Help out when you checkout

Christmas giving by Ben White on Unsplash

While we’d encourage everyone to support local and small businesses, we know that’s not an option for everyone. The run up to Christmas is the busiest online shopping period of the year and it may be busier than ever this year.

One of the things we do as parents is raise funds to help the school do more — providing more opportunities to students and helping families who struggle with the costs of the school day. This year we haven’t been able to do this as easily, so we need your help more than ever.

We have two ways to benefit Trinity Academy when you order online and they won’t cost you a penny more!

  1. Amazon Smile – when you choose to buy using Amazon Smile we get a small amount from every elegible purchase. If you buy things using your phone or tablet you can even make that donation automatic!
    • It’s the same products, same prices, and there’s no cost to you
    • You generate donations
    • Support our charity
  2. EasyFundraising – Just start your online shopping first at easyfundraising, then shop as normal and over 4,000 different retailers will donate to us for free!

Fundraising for the school

One of the things we do as parents is raise funds to help the school do more — from providing more opportunities to students, to helping families who struggle with the costs of the school day. In the past we ran fundraising events that were opportunities for parents to meet socially, perhaps enjoy an outdoor movie or a quiz night or even live music in the school.

For the foreseeable future we won’t be able to run those events but we will look for alternatives and we want to continue to support the school, now more than ever, so we need your help.

Please join the 50:50 club, keep using EasyFundraising and Amazon Smile when you buy things online but also think about whether you could afford to make a small regular payment to our charity — Trinity Academy Charity Trust. Just a few pounds (just whatever you can afford) donated every month could make a massive difference to helping the school and it’s really easy.

  1. Go to our fundraising page at Virgin Money Giving
  2. Choose a donation and add Gift Aid if you can. That automatically increases the value of your donations by 25% and we get the money from the government.

It’s that simple… Thanks for your help.

FAQs from Pupil Support Team

There have been a few common themes in many of the questions the Pupil Support Team have been asked by parents and carers over the past few weeks. They have shared a few Frequently Asked Questions with general responses in the hope that we find them useful…

Do we really have to do all the assigned work?

The Scottish government has made it clear that parents and carers are not expected to be teachers, nor to home educate in the formal sense. The needs and circumstances of families will vary considerably depending on their child’s specific needs, household circumstances and their knowledge and confidence.

The school is seeking to provide materials and activities that would allow parents and carers to support children to cover the same core learning that they would at school but it is clear that not all parents, carers and children will be in a position to complete all this work. Your children’s well-being and that of your family comes first.

How much work should we do each day? What kind of timetable should we follow?

Try to set up a regular timetable that works for you and your children. Make sure you build in time for snacks, breaks and physical activity as well as more formal learning. Even if a parent or carer is available all day, it won’t necessarily be practical or necessary to expect children be work from 9.00am–3.25pm every day. Government guidance suggests 3-4 hours a day or 15 hours over a week.

How can we help ensure our children’s mental health and well-being?

The Pupil Support team have shared advice in their weekly emails to families. While we are physically distancing, social closeness remains more important than ever and many of us are staying in touch with online chats, video calls or by telephone.

Where can I find the learning for my child’s class or year?

Work is updated every Friday and the details are posted in the weekly bulletin. Click here for a recent example.

If you are having trouble accessing and navigating Microsoft Teams, this guide may be of help.

If you are still stuck following use of the guide then do contact us.

Are there not better ways that we could manage online learning?

The school had to move very quickly to put in place the best systems it could to support remote learning based on existing capacities. There are undoubtedly many things that could and should be improved but there are also many other demands on teachers and support staff, just as there are on parents and carers. Different schools all entered this crisis with slightly different capacities to support remote learning based, for example, on whether their teams included specialist digital support staff and how widely they had already rolled out digital learning platforms such as Teams. Where schools had strong pre-existing capacities, they have been able to adapt very quickly in some cases and there may be things we can learn from them. The school cannot though simply replicate what other schools may be doing overnight where this is based on different pre-existing capacities or where the school has made decisions based on the age appropriateness of materials and learning platforms.

What are teachers doing now?

Many teachers are supporting and caring for their own children. Some are working in the hubs set up to teach the children of essential workers. Some are out delivering food parcels to families. A lot of time is spent supporting parents and children who are having issues and responding to their questions and suggestions. They are also of course preparing and posting the learning materials on the different platforms we are using. Teachers are also learning about and experimenting with new tools and ways of connecting with students. This all means that time to make improvements to our remote learning systems or for individual contact with children is tight.

Couldn’t teachers run video classes?

The school has now provided some training and support to teachers to help them make their online learning materials more engaging.
There are significant concerns from some teachers and the EIS teaching union about live streaming video lessons from teacher’s homes. Where other schools have run such classes, attendance has sometimes been poor and there is a very real risk that basing learning around online video conferencing could further exclude children with more limited access to the internet. These children already risk suffering disproportionately as a result of the school closure and preventing a widening of the educational attainment gap is one of the school’s primary concerns at this time.

When will school reopen?

We don’t know when the school will reopen but Scottish Government ministers have indicated that it isn’t likely to be open to pupils before the new school year in August 2020. When school does restart, we should not assume that all children will return at the same time and resume classes as normal. Indications of when schools in Scotland may begin to reopen will probably come first from the Scottish Government but specific arrangements will then need to follow in updates from Edinburgh Council and Trinity Academy. There will almost inevitably be some delay between the announcement and the release of specific details of how any changes will be implemented. Please also remember that because education is a devolved matter, UK government announcements regarding the reopening of schools have no direct impact on the situation in Scotland.

How can schools reopen while maintaining physical distancing to keep everyone safe?

No decisions have been made about how schools will reopen but it is quite possible there may be some changes to how many children can attend school and classes at the same time. Like you, we look forward to some clarity in the coming weeks regarding the school situation and what a planned return might look like.

Investment at Trinity Academy

There is now movement on the re-development of Trinity Academy. The proposal for Phase 1 (the development of a new sports facility at Bangholm) has been submitted for planning permission and can be seen here.

View of proposed Bangholm entrance

Initial thinking for the Phase 2 development has been set out (refurbishment of the school building between 2020 and 2025). The Education, Children and Families Committee at Edinburgh Council decided last week that the Phase 2 development should be on the existing school site.

‘Massing diagram’ presented to parents. Not a design

However, no budget for Phase 2 has been allocated yet and the Parent Council has written to councillors setting out our enthusiasm for the planned redevelopment of the school and emphasising again why we believe it is needed urgently and why budget should now be allocated. We have sent this with the backing of the Parent Councils from Trinity, Victoria and Wardie Primary Schools as well, so that there is a collective voice.

The council are expected to be making capital budget allocation decisions in February and we very much hope that budget to allow work on Phase 2 to begin will be allocated then. We’ll continue to update parents and, of course, this will be an ongoing item at Parent Council meetings in the coming months, which you are welcome to come to (the next one is 6:30-8:00pm on Jan 15th).

Constitution

Trinity Academy Parent Council’s constitution has been in place for a number of years, since the Parent Council was first set up around 2006. The Parent Council has reviewed the constitution and is suggesting that a few changes be made. These are explained here.

The proposed changes will be considered at the AGM on 9 October and, if they are agreed at that meeting, the constitution will be amended.

  1. The original constitution used the terms “Parent Forum” and “Parent Council” so we are proposing adding definitions of these terms to the constitution to make it more easy to understand.
  2. We are proposing some changes about membership of the Parent Council. These will clarify that members of the Parent Council would be selected at the annual meeting of parents and would be selected for one year only. Co-opted members would also be invited to join the Parent Council for 1 year only. To be selected for membership of the Parent Council, we are proposing that parents/carers need only “inform” the Parent Council Chair rather than have to send a letter. This means that nominations for membership can be made ahead of an annual meeting and also on the night. We are also proposing that if a member does not attend 3 consecutive meetings without reason/apologies they will be deemed to have retired from the Parent Council.
  3. We are proposing removing some of the original references to nominations being made to the headteacher which were only required for the first Parent Council when there was no Chair to receive nominations.
  4. We are proposing clarifying the voting arrangements at Parent Council meetings. Only members would have a vote and decisions will be passed by a simple majority of Parent Council members present at the meeting. The Chair would have a casting vote which would be used in the event of a tie.
  5. We propose clarifying that the Secretary must take minutes of meetings.

If you have any questions about these proposed changes, you can let us know before the annual meeting on 9 October by emailing us at trinityparentcouncil@googlemail.com. Or come along on 9 October to take part in the discussion.

Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Top Tips

Cover pages of the two top tips brochures.

We have just added two Top Tips information leaflets to our downloads.

This information for parents and carers was gathered in consultation with almost 450 children and young people from Edinburgh, asking them what they hoped their parents and carers would do to help them develop good mental health and emotional wellbeing.

The information for children and young people cover the things they find help to keep emotionally well and able to deal with life’s ups and downs.

Why join the Parent Council?

It’s the start of another school year and Trinity Academy is welcoming new families to the school as they join S1. Parent Councils play an important role in bringing home and school together — enabling schools to gather parents’ and carers’ views and for parents to share their ideas and get more involved in school life.

We would like to ask you to think about joining the Parent Council because Parent Councils are most successful when they represent all members of the school community.

What does the Parent Council do?

  • Help the school take the needs of parents into account when making their decisions.
  • Give the school leadership an opportunity to communicate directly with parents.
  • Help parents to understand decisions from the point of view of the school.
  • Help the school to access parental skills which may benefit the students.
  • Increase parental involvement in the school.
  • Improve communication between school and home.
  • Raise funds and give a little of our time to support and promote the work of the school.

Why join us?

Here are a few ideas.

  1. Knowing more about how the school works, helps you to help your child.
  2. There’s something for everyone. You don’t have to be part of a committee if that’s not your thing. You can help run events, look after our website or social media, campaign, help our school uniform and sport equipment exchanges. You can do as little or as much as you want.
  3. To make friends. After primary school it’s easy to lose touch with other parents, and our meetings and events bring parents together.

Please contact us if you would like to come to our first meeting on the 2nd of September.

Here’s a short video with more reasons…