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Parents/Carers Update
Year 11 & 13 - Consultation on how exam grades will be awarded in 2021
Last Friday, 15 January, the Department for Education and the exams regulator Ofqual published details of their consultation on how exam grades will be awarded in the summer. Students, parents
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/ carers and school staff are invited to respond to the consultation, which closes at 23.45
on Friday 29 January.
As expected, a key element of the proposed approach is the introduction of short test papers set by the exam boards for students to sit in school in May and June. It is proposed that teachers will assess these using exam board produced mark schemes and that outcomes on these tests be used to inform teacher assessed grades. The consultation asks whether this sounds like a good idea, along with further questions about the timing, scope and weighting to be given to these papers, and whether they should be compulsory. There are also questions about the nature and extent of other evidence that could be used to give an accurate grade for students.
The full consultation can be accessed on the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-how-gcse-as-and-a-level-gradesshould-be-awarded-in-summer-2021
Within the consultation there is a link to the web page for responses to the consultation. Please take the opportunity to share your views with Ofqual and the DFE. https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/8BYI4T/
We have emailed Y11 and Y13 parents/carers with the above links and provided some extracts on the key proposals.
Parent consultation evenings
You may be aware that there was a year 11 parent consultation evening planned for Tuesday 26 January. Due to the current lockdown and school closure this is unable to go ahead, however we are currently investigating software for virtual parents’ evenings to take place for all year groups, and we hope to be able to release more details on this soon.
Reminder: Weduc
A reminder to parents/carers to download the Weduc App or register via the Weduc website to receive communications from school. Weduc allows notifications to be sent directly to your mobile with any messages from school and will replace our current system.
Enrolment emails have been sent out over the last term and more recently as reminders for those who have not yet signed up. Please look out for the registration email if you have not already downloaded the app or registered, as we are aiming to fully launch the Weduc system for all our communications by 1 April.
Reminder: Y9 GCSE Options
We have moved all our resources online for the year 9 GCSE options process and we are collecting responses electronically.
The deadline for making initial option choices is 24 January. As the majority of students are not currently in school we are collecting students options via Microsoft Forms. This form has been set out to students via email.
The options process is fully explained in the first section of the Student Options Booklet which all students should have taken home in December.
Detailed information on individual option subjects in the can be found in the Curriculum Booklet.
There is a virtual options evening presentation also available for you to download so that you can see and hear about the process if you wish.
All of these documents can be found by going to the student section of the school website and clicking in the Y9 GCSE options drop down link or via the link below: https://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/students/year-9-gcse-options/
GCSE Options available for September 2021
Option subjects are correct as at time of publication and are subject to change.
As a reminder – if students do not pick Triple Science as one of their options they will be automatically enrolled on the Combined Science course.
For further information please contact Mrs Weightman Edge who will direct your enquiry to the appropriate member of staff (hweightman-edge@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk)
We would like to wish all our students every success with their future studies.
Mrs Morgan Associate Assistant Headteacher Curriculum and Timetable
Free School Meals Hampers
We will be providing hampers with two week's worth of food on Tuesday 26 January for students eligible for free school meals. These will be available for collection in Bowler Hall on our Starkholmes site between 10am and 3pm. If you require collection outside of these hours, or are in need of delivery, please contact kalcock@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk Our final hamper collection day for this term will be Tuesday 9 February and this will be a one week hamper.
The second set of Covid winter shopping vouchers are due to be sent in mid-February. The money to pay for these vouchers has come from the government through its Covid-19 winter grant scheme which is over and above the other support schemes already provided by Derbyshire County Council.
If you received vouchers in December and your circumstances haven’t changed then you should be eligible for vouchers in February. The amount each voucher is worth will depend on the number of children in the region who qualify at that time. These will be sent automatically using text or email by Derbyshire County Council using the contact details held by school.
Please ensure the contact details we hold for you are up to date and correct. You must do this before 29 January 2021.
For full details of the scheme or to see what help and support is available, please visit www.derbyshire.gov.uk/winter
If your financial circumstances have changed since December you may be eligible to apply for free school meals at www.derbyshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or free childcare for 2-year-olds at www.derbyshire.gov.uk/freechildcaretwo. If you are successful in your application, you will be added to the February voucher distribution.
2021-22 academic year
The term dates for next year are given below.
Term 1: 2 September 2021 to 22 October 2021 Term 2: 1 November 2021 to 23 December 2021
Term 3: 10 January 2022 to 18 February 2022 Term 4: 28 February 2022 to 8 April 2022
Term 5: 25 April 2022 to 27 May 2022 (2 May 2022 is a bank holiday) Term 6: 6 June 2022 to 22 July 2022
We are prioritising discussions on the dates for our INSET days, but as you can appreciate there are other outcomes to consider, and so this is taking us a little longer than usual. We appreciate parents/carers would like to plan for next year and we will provide the dates for our 2021-22 INSET days over the coming weeks.
Always be doing tasks
We have seen some excellent online learning from students so far during lockdown. Please see the Highfields Virtual Learning Studio later in the newsletter for examples of the high quality work students are submitting.
As you are aware all lessons are scheduled to run for 100 minutes and subject staff set work to enable students to complete tasks within this time. However, if work is completed earlier, we have updated our KS3 and KS4 ‘always be doing’ lists for the spring term for students to work on – please follow the link below to access via the school website.
Y7-9 KS4: https://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Jan-2021-KS3-Y7-9-AlwaysBe-Doing.pdf
Y10-11 KS4: https://www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Jan-2021-KS4-Y1011Always-Be-Doing.pdf
Save the Children Christmas Jumper fundraiser
Christmas may seem like a distant memory now, but we wanted to say thank you to students for their donations from our Christmas Jumper Day at the end of term.
We raised a total of £946.79 for Save the Children. Thank you to everyone who contributed at a time when money is much needed at home and by charities.
If you are interested in online learning opportunities Buxton & Leek College has a range of online courses (suited for students and parents/carers) that are great for enhancing current skills, learning new ones and progressing with continued professional development.
To check out the range of courses on offer, please follow the link below: https://www.blc.ac.uk/subject-areas/misc/distance-learning-short-courses-2/
