Good afternoon everyone. Here is the second of our wee videos to help you with the Read and Write Chrome extension. Please take the time to watch this video and to have a play around with the programme.
This week, there is a Read and Write Parent Information Session for parents of pupils in Highland. It is this Wednesday, 27 January, from 6:00 – 7:00pm. Please pop this into your calendar if you think it will be useful, and we will share the Google Meet code on Weds.
You can also get help with the App from the students Texthelp hub;
After a few days of closure due to the wintery conditions, the school is open again for those pupils and staff scheduled to be in. It’s still pretty cold so wrap up warm!
SQA are setting up panels of key stakeholders to get ‘quick pictures’ of what these groups think about important issues. For this to work effectively they need as many people as possible to sign up. For all groups, the time commitment would be minimal.
We shared some information last week about the Read and Write extension for Google Chrome. This is a really helpful extension for all our pupils. A number of staff have attended training on the programme this week, and we will be sharing our top tips with you. Please take the time to watch this video, which explains our first two top tips.
Please note, you can use the Speech tool to read text that is written in different languages too. This is really handy for French and Spanish pupils, or pupils who have English as an additional language. Choose the voice in the language of your choice.
If we can help in any way, please feel free to email Mrs Knight or Mrs Crane with any questions about how to use the tools.
If you have any technical questions regarding using this Chrome extension, this is the email address for texthelp; customercare@texthelp.com
There are only a few pupils and staff in school at present due to lockdown but we are closed today due to the snowy conditions. There is more snow forecast overnight and into Friday so please keep an eye on the website and Facebook page for any further updates.
There is a wealth of resources and opportunites for Developing the Young Workforce in the e-sgoil website. These are fantastic opportunities for pupils planning to leave school in the next year or so or even for younger pupils making longer term plans.
Pupils will need their Glow account in order to access parts of the site and these have been emailed out to pupils so check your inbox and junk mail just in case.
Letter from Claire McGonigal, emailed to all parents/carers today. If you have not received this, please email grantown.grammar@highland.gov.uk to make sure we have your up-to-date details.
Read&Write for Google Chrome is an extension which has been rolled out for access by all Highland pupils. All pupils should have access to it on their Chromebook.
It is a toolbar which provides pupils with a variety of tools to support their literacy including: converting text to speech to help with reading; converting speech to text to help with writing; text and picture dictionaries; predictive text; and screen masks/ tints to reduce visual stress.
This tool will be especially useful for classwork and assessments, when pupils are working from home. The Learning Support Department will be getting in touch with some pupils individually about how to make the best use of this app.
This video gives you a brief overview of some of the things that the extension can do, click on the youtube link below:
Pupils should find that they already have the extension loaded for their Chromebooks, they can then pin it to their toolbar at the top, so that it is always accessible to them. Staff will be doing more training on this tool over the next week, so we will be giving you some top tips as we go!
We don’t have a huge amount of extra details from SQA since schools returned to lockdown but rest assured we will get information out to pupils as soon as we can. In the meantime, this is the latest message issued for young people across the country:
