Secondary Communications

We are BSCA Magazine

December 2020 Edition - Issue 1 

 

Newsletters

Parent Weekly Newsletter - 22nd January 2021

Parent Weekly Newsletter - 15th January 2021

Parent Weekly Newsletter - 8th January 2021

 

Newsletter - End of term - December 2020

 

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Secondary Alerts

 

Latest news - Wellbeing Day for Secondary on Friday 5th February 2021

We are putting in place, as part of Children's Mental Health Week, a Wellbeing Day for all secondary students on Friday 5th February. Please read below for arrangements for students who or either in school, or working from home: 

 

Arrangements for KEYWORKER students IN SCHOOL - Secondary only 

On Friday 5th February we will be having a Wellbeing Day for all students to coincide with Children's Mental Health Week – for those students learning remotely and those learning in school.

Therefore, there will be no regular online lessons, instead, the students in school will undertake some PE, some cooking downstairs in the food tech department and hopefully we will get them outside to plant some spring bulbs in the school garden. We will provide all the ingredients for the cooking lesson.

Their start time on Friday 5th February will be the same at 8.30am, but they will need to come to school in their PE kits. We will be having an early finish and sending them home at 1pm after lunchtime via the Newby Road entrance.

YEAR 11 SHOULD STAY AT HOME for our Wellbeing Day.

If you have any questions about this please do not hesitate to contact my PA, Ms Cass, my at school, 01204 332533, and I will give you a call.

We think it will be a great day, away from relentless screentime that they have been having for the last four weeks. It will give them some time in the fresh air, some exercise and hopefully a tasty treat to bring home with them.

Many thanks

Mrs Lucas

 

Arrangements for students who are HOME LEARNING - Secondary only

On Friday 5th February school will be holding a Wellbeing Day as part of Children's Mental Health Week for staff, parents and students. We realise that the relentless screen time that has to happen when you are teaching and learning remotely is exhausting , both for the students and for the staff. I also think that, for you, the parents, there are relentless pressures around supporting home learning as well, so, we are also offering you a break!

We are not going to be running any live lessons on Friday 5th February or setting any assignments on that day - we are insisting that the students have a day away from screens and do some other activities that intrinsically, will help with their own wellbeing and provide a different type of learning opportunity.

Here are some suggestions -

• Go for a nature walk with your family
• Go outside in the garden
• Play a board game or game of cards
• Undertake some craft activities together
• Have a conversation with each other !!
• Have a lie in
• Do some cooking together - make some tasty treats
• Read a book
• Complete a jigsaw or build some Lego
• Write a card for a neighbour or relative

We will be putting some more suggestions and activities on the weekly Parental Newsletter which goes out every Friday that we hope you might enjoy.

If you have an questions or wish to speak with anyone about this, please do not hesitate to contact me at school via my PA Ms Cass, on 01204 332533.

Many thanks,

Mrs Lucas

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Secondary Messages

 

Secondary Uniform Reminder from Mrs Lucas - 10th December 2020

Good Morning

A reminder please this about uniform:

• PE kit to be warn only on days where there is a PE lesson or an afterschool PE club. A check will be made at the gate and those students choosing to wear PE who do not have PE or a club will be asked to go and change.
• School hoodies to be worn under a blazer - not instead of a blazer. The school blazer is compulsory- the school PE hoodie is optional whilst we are in a COVID situation.
• Ties are also compulsory and need to be worn at all time.
• Those students wearing trainers on a non PE day can borrow some replacement school shoes as we have done previously.
• Only school hoodies are allowed on site. Other hoodies will be confiscated and returned at the end of the day.

I just wanted to clarify our expectations as students have been telling me that their parents have said it is ok if they do not follow the school uniform rules, so I just wanted to clarify the rules for parents on some of the most common issues we deal with on a daily basis.

Many thanks to all those parents and carers who consistently help us to help the students to get it right. It is really appreciated.

Mrs Lucas

 

School hoodies can be ordered from:

Whittakers Schoolwear - Whittakers Schoolwear website

Smart Clothing Schoolwear - Smart Schoolwear website

 

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Secondary Letters 

 

Failure to wear a face mask letter – action required

 

Year 7 Enrichment Programme Letter - starts 24th September 2020

 

Year 11 Model for Supporting Year 11 Letter

 

The school uniform is compulsory and we would like to clarify our expectations and tighten up on them:

• Uniform
• Work Ready – basic equipment
• Punctuality

 

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Whole Academy Alerts

 

The governments free school meal voucher scheme for this lockdown is being delivered by Edenred from 24th January 2021. Edenred will email you the instructions of how to access your voucher(s) each week. Here is a quick guide and frequently asked questions to help you with any issues:

Quick guide: https://www.edenred.co.uk/Documents/DfE/DfE_FSM-voucher-scheme_Parent-Carer-Userguide.pdf

Detailed FAQs: https://www.edenred.co.uk/Documents/DfE/DfE_FreeSchoolMeals_ParentCarerFAQs.pdf

If you were expecting vouchers and have not received the initial email to access your vouchers from Edenred, please first check your spam folder and the Edenred guide.

The only involvement BSCA have in this process is registering who is entitled to free school meals and the email address registered with BSCA that the vouchers will be sent to. Therefore, please only contact BSCA if your email needs updating or you have received no contact from Edenred, you can do this by emailing us at contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk . Otherwise you will need to contact Edenred directly.

 

Children's Mental Health Week 1st-7th February 2021

 

Student Time2TalkTEAMS Meeting

2.30pm-3.00pm

Wednesday 3rd February 2021

Students are invited to join a team of staff to discuss and share how we can combat poor emotional health during our second lockdown. We would love you to share what you are doing to stay POSTIVE and would love to ask you what YOU think we should do to support our students emotional well-being in these coming months.

Each Year group will receive a TEAMS invite. If you know of anyone in our Secondary School who would benefit from a little Time2Talk please encourage them to be there by inviting them to join with you.

 

Parent Time2TalkTEAMS Meeting

2.00pm-2.30pm

Thursday 4th February 2021

Parents and carers are invited to join a staff and parent team to discuss and share what is and isn't working for us at home. We would love to share this time with you to sign post local support and to give you a space to ask questions and to encourage each other that we are all in this together. Parent engagement is really important to us and we would love to share some of your advice through our website.

If you would like to join please email COVIDsupport@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk

 

Bolton Council Letter to Parents re School Places for Children of Critical Workers - 14th January 2021

Bolton Council Letter to Parents re School Places for Children of Critical Workers - 14th January 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

All schools in Bolton are providing education to all students, with many being taught remotely while the buildings are open for many vulnerable children and children of critical workers.

Schools are receiving a large number of requests for their child to be taught within the school premises from parents of critical workers. Schools have been overwhelmed with the extremely high demand for places – putting greater pressure on schools in delivering a remote offer, and in ensuring they can adequately staff schools, when staff have to self-isolate or are absent for other reasons. Schools will, however, continue to provide high quality remote learning and will ensure the pastoral needs of children and young people are met as best they can. And we thank you for your support and understanding as this is a challenging time for all.

Schools are following national guidance and making places available wherever possible.

For your child to be considered for a place, you will need to provide evidence from your employer that you are a critical worker. The government guidance, can be found here.

Depending on their individual risk assessments and staffing capacity, schools may need to limit the number of available places to limit transmission and ensure the safety of their children and staff.  

All schools will be offering online learning for children who don’t attend for face-to-face teaching.

This week we have already seen a number of positive tests for staff and children in schools resulting in further children and staff isolating.

Whilst we fully understand the pressures you are under; we would strongly request you to only request places where they are absolutely necessary. We know and understand that as parents and carers you are doing everything you can to support your children and their schools and we acknowledge that it is very challenging for families in the current lock-down, especially juggling your own workloads, whilst having children at home during the day.

 

Yours Sincerely

Bernie Brown                                                           

Director of Children’s Services                              

Helen Lowey

Director of Public Health

 

Latest news - New arrangements, as of 18th January, for free school meals from Monday 25th January 2021

For all Parents Primary / Secondary of Free School Meals children

Dear Parents,

I need to let you know that as the Government is encouraging schools to use Edenred to supply the Free School Meal Vouchers, the Trust have asked that we also use this company rather than Wonde who we wrote to you about last week. My apologies for the possible confusion about this.
Please look out for your vouchers that hopefully should appear with you the week beginning 25th January. I do have to say however, that having previously used this voucher scheme in lockdown one, it was not the speediest of systems so we cannot guarantee your vouchers will arrive on the 25th January, only the week of the 25th January. Please also check your junk folders. The email is from the Edenred not the school.

If you have any concerns about any of this please do contact David Rostron at school on 01204 332533 or via our School Gateway app.

Many thanks
Rachael Lucas

 

Latest news - broadband and mobile data issues - possible increase of mobile data allowances, free of charge - 6th January 2021

 

Good Afternoon Everyone,

As many of you are currently home-schooling and the demands on broadband and mobile data is increased, the government have announced that they have agreement from the mobile phone networks to support parents and students in increasing their mobile data allowances free of charge.

Please click on the link to see if you are eligible. I would urge to do this quickly as I am lead to believe that it may be a first come first service basis- so please complete by Friday or sooner.

We do not know if this is guaranteed but it is certainly worth completing the form and seeing if you are successful. Once the deadline has passed, the Trust then upload the information to the government portal.

I hope this is a useful development for you.

Many thanks
Rachael Lucas

https://forms.gle/Nq1EpTLsRgNVXNfW8

 

Latest news following the Prime Ministers announcement this evening - Monday 4th January

Following the Prime Ministers announcement this evening we can confirm that our plans for remote learning will go ahead as planned from tomorrow. However there may be some staff that have to sort out their own childcare tomorrow morning which may mean some classes have a few more assignments on TEAMs than we might have expected. Please bear with us tomorrow if this is the case.

More info to follow for Year 11 arrangements.

Key worker and vulnerable student arrangements

School will still be open for key worker and vulnerable students, as planned. You must book your child's place by responding to this message or emailing contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk .

School will start at 8.30am with RISE time. The students need to be in school at 8.20am via the Newby Road entrance as normal so they are able to log onto the computer to access RISE time online on time. The gates will close at 8.30am and any latecomers will need to sign in at the main entrance on Stitch- Mi-Lane.

They need to be in full uniform, not PE kit. If they are not in correct uniform they will be sent home to get changed. They must be wearing a mask.

If they, or any one in the household, are displaying any Covid symptoms they must not attend school and should self-isolate and get tested. Please inform school as you normally would if youAdd

 

We will be providing your child with a free lunch, but they are most welcome to bring in a packed lunch if they so wish.

School will end at 3pm and students will be dismissed via the Newby Road entrance as normal.

Thanks

Rachael Lucas

 

Latest new for Secondary students remote learning from tomorrow - Tuesday 5th January 2021

 

Dear Parent/Carer, 

I am pleased to be able to confirm the arrangements for remote learning which starts tomorrow, Tuesday 5th January for all students. All students will have a full timetable set and taught on Microsoft TEAMs. Your child's teachers will be online to deliver lessons as per their normal timetable.

It is expected, just like a normal face to face day that all students will be expected to attend their online lessons.

If your child is ill, just as you would normally, please contact the school absence line. Heads of Year will be attending all lessons to check on attendance and will make calls to parents if their children are not online.

School will start remotely with RISE time at 8.30am including year 9. Form time and assembly will also happen in their normal timetabled slots.

For Key Stage 3 Music, Drama, Art and PE lessons will also be set on TEAMS but may well be an assignment rather than a live lesson. If a member of staff is absent cover work will be set as an assignment on TEAMS.

Logging on

At the end of the letter there is a reminder on how to access TEAMS. Students will need their school email address to log on and recent experience tells us that the misspelling of the school name causes many students not to be able to log on. Please check the spelling of the email address. If you are having trouble logging on you can send a request for some ICT support via School Gateway. The ICT team will pick up any requests to reset passwords or help with general queries.

If you need a laptop please contact again via School Gateway. We do have a stock of laptops that students can use whilst remote leaning. Again please contact the ICT team or your child's Head of Year.

Free School Meals

If you are entitled to Free School Meals there is a weekly bag of provisions available to be collected from the main school office at the Stitch- Mi-Lane entrance daily from 9am- 12pm. every Monday between 9am and 1pm.

Currently we are due to have Years 11 and 13 back on site in school from Monday 11th January and the rest of school on January 18th. However, the situation is changing at a fast pace so please be aware that this may change if the Government make a decision to move to year group rotas or to once again close schools to all but key worker children and those classed as vulnerable.

Thank you for your continued support and I would like to thank staff at BSCA who have been amazing and adaptable to all this uncertainly in keeping your child's education at the heart of all they do so that we can get remote and online learning up and running successfully.

Once again many thanks.

Rachael Lucas

Headteacher

 

Click here for Microsoft Teams Information

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Whole Academy Information and Letters

 

School Buses

School Bus Timetable - 2020-21

Bus Fare Increases Letter - July 2018  

 

General Data Protection Regulation

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is new legislation that all people and organisations must comply with by 25th May 2018. This replaces the 1998 Data protection Act. Even with Britain leaving the E.U. the government have adopted this legislation.

For schools this applies to ensuring all our stakeholders are aware of what data we hold on them, why we hold it and how long for. To ensure our stakeholders are aware of this we have published on the school website our privacy notices which inform students and parents of how we will use their data.  

Anyone is allowed access to the data that we hold on them as long as it is not against the public interest. As a school we aim to comply with the all the guidelines from the data regulator the Information Commissioners office.

GDPR Policy

Privacy Notice for Students

Privacy Notice for Parents/Carers

 

School Closure (due to adverse weather conditions) Process

The procedures that we will take should there be the need for any closure of the school due to extreme weather, or other emergency conditions. We will do all that we can to ensure that the school only closes when completely unavoidable and any decision to close the school will be taken from assessing local conditions, and an assessment of risk to the safety of students and staff after safety precautions have been taken.

If school is closed during school hours, we will need to know how your child is getting home, or to an alternative agreed location. Complete the form within the letter below or email us at contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk. 

Click below to read the process:

School Closure Process - Parent Letter

 

Privacy Notice

Every year we share our Privacy Notice with you, because under data protection law, individuals have a right to be informed about how the school uses any personal data that we hold about them. We comply with this right by providing ‘privacy notices’ to individuals where we are processing their personal data.

Please read the attached Privacy Notice explains which explains how we collect, store and use personal data about students. We, Bolton St Catherine’s Academy, are the ‘data controller’ for the purposes of data protection law.

Privacy Notice - Parents and Carers

Privacy Notice - Students

 

Student and Parent Information                              

It is essential we have the correct information for all our students on our systems for the health, safety, safeguarding and wellbeing of your child. It enables us to contact you when we need to either by phone, email, School Gateway app or letter home -

• student home address
• prime (parents/carers) contact details - address, mobile number and email address. Other phone numbers will need to be provided if you are unable to use your mobile at work i.e. home number and work number
• other contacts - mobile number

We require a minimum of two contacts for each student including at least one prime contact (parents/carer).  To update your details either send a change request or message via the School Gateway app or email us at contact@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk  .