Sixth Form

Latest News - 25th June 2020

URGENT: Microsoft Teams to be used from Monday 29^th June @ 9am for Year 10 and 12 remote learning

Dear Parent / Carer,

During this extended period of school closure, we are delighted to announce that we are able to further support our students working away from school using Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is a digital hub that will mean all remote learning will be in one place – and this can be on your phone, tablet or laptop. Please see over for more details of how to get on to MS Teams.

We have decided to start using this with Year 10 and Year 12 for two reasons:

1. Both of these year groups currently have a large proportion of students in school. That helps us show the students how to get on to Teams.

2. Both of these year groups will be completing external exams during 2020-21. We will be using Teams to support intervention and revision next year.

We also plan to use Teams with other year groups for homework, and in the event of a further outbreak of Covid -19.

 

When will we start using Teams?

From Monday 29^th June, at 9am, Teams will be populated with work from every Year 10 and Year 12 teacher.

Students will be expected to complete assignments for each of their subjects by the end of the school day on Friday, at 3pm. 

Instructions on what to do will be provided within each teacher’s instructions.

Each Year 10 and Year 12 teacher will then set other assignments in each of the remaining two weeks of term in the same way.

Teams will allow us to centrally track and monitor completion of assignments so that we can support student progress.

Please help us by supporting your son or daughter in the remaining weeks. We understand that summer is approaching, but we need to prepare for next year and learn how to support Year 11 and Year 13 using Teams.

 

Microsoft Teams @BSCA

What is it?

Teams is a digital hub that will mean all remote learning will be in one place.

You can use Teams to access presentations, worksheets, internet based learning, intervention and home learning - all through your phone or tablet – you don’t need a laptop or desktop PC, although you can use a laptop too.

In the future, Teams will also allow you to take part in remote lessons and revision classes and will allow you to: answer questions, ask questions if you are stuck, and allows a teacher to give you feedback to help you improve.

Teams is free for students at BSCA - your child’s Teams account has been set up automatically.

 

All your child needs to do is this – from a phone, tablet or laptop:

Sign in to Teams

1. Open login.microsoftonline.com and sign in with your school email and password.

2. From Office 365, click on the Teams app to open right in your browser. 

3. Select Teams   in to see which class teams you’re in.

If your child is using a phone/tablet, they can download the Microsoft Teams app

 

Installing the Teams App on iOS or Android

1. Open the App store or Google Play store and download

2. Sign in by using your school email address and password in order to gain access to school work.

3. You will be prompted to receive Notifications and to allow "Teams" to Access the Microphone.

    

Latest news - 10th June 2020 - Arrangements for return of Year 12 students on Monday 15th June.

 

General information and notes on arrival at the school building

All lessons will take place in the conference room.

Students are invited into school for 3 hours – from 9am to 12 noon.

Students are welcome on site from 8.45 am and must enter through the sixth form entrance on L5.

Students will be met at the sixth form door by Mrs Reynolds/Mrs Barlow between 8.45 and 9am.

Mrs Reynolds/Mrs Barlow will wait at the sixth form entrance on L5 to ensure social distancing measures are adhered to as the students join the queue. Students will walk down the L5 corridor through open doors and into the conference room, where the teacher for the day will be waiting to welcome and seat them. All doors will be propped open.

Late students will not be admitted.

Staff on duty each day will include of the subject teacher/supervisor and either Mrs Reynolds, the head of sixth or Mrs Barlow sixth form ambassador. Any student concerns on the day should be reported to these supervising staff, who will be based in the office next to the conference room.

Any student who breaks the 2 metre rule or fails to follow teacher instructions, will be sent home and not invited back in until next academic year.

Before entering the conference room

All students and staff member must use the hand gel at the front of the room. Staff member to ensure that the windows are open and the door is propped open. Students must not touch windows and doors.

In the conference room

All lessons will take place in the conference and desks will be set out.

Students will be directed to a desk by staff as they enter the room. Students must remain in this seat for the entire session.

Each desk will have computer access for use throughout the session

From the side of the room students will be asked by the teacher to collect their folders and books for the day. As much as is possible, all work completed should be done on the computer. Feedback on completed work will be emailed by the teacher. Students cannot take anything physical objects home with them and will be encouraged to email themselves the work completed on that day.

At the end of the session, SR or RB will wipe down all the IT equipment with antibacterial wipes.

Break time

Bottled water will be in the room for the students and staff to take- 1 each. Students can bring in their own snacks from home but they must take all packaging home with them. No sharing of snacks and drinks can take place.

Students will have a two ten minute breaks to be taken in the conference room. Timing of breaks is at the discretion of the class teacher. Students can stand up and stretch legs but movement in the room is to be kept to a minimum. Only one student at a time can leave the room to use the toilet.  Students and staff member will sanitise their hands on entering the room after toilet breaks. 

 

Students must not leave the classroom without permission during the break time. Any student leaving the classroom or school site to engage in smoking or visit the local shop, will be sent home.

 

Structure of the teaching

Student will be taught new material during the subject session.

Students will be set up for distanced learning during these sessions and be given tasks to complete at home. 

Students will have a 1 to 1 with each teacher on at least one occasion over the next 6 weeks. This is to reviews lockdown studies and progress through the course. Social distancing of 2 meters should be observed during these encounters. The teacher will be set up at a table and the student will bring their own chair over to sit on.

Leaving the building

At 12 noon

Students will be escorted to the level 5 exit by the session teacher. Either Mrs Reynolds or Mrs Barlow will be at the top of the stairs on L5 to ensure social distancing is adhered to as the students exit. Students must leave the site immediately. Students must not mix with any other year groups.

 

If you have any questions about these plans, please email me directly and I will get back to you.

 

Many thanks

Samantha Reynolds

Assistant Headteacher
Email : sreynolds@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
Web : www.boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
Tel : 01204-332533

 

Latest news - 5th June 2020 - Return for Year 12's

Information has been emailed/text home about the arrangements for returning to school for Year 12's - click here to read this information and to complete the compulsory questionnaire for your child to return to school.

https://forms.gle/zZx5Hy8F7DRgYwFD9

 

Latest news - 1st June - Year 10 and 12 Students Returning to School 15th June

Dear Parents/Carers of Year 10  and 12 Students,

I hope this letter finds you and your family well.

I need to update you on plans to reopen the schools for years 10 and 12.

Many thanks to those parents that have responded to our previous requests for information about your intentions to send your children back into school. As you may know the Government changed their guidance following an announcement from the Prime Minister on Sunday 24th May and followed that up with more written guidance to schools on Bank Holiday Monday.

We now need to plan to open from Monday June 15th not June 8th as previously planned. Below is an extract from the guidance:

• From 15 June, secondary schools are able to offer face-to-face support for a quarter of the year 10 and 12 cohort at any one time.
• Provide some face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of year 10 and year 12 students, with a clear expectation that remote education will continue to be the predominant form of education delivery for these year groups and that this should be of high quality.
• Continue to use best endeavours to support all other students remaining at home, making use of the available remote education support and ensuring a high quality offer

This means we have to change our original plans.

We will be contacting all year 10 and 12 families who did not respond to our original contact to outline our new plans by phone.

The broad outline is to keep  supporting our students through remote learning with face to face learning in groups of no more than 10 students for two mornings a week. The focus will be Maths, English and Science and then support for the remote learning of options subjects.

Please expect a call if you previously did not respond to our first contact. If you have changed your mind from the original contact please let us know as soon as possible by emailing swilliams@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk .

Many thanks

Mrs Lucas

Headteacher

 

Latest news - 21st May 2020 - Year 12 - Return to School Arrangements

Dear Parents of Year 12,

The leadership team at BSCA have been planning for the return of Year 12 after half term from 8th June.

We have included a survey for you to complete by 9am Monday 25th May to indicate whether you are planning for your Year 12 child to return for the final few weeks of this academic year - https://forms.gle/PCoiUYcqjPaFdq3CA .

To inform your decision making on the return to school, I would like to share with you my thoughts on how the school experience will be different during covid19 and the need for social distancing.

For Year 12, the plan is to have students in for each of their subjects 3 times for a period of 3 hours in one day over the half term. The majority of Year 12 students study 3 subjects and a resit, so this means they would be in school 4 times over a period of two weeks.

For example.

Monday – study at home

Tuesday – 9am to 12noon SUBJECT 1

Wednesday – study at home

Thursday – 9am to 12noon SUBJECT 2

Friday – study at home

Monday – study at home

Tuesday – study at home

Wednesday – study at home

Thursday – 9am to 12noon SUBJECT 3

Friday – 9am to 12 noon SUBJECT 4

The lesson would be in a 'bubble' with one teacher and with the same students in the same room. It would start at 9am and end at 12 noon. Students will be taught new material and also have the opportunity for a socially distanced 1 to 1 time with their teacher to review any work done through lockdown.

During this 3 hour period, students would take a break in the room and would need to take snacks with them - no food and drinks will be available on site.

Government guidance has recently changed, and we would like to remind you not to send your child into school if:

https://bit.ly/2XjmVtE

• your child, or anyone in the same household, shows signs of any of the main symptoms
• your child, or anyone in the same household, is clinically extremely vulnerable.

Please remember your MUST complete this short survey by 9am Monday 25th May to let us know if your child will be attending https://forms.gle/PCoiUYcqjPaFdq3CA. Your child will not be able to just turn up on the day if we aren't already aware that they are attending.

We will be in touch with the details of which subject will run on which day when we have the full information on student and teacher attendance.

If you have any questions, please email contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk or ring on 01204 332533.

Take care, and keep safe.

Kind Regards,

Rachael Lucas

Headteacher

 

 

Process of Awarding Summer 2020 Grades Letter - sent 8th April 2020

General advice

• Stick to a school routine – use your weekly timetable to structure which subjects to study when
• Get up, get ready and have a healthy breakfast ready to start your work at 8.30am.
• Use the start of the day to check and set your daily work .
• Period 1- 5 - use your daily timetable to complete work for that subject – 8.45am – 3pm.
• Make sure you take your break times – 10.45 – 11am and 1 - 1.30pm.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Watch what you eat.
• Weather permitting get some fresh air in your garden or yard.
• Let your parents/carers know what you have been doing and ask them for support if you need it.
• Read for at least 30 minutes per day.

Student emails

• Students will be emailed work directly from teachers each week and need to be checked daily
• Students access their emails here System Access
• To log in to email students will need their username (not email) and password.
• Their email address is their ‘student username’@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk - this will be needed to log into Office 365.
• If they need their password or to reset it, please email contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk

 

Office 365

You may not have access at home to Microsoft Office which helps you access any documents that we have uploaded onto our website, or if you are emailed any. As a school we provide Office 365 to all our students. You can access this package either from our website - System Access and ‘Install Office’ from the main screen (top right hand corner).

 

Any problems with this please email contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk

 

 

Twitter – PE

Our Twitter account has been taken over by Mr Lowe in the PE department. Check out his updated here - twitter.com/official_BSCA  

 

Heads of Department

If you wish to contact your subject teacher, you can by emailing their Head of Department:

• English – Miss Williams – nwilliams@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• Maths – Miss Murphy - rmurphy@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• Science – Mr Wride - dwride@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• History and RE – Miss Robinson - rrobinson@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• Geography – Mr Thomas - dthomas@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• Creative (Music, Drama and Languages) – Miss Crowther - ncrowther@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• Technology (IT, Business Studies, Construction, Product Design, Computer Science, Engineering, Textiles and Food Technology) – Mr Qadir - kqadir@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
• Sport and Vocational Learning (Art, PE, Sports Studies, Health and Social Care, Hair and Beauty) – Miss Rushton - sjrushton@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk

 

Year Leaders

If you wish to contact your Year Leader, you can by email them:

• Miss Reynolds – sreynolds@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk

 

Struggling?

We are extremely lucky here at Bolton St Catherine’s Academy that we have a trained CAMHS worker who supports us within school, during this time if you are worried or feeling it is getting too much our CAMHS worker Vicky is here to offer some advice and support. In order to do this please email our DSL at atobin@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk . Miss Tobin will then pass this over to Vicky and Vicky will contact you directly. Stay safe & Look after each other during this unpredictable time.

 

Text your School Nurse

During these unsettling times, as a parent of child aged between 5/19 years old you may be worried about your child’s health and wellbeing and be unsure about how to get the help you need.

Our school nurses are still here to help - you can text them for confidential advice and support on a wide range of issues.

Parent/carers of child(ren) aged 5-19 can send a text to:

07507331751

We can help with all kinds of things like:

• Behaviour
• Continence
• Emotional health
• Self-harm
• Bullying
• Minor accidents and illnesses

Your ChatHealth messaging service is run by The Children’s Integrated Health and Wellbeing Team, Bolton Foundation Trust and is available Monday to Friday 8am until 8pm

We aim to reply to you within one working day and you should get an immediate bounce-back to confirm we received your text. Texts will not be seen outside of normal working hours. If you need help before you hear back from us, contact you GP, NHS 111 or dial 999 if it is an emergency.