face Covering
Thank you for your support in ensuring that students arrive each day with face coverings. The wearing of face coverings protects the wearer and protects those who they come into contact with. This is becoming an expected norm for movement around the school and has been well supported by the vast majority of students. However, a small number are forgetting to bring a face covering and we will therefore send out periodic, text reminders. We are keen to avoid issuing too many disposable masks, as this will have a lasting impact on the environment.
iPads
Over the last 3 weeks we have issued over 140 school iPads to students in S2 and S3 and we will issue another 150 on Monday. We are really proud of being able to support learning with 1-to-1 devices and recognise the importance of giving all young people the opportunity to develop their digital and technological skills. We also believe that this puts us in a strong position to support remote and blended learning, should any contingency arrangements be required as things progress over the next few months. If your child has a school iPad, please remind them that these are not to be used for social media. We have had a few instances where iPads have been locked and therefore unable to be used during learning. Moving forward, it will be vital that students bring their iPads charged and ready for use and that they become familiar with the various applications to support learning.
Pupil Progress Reports by Email
This week, we worked with a group of parents from the Parent Council to trial a system of emailing tracking reports home. This worked very successfully and we now plan to send the first reports of the year to S3 on Wednesday 16th September. A text will be sent, on the day, to remind parents to expect this reports by email.
Equalities
We have recently launched a new equalities group here at Forrester and one of the first tasks on our plan is to review our Equality, Diversity and Anti-bullying Policy. We would like to consult with parents to gauge their views on this and to gather any suggestion they might have. If you are interested in being part of a focus group or wish to discuss this further with Mrs Forbes, our Equalities Lead, please complete the survey linked below.
The survey will close on Monday 21st September.
Colder weather
It will become increasingly important for students to bring a jacket to school, as we move into Winter and the weather gets (even) colder. Until Government Guidelines permit, we will need to continue to spend break and lunchtime outside (where possible). We do have wet weather contingency but this should only be used in extreme circumstance and must not be the norm at the moment.
Rotation week 1
Finally, next week we are back to rotation week 2 – that means periods 2, 4, 6 on student timetables. Enjoy your weekend.
Thanks and best wishes (stay safe!)
Stephen Rafferty
Head Teacher