Dear Parents and Carers,

Firstly, despite all the challenges and changes, we hope you had a restful and enjoyable festive period and we wish you a healthy and happy 2021.

The First Minister’s announcement on the 4th January has changed how we planned to return to school and there are more restrictions due to COVID-19. School pupils will be learning online from the 11th – 31st January 2021, at least. This was difficult news for everyone, and we know our Hollybrook Academy pupils and their families will be feeling the challenges of, once again, returning to home learning, and the uncertainty of the current times.

Prior to the holidays we tried to contact all our parents and carers, and this week we issued a questionnaire to gauge who needed support and access to school. Any pupils attending next week have now been contacted. We are keeping numbers of staff and pupils in school to an absolute minimum as per the Government guidance.

This message outlines our plans for online learning and will hopefully answer some of your questions.

We are in the fortunate position that every pupil and member of staff has an iPad. A small number of pupils do not have these at home at the moment. These can be collected from school next week or we can arrange to have them delivered. If you have issues accessing WiFi or charging the iPad please contact us at school and we can help.

The iPads allow pupils to follow their current timetable, as much as possible. All pupils, are already part of class Showbie groups, and these are managed by their class teachers. Please ask your child to show you the ‘showbie app’ on their iPad and you will see their classes down the left hand side. If you require support or are unsure of how to use this please contact your child’s pastoral care teacher as soon as possible or call the school next week.

There will be directed tasks from your child’s teachers, that will broadly follow your child’s timetable. The lessons are there to build on prior learning and offer structure to the days. We are aware that families can feel overwhelmed by these tasks, so please do as much as suits your family circumstances. Equally, if your child becomes unwell there’s no expectation they should continue with their learning until they are recovered.

We will start off next week (11th jan) with an assembly. This will be in all pupils’ Pastoral Care Showbie class.

We are keen to keep pupils engaged with school and stay as motivated as possible during these difficult times. Pupils have been using Showbie regularly in school, so they should be familiar with how to access it. If you need support to work through Showbie, we will post advice on Facebook and on our school website. This will be available next week.

The well-being of all our pupils is priority, so a member of staff will also be in contact with you and your child each week, preferably through a phone call (it will appear on your phone as ‘no caller ID’). This is to help with any learning needs and offer support and advice where we can. We will also be able to provide breakfast packs like we did on the first lockdown, and more information on this will follow next week.

Like all schools, Hollybrook is open for the children of key workers, who have no other access to childcare, and for young people identified by our Pupil Support Team who would benefit from being in the school building. At the present time, we hope we have managed to contact everyone. However, should your circumstances change we can offer support.

Pupils in S4-6 who are undertaking SQA work, we understand that you may be concerned about the gathering of evidence for SQA Awards. Teachers have already been working towards this and the work that your child has completed to date is still very relevant.

If is vital we have the most up to date contact details for you, both phone and email. If any of these details have changed please contact the school office or email using the details below.

Throughout this period of lockdown, we will communicate regularly via email, text message, Scot Ed app and try to use Facebook for some of the more fun things we like to do in Hollybrook!

However, should you have any questions or require support, please do not hesitate to contact us using the details below.

We know this is tough, but we will get through this and we are here help and support you.

Thank you for your continued support, please stay safe .

Warm wishes,

Jackie Newell & Allison MacLeod

Head Teacher & Head of School

Contact details:

Mrs Jackie Newell, Head Teacher: gw07newelljacqueline@glow.sch.uk

Mrs Allison MacLeod , Head of School : gw10macleodallison@glow.sch.uk

Mrs Mairi Barrett, Depute Head Teacher: gw10barrettmairi@glow.sch.uk

Mr Cavanagh, PT Pastoral Care S1-S3: gw10cavanaghmatthew@glow.sch.uk

Mr Craig Milne, PT Pastoral Care S4-S6: gw10milnecraig@glow.sch.uk