Coronavirus – School moves teaching and learning online

The online learning period will run from Thursday 7th January to Friday 29th January.

We have also made arrangements to provide care for pupils from Nursery to F6 whose parents are essential workers.

The Scottish Government has indicated that it will review the position on schools and nurseries on January 18th, and we will continue to follow its guidance, as well as paying close attention to the situation within our school community, as we seek to play our part in combatting the spread of Covid-19 nationally.

In light of the latest developments, we are making final updates to our arrangements for the start of the Spring term. Following a meeting of the Return to School Planning Group on Tuesday 5th January, parents will receive further details of our Online Learning arrangements for the Junior and Senior Years.

Our dedicated teachers will again be doing all that they can to ensure that our pupils can continue to experience as much face-to-face teaching (carried out remotely) as possible. Just as if they were in the School itself, a timetable of lessons will be in place with most of them delivered live using Microsoft Teams. Our teachers will also be creating pre-recorded lessons and uploading resources to our Virtual Learning Environment (Firefly).

Our Learning Skills Team will continue to provide timetabled support. In the Junior Years, as in last year’s lockdown, teachers will be devising activities which ensure that pupils stay engaged with one another and have a chance to work and play alongside their friends virtually.

Our Senior Years Guidance teachers will meet their groups online every week and continue to provide one to one pastoral support. 

You can find out more about what we have in place here.

We will also be meeting as soon as possible this week to consider the impact of the school closure on Prelim and other assessment arrangements. It is important that we are able to give as much clarity as possible on this to our F4-6 pupils and parents as we move forward and we will be prioritising this.

Rector Lise Hudson said, “The health and wellbeing of all of our pupils and staff remains our number 1 priority.

“I know that this will be a very challenging time for all of our parents and I want to reassure you that we will do all that we can to ensure that your children continue to have the very best learning experience possible in the current situation.”

High School of Dundee parents have been receiving further information from the School directly.

In line with the new national lockdown rules, as many of our staff as possible are working remotely but you can still contact us. Please direct all enquiries via email to enquiries@highschoolofdundee.org.uk This account will be checked regularly throughout the day.

The latest guidance and advice from the NHS on Coronavirus can be found here.