UCAS are extending May’s
UCAS Undergraduate decision and reply deadlines following an announcement by the UK Government, asking universities and colleges in England to hold back from
making unconditional offers or amending existing offers.
We can now confirm the new dates:
Original date
UCAS Undergraduate deadline
New date
5 May 2020
The deadline for applicants to reply if they received
decisions from all their choices by 31 March 2020.
19 May 2020
6 May 2020
The deadline for universities and colleges to make decisions
and reply to applications received by 15 January 2020.
20 May 2020
These dates have been updated in Track, and UCAS has
emailed applicants to let them know if their deadlines have changed.
UCAS hope this gives students and their chosen universities and colleges the
extra time they need to fully consider any decisions and offers, and ensures
fairness in admissions is maintained.
Since the UK Government’s announcement, the Office for Students (OfS) have
shared further guidance and FAQs
with universities and colleges in England to explain exactly what is covered in
the two-week pause. In addition, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
(HEFCW) has written to vice-chancellors at Welsh universities and colleges,
requesting that they also undertake a two-week pause on unconditional offers.
Following the announcement regarding school closures from 20th March 2020, our team have been working on an range of activities to continue to support you and your students.
Many of you will regularly invite us into school or college to attend Careers Fairs and deliver talks and workshops on various topics related to HE decision making and skills development. The attached overview document highlights the talks and sessions that are still available for you;
We can virtually deliver to small groups of students still in school (sessions can be tailored to mixed year groups)
Students can book themselves on and join sessions individually
A library of pre-prepared resources will be made available for students to access
We are finalising worksheets to support students working at home
Live Chat sessions are available for students who want to find out about courses and University life.
We want to respond to what you need from us; please get in touch if you have any feedback on the topics you would like to hear about, delivery methods, and with any other ideas.
In relation to our face to face activity, we’re continuing to plan for our summer events including the Lancashire HE Exhibition, Summer Residentials, Open Days and Subject Taster Days and we will keep in touch as soon as decisions are made about whether they will take place as planned, will be postponed or will be delivered via an alternative platform.
As you would expect, it is unlikely that the Health and Social Care Taster Day (28/04), the Law Taster Day (29/04) and the Teachers and Careers Advisors Conference (01/05) will take place on campus and we will provide further detail about these events after Easter to advise how we are moving forward.
You may also hear from our Faculty of Education who have also developed a dedicated hub of resources to support engagement and learning over the coming months. The resources have been pooled from various sources and cover a wide range of different subject areas. Please do feel free to share the details with your students.
To find out more about anything in the attached overview, please reply to this email. We will continue to review how we can support you, and whilst we are very conscious of the pressures you are facing, we will keep in touch as we update our offer. We will also provide information in relation to how we are communicating with 2020 applicants about their transition and entry to University, and any other key Edge Hill messages.
This is an exceptionally difficult time for
all of society and we find ourselves in unchartered waters. During this time,
it is vitally important that we all follow the advice of the Public Health
Agency, General Practitioners and other medical staff and the Department of
Education. As of 23rd March 2020, Ballyclare Secondary is closed to
pupils.
The uncertain period ahead will be
unprecedented for the staff and pupils of Ballyclare Secondary School. Lack of face-to-face interaction with our
pupils for a prolonged period has forced us to explore and instigate a range of
remote teaching methods to support our learners as best we can. With this will come challenges that that our
staff have endeavoured to overcome with ingenuity and creativity. I would like
to thank all staff for their efforts to date in this regard and this will be an
evolving process.
I appreciate that this is also a very new
situation for parents and carers. Your children normally in our care are now at
home and you are managing a completely different daily routine. I do not
underestimate the enormity of the task as many of you are working from home as
well.
The positive pupil – staff relationships and excellent
pastoral care are the reasons why we continue to build our pupils’ personal
success stories. At this difficult time, we all need to explore and utilise
other strategies to ensure we continue to do this. As parents and carers you
have always shown your support for our school this I believe, will encourage
our pupils to continue to work hard even from home.
With
a united front in the time ahead, our common main objectives should be as
follows:
To continue to prepare Year
11 and Year 13 pupils for GCSE and A-Level examinations which they will take
next year. (These two year groups are effectively missing out on possibly a
full term of work in school.)
To maintain a degree of
structure and routine for learners across all key stages
To support our pupils so
that they can continue to acquire new knowledge and skills
To determine, if possible,
whether the learners have made progress and achieved positive outcomes from the
set tasks
This will not be easy and staff have already
made excellent plans and resources to make these goals achievable. I commend
all parents and carers who have already ensured that your children are prepared
for learning remotely.
Providing structure and routine is important
for all pupils when not in school as it will be difficult to be focussed every
day particularly as there will be that end of term feeling.
I would suggest the following as a possible
daily schedule for the pupils’ day.
Daily Schedule
8.00am
Get
up and get breakfast
9.00am
Online
Study
Catch
up with work / projects / research / coursework etc.
11.00am
Break
11.30am
Online
Study
Catch
up with work / projects / research / coursework etc.
1.00pm
Lunch
1.45pm
Exercise
– walk / ride bicycle etc.
2.30pm
Offline
study
Create
revision notes/ cards / complete past papers etc.
3.30pm
Quiet
time
Read
a book or get involved in a new hobby
Pupils
may find it useful to follow the routine of their normal timetable where
possible
As part of our remote learning programme,
work has been set for all year groups.
It is important that parents and carers are
aware that we have put in place work with the following guidelines, as we know
that not one size will fit all. Home learning is very different to learning in
the classroom to the classroom. The work should:
Be
realistic – we know we need to cater for a range of
home learning/parenting environments.
Some pupils will have extensive computer access with excellent broadband
and some will have very limited access. We know that you may also have only one
computer and more than one child! You may also need the computer to complete
your own work from home.
Be
planned to help establish a routine –
Departments may be sending one communication per week to each year-group
outlining tasks which would cover the normal time allotted to that subject per
week. Pupils can then manage their own
time throughout the week for the completion of work set.
Provide
a manageable pupil workload – Pupils will be set work
that will take no longer, than their normal timetabled lessons to complete.
Be
accessible and we will use the school website as a main channel of
communication – Information will be regularly uploaded
onto the school website. Some departments are also using pupil email, Google
Classroom and My School. (Please refer to
the user guides, already on our website, for further guidance on both of these
platforms).
Pupils
should use their own C2K school email account, or another school agreed on-line
platform.
We would encourage pupils to engage in
self-assessment as much as possible to reduce reliance on direct teacher
feedback.
Please
bear in mind that there is still uncertainty as to how Year 13 pupils go
forward and that courses may still need to be finished for potential future
external assessments and completion of UCAS and Higher Apprenticeship
applications.
I would like to thank you for your ongoing commitment and
support of our school in these most challenging of times. We will need parents
and carers to continue to be part of the
team supporting our pupils. I appreciate that the task is not an easy one but
even though we are remote learning we are still a team.
Please remember that you do not have to be an expert in
any of the subjects your child will be working on as a remote learner. You do
not have to become a “super parent” we fully appreciate you will have your own
concerns and responsibilities at this time. You just need to know how best to
spend the time you do have. Remember that you are an “expert” in your own child
and you have always been their most important teacher. Your support, interest
and encouragement will make all the difference to your child’s motivation and
ability to cope with their school work while learning from home.
Dear Parent / Carers, It has come to our attention that we suspect COVID-19 among our own staff. It is for this reason that our school will be closed tomorrow (Monday 23rd March 2020). This message is also being shared via SIMS Parent App. You will be notified in due course when the school will re-open. Mrs K Bell Principal
We appreciate fully that there is a lot of confusion and conflict around school closures, following news reports this evening. Schools are yet to receive a directive from the Department of Education.
As it stands, Thursday 19th March 2020 and Friday 20th March 2020, Ballyclare Secondary School will remain open to pupils and staff.
Further updates will continue to be provided to you via our website and SIMs Parent App. You will be informed if Remote Learning will be effective from Monday 23rd March 2020
Please find below a link to a letter from the Principal providing the most up to date information and a letter from the Vice Principal on Pastoral Care Arrangements. Updates will continue to be posted as soon as we have any new information.
Following concerns regarding COVID-19, Mrs Bell will be sending a letter out to all parents / carers, updating you all on school arrangements. As soon as this letter is together, it will be shared with those also registered on SIMS Parent App and via our school website.
These are very uncertain times and we appreciate the concerns of our school community. Here are a few updates:
1) Our Year 12 Guidance Afternoon, scheduled for Thursday 19th March 2020 has been postponed;
2) Year 12 pupils will be involved in an important assembly tomorrow morning (8:40am) regarding examinations and the sixth form options process. Mrs Colgan has shared a digital copy of the options booklet for sixth form curriculum via email to all Year 12 pupil email accounts;
3) All Duke of Edinburgh expeditions have been postponed by the Education Authority until the end of May 2020;
4) All non-emergent fixtures and activities will be postponed;
4) Staff are working diligently to prepare for a potential school closure. The latest information from the Department of Education is that schools are to remain open. Remote Learning information can be accessed from our website and other VLE systems such as Google Drive. If your child has been asked to self-isolate we would ask that you notify their Class Teacher who will record this on our SIMS system. We would ask for patience for individualised work to be sent home as our attention needs to be prioritised to Remote Learning for all of our learners.
Once again, please await a letter from Mrs Bell that contain a comprehensive update on school arrangements.