School Closure Blog

SCHOOL CLOSURE UPDATE

Dear Parent/Carer

Gracemount High School – School Closure

As you will all be aware the Gracemount High School Community is facing challenging circumstances. 

Our first priority was to ensure exam students could comeback into education as quickly as possible.  

On Wednesday we successfully integrated our senior pupils into Liberton High School and we were able to provide learning and teaching experiences with their class teachers for all subject areas in preparation for the forthcoming SQA examinations. I was delighted we were able to do this so quickly given the circumstances we faced. 

I am pleased to let you know, as you may already be aware,that we have now found alternative accommodation for our S1 to S3 pupils.   

From Tuesday 19th April a temporary arrangement has been put in place for our pupils at Wester Hailes Education Centre (WHEC). 

We have been working closely with our colleagues at WHEC who have been incredibly supportive, and Gracemount pupils will continue to be taught by our own staff. 

We have access to a range of facilities that we can access to support learning and teaching and Mrs Sinclair and other key support staff will be based at WHEC to support the transition.

Dedicated buses will be provided, leaving from and returning to Gracemount High School each day and staff who know the pupils well will travel with them. 

On Tuesday, S1-3 pupils should report to school car park between 8.45am and 8.55am. We intend to depart at 9.00am.

Please note that the car park will not be able to be accessed by any vehicle other than the buses. 

Staff will be at the school gates and only pupils and staff will be allowed access to school grounds to ensure the safety of all involved. 

Pupils will be returned to Gracemount High School by 3.30pm and as normal will make their own way own home from there. It has been confirmed that buses will leave Gracemount each day at 9.00am.

I appreciate the support that all our staff have received to date and will keep you updated with any further arrangements.

Thank you,

Ross Hunter

Head Teacher

Please click on the following link for closure information and for regular updates on the closure status:

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolclosures

Social media updates are available on the Council twitter feed @edinburgh_cc or Facebook page.

Information for Senior Students
 
Due to the school closure all senior pupils should ensure they check Edmodo and iTunes U courses as class teachers will be in contact about ongoing coursework and preparation for the final SQA exams. 

Scholar: Revision and Grade improvement

You are now in the final approach to important examinations, the results of which are likely to affect your future progress. 

There is still time to improve your chances of success.  Follow the instructions given to you by your teacher / lecturer and plan your revision strategy.

Scholar is a valuable – and free to use- resource which will help you to consolidate your previous learning, offer you useful revision strategies and allow you to practise assessments.

Your teacher can use the Scholar reporting facility to tailor their future help to you.

Make the most of Scholar by using it as part of your mix of study / revision activities.

Even if you haven’t been in the habit of using Scholar for your coursework so far, then make sure that you have a note of your user name and password. You will find Scholar helpful in your revision.

By using your own username (your SCN) and password you will gain access to many of the features in Scholar.

These include the Web pages, Revision planner, Interactive activities, Glossary, and recordings of revision webcasts (for maths, Computing and Modern Languages).  Most Scholar courses have .pdf Study guides (electronic copies of the website text) which you can obtain from your teacher.

Links within this document will remind you how to use Scholar. Prior to clicking on these, please ensure that you are logged onto Scholar.  http://courses.scholar.hw.ac.uk/vle/scholar/

Your teacher may have recommended particular sections of Scholar (including assessments).  See the final section of this document.

If you need any further help about using Scholar you can use the “Succeed with Scholar” course at the bottom of your course list. 

This “SwS” video set is duplicated on the YouTube channel for Scholar http://www.youtube.com/user/SCHOLARmedia  

​Ways in which Scholar can help you revise

General revision strategies. 

Some subjects within Scholar have homework revision webcasts.

Follow this link to recordings of the webcasts http://scholar.hw.ac.uk/Resources/Live_Online_Sessions/Previous_Sessions.html

You will find FAQs about revising for the traditional (non CfE) courses  on Scholar at http://scholar.hw.ac.uk/Scotland/Resources/FAQ_for_Exam_Revision.html

Alternatively, both SQA and the BBC have revision materials.  

SQA   http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/41319.html   This includes links to exam papers

 BBC for traditional Highers http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/    

CfE Highers  http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/levels/zkdqxnb  

Revision planner

The Scholar Revision planner is accessed through the left hand navigation panel. Pick your course, unit and topic and place it in the revision planner at the appropriate date and time.

The revision will then create hyperlinks to the work and give you a reminder on the correct day.  For non-Scholar subject you can add a free text reminder to the Revision Planner

Quick Search 
You can do a quick search for your topic to find results appropriate to your level of study.

Select your course e.g. H Physics and then type in your search criteria e.g. interference

Activities are available to illustrate teaching points. The type of activity depends upon the particular course.  It could be a flash animation, video clip, cloze passage or mp3 file etc.

Activities are accessed from the Additional tools navigation box at the left hand side of the page once you have selected a course.  The activities (including some assessments) are listed in course order.  Simply click on the hyperlink to go to activity.

Assessments

It is always worthwhile to test yourself against the appropriate criteria for the course.

You can find the assessments at the end of the units (themes) or via the activities.

If you do an assessment then your teacher will be able to monitor your progress and help you further.

Scholar on Tablets

If you use a tablet for studying then please download the Puffin Academy app.  Access Scholar via this app (search for Scholar). This will greatly improve the display of Flash based interactivities.

Departments to edit / delete the following

Departmental recommendations for revising withScholar

The department recommends that you do the following Scholar based assignments as part of your revision.

(Recommend  items by inserting the URL from the Scholar site address bar (simply copy / paste))  

Include some assessments to benefit from the automatic marking and reporting

Url of resource	To be done by….date

You may wish to blend Scholar with other favoured resources in this table.