This concise weekly HT Update is generally published every Friday afternoon. It’s a simple opportunity for you to also feedback/ask questions via the link at the bottom of each Update. Feedback received, where appropriate, will be responded to and published on Monday 8th January 2024, given the holiday period, on the school website link.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Students return to school on Tuesday 9th January 2024; on Tuesday we’ll begin the next phase of the Course Choice process for S2 as they get ready for S3, this will involve making subject choices and it will take a couple of weeks to see all in S2, also on Tuesday all year groups will have a short Welcome Back Assembly; the remainder of that week is normal classes and students and staff settling back into their learning and work
Staffing: Today we said a temporary farewell to Hazel Moar as she leaves us to begin her 23 month secondment as Education Support Officer at Midlothian Council. We also said farewell to Nina Galloway from our Youth Work Team. Nina leaves us to take up a new opportunity.
Cinderella: Well done to our Performing Arts students and staff for Wednesday and Thursday night’s sell-out Panto, Cinderella. Our students, your children, were phenomenal. It was a fantastic way to end our term.
Free School Meals and Clothing Grants: Midlothian Council have updated their website and asked us to share this with you click here.
Christmas Break: School breaks up today. Students return to school on Tuesday 9th January 2024. I hope you all have a fabulous festive season, thank you for your support of our school and all the best for 2024.
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher
Response to feedback submitted from HT Update week ending 15/12/23.
| My Question | Comment | Suggestion related to the school this week is: | HT’s Response |
|
Is there any sign of the lift to the third floor being repaired? I know it’s a complicated issue but it’s definitely having a knock on effect. Thanks |
I’m afraid no specific date as yet. Our Business Manager is in regular contact with our Clerk of Works, who actions repairs, as we recognise the necessity of the work being completed as soon as possible. It appears there are 2 parts we are waiting on and this is the main reason for the delay. The lift on the other side of the building is working but only goes to the second floor. |
This concise weekly HT Update is generally published every Friday afternoon. It’s a simple opportunity for you to also feedback/ask questions via the link at the bottom of each Update. Feedback received, where appropriate, will be responded to and published by Monday afternoon on the school website link.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Next week sees a few Crhristmas events as we build to the holiday; our Panto, Cinderella, is on Wednesday and Thursday from 7.00pm; on Thursday we’ll hold a series of Seasonal Assemblies for all year groups; on Friday it’s our last Dress Down Day of 2023 with another chance to wear Christmas Jumpers, in addition we’ll merge our break on Friday and extend it slightly to allow staff to meet.
Staffing: A warm welcome to Emma Ward, our new PT Technologies. Emma started at Lasswade on Monday and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from previous roles. Next Friday we say a temporary farewell to Hazel Moar as she leaves us to begin her 23 month secondment as Education Support Officer: Equities at Midlothian Council.
Christmas Concert: Well done to our Performing Arts students, staff and our instrumental teachers for Wednesday night’s sell-out Christmas Concert. As always, our students excelled themselves with Christmas hits old and new. The addition of our Academy of Performing Arts groups added a little ‘Broadway’ to the evening.
Cinderella: Tickets are now sold out for our Lasswade production of Cinderella on Wednesday 20th & Thursday 21st December. Please do not use Resale Websites!
Free School Meals and Clothing Grants: Midlothian Council have updated their website and asked us to share this with you click here.
Christmas Break: School breaks up on Friday 22nd December for all staff and students at our usual finish time, 12.05pm. Students return to school on Tuesday 9th January 2024.
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher
Thank you to all parents/carers who booked and attended virtual appointments for our S3 Parents’ Evening (Tuesday 12th December). We hope you all had a very positive experience and look forward to communicating with you again in the near future:
We value parent/carer feedback and use it to evaluate our service and implement change. We would appreciate it if you could complete this short Google form to share your experience of our S3 parents’ night.
Our ability this week and next week to cover classes when teachers are unavailable is becoming challenging. This is due to the time of year and in particular three factors,
All this means that we will not always be able to ‘replace’ an absent teacher with a like-for-like replacement. We will, at times between now and the end of term, take measures to consolidate classes, e.g., bring two classes together into one group, or bring an entire year group together for special events and/or assemblies.
We thank-you in advance for your patience and support.
No feedback received from HT Updated posted on Friday 8th December 2023.
This concise weekly HT Update is generally published every Friday afternoon. It’s a simple opportunity for you to also feedback/ask questions via the link at the bottom of each Update. Feedback received, where appropriate, will be responded to and published by Monday afternoon on the school website link.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Next week sees a series of events across the school; on Tuesday we are holding our S3 Parents’ Evening, a reminder this is via our on-line platform; on Wednesday and Thursday our catering team will be offering our Christmas Menu, also on Wednesday we’ll hold our Christmas Concert from 7.00pm, see below; on Friday we’ll hold our Santa Dash
Staffing: On Monday we welcome Emma Ward as our new PTC of Technologies to our school. My thanks to Mrs Rankine and Mrs Anderson who assumed interim leadership of the Technologies faculty over the past few weeks and have done an excellent job.
Dress Code: SLT are at the entrances to the school building at the start of the day and are working with Student Support, and all staff, to reinforce dress code expectations. On occasion we are agreeing with parents/carers that some students go home to change, or are lending others some uniform items from our store. If there are continuing concerns for any student who is not keeping to our simplified expectations, click here, we will reach out and seek your support.
Christmas Concert: This excellent evening of entertainment is being held in the school on Wednesday 13th December. Click here for details.
Cinderella Ticket Release: Tickets have now been released for general sale for Lasswade’s production of Cinderella on Wednesday 20th & Thursday 21st December. Please choose which day before purchase. Tickets cost £7.00 each and are available to purchase now via ParentPay. There is a purchase limit of 5 tickets for each show with a review on amounts at a later date.
S3 Teenage Booster Vaccinations: The S3 Teenage Booster Vaccinations are scheduled for early next year, intended for all S3 students and those who may have missed this vaccination previously. Please ensure completion of the consent form and return it to the school office by Friday, December 22nd.
Learning Walks. On Tuesday we welcomed visitors to the school from our Midlothian Central Team. They worked with our staff and visited 33 classes, enabling us to gather a picture of our current strengths and next steps in Learning, Teaching and Assessment. The significant messages we collated at the end of the day was that positive relationships were observed in almost all lessons and students demonstrated respect and kindness in their interactions with one another and with staff. Learning was all also purposeful, and students demonstrated clear engagement and were able to explain what they were learning. Our areas for development continue to be formative assessment and digital pedagogies. We will continue our work on this as we move into the new year.
Mission Christmas & Hamper Appeal: Our S6 Charities Committee continues to work well on Mission Christmas and our Christmas Hamper Appeal, for local families. If you are able to help contribute items we’ll be happy to receive. Today’s Christmas Jumper Day again resulted in an excellent response. Donations are welcome at our School Office at anytime during the school week.
Christmas Fair: Thanks to all for supporting our annual Christmas Fair. Particularly to our Parent Council and Sara Adam, our Parent Council Chair, for organising an excellent evening. Thanks also to KIC Dance for their support. A huge well done to all staff and students involved in organising stalls and festive products. This event allows our community to come together, get some Christmas shopping done and also is a significant part of the Parent Council fund-raising role.
Visible Consistencies and Core Expectations: We regularly share with students and staff what we expect as behaviours. Next week Miss Struthers and I will aim to sense check where we are with this across our schools. This will involve some interruptions to lessons as we visit classes. We’ll do this sensitively. For ease our Visible Consistencies and Core Expectations are here for you to see.
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher
Response to feedback submitted from HT Update week ending 01/12/23.
| My Question | Comment | Suggestion related to the school this week is: | HT’s Response |
|
The post regarding the Christmas Concert says that tickets will be available via parent pay from 1st December but I can’t find it listed as an item in there. |
Yes, apologies, we took the link off to make the amount paid variable, just in case folk wanted to make a donation of more than £1.00. It’s now live again. |
This concise weekly HT Update is generally published every Friday afternoon. It’s a simple opportunity for you to also feedback/ask questions via the link at the bottom of each Update. Feedback received, where appropriate, will be responded to and published by Monday afternoon on the school website link.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Next week sees a series of events across the school; on Tuesday we are holding a day focussed on learning with a series of Learning Walks by staff, this helps us gather information on how well our students are engaging with their learning; on Wednesday our Advanced Higher Modern Studies students are attending a conference in Edinburgh; on Thursday we’ll issue our S1 Alert Report via email, we’re holding our ‘catch-up’ P7 Open Afternoon, see below, and from 6.00pm on Thursday we are holding our Christmas Fair; on Friday it’s our Christmas Jumper Day with all students and staff encouraged to participate and support our Mission Christmas work, see below
Staffing: Quiet week regarding recruitment, new arrivals etc. Happy Significant Birthday to Miss Atkinson tomorrow!
Christmas Concert: This excellent evening of entertainment is being held in the school on Wednesday 13th December. Click here for details.
P7 Open Afternoon: This is the catch up event for parents/carers of current P7s who were not able to attend our P7 Open Evening on Tuesday 24th October. Our shortened version of that evening is on Thursday 7th December, click here.
National Reform: The next phase of consultation on National Education Reform focuses primarily on school inspections and a new qualifications body. In particular, what existing bodies should evolve into. I’m aware of consultation fatigue on the national agenda as it can feel somewhat distant from our day jobs in schools or ‘inaccessible’ for parents/carers. Nevertheless, it remains important that we engage and our school will respond before the opportunity for responses close on 18th December. To access the paper and consultation please click here. Any comments you have would be welcomed through the feedback option at the bottom of this post. We’ll then feed them into our school response.
Mission Christmas & Hamper Appeal: Our S6 Charities Committee continues to work well on Mission Christmas and our Christmas Hamper Appeal, for local families. If you are able to contribute items for our hamper appeal we’ll be happy to receive. Donations are welcome at our School Office at anytime during the school week.
Visible Consistencies and Core Expectations: We regularly share with students and staff what we expect as behaviours. Next week Miss Struthers and I will aim to sense check where we are with this across our schools. This will involve some interruptions to lessons as we visit classes. We’ll do this sensitively. For ease our Visible Consistencies & Core Expectations are here for you to see.
S2 into S3 Course Choice: Following our course choice event on Monday we have added all of the resources from the evening to our school website. Click here to access these resources and provide feedback on the event.
Parent Council: A gentle reminder that our Parent Council are keen to gather feedback on our website and on our communication practices. Please have a look across our website, click here, and consider what’s positive/effective and what would help improve our website. In addition, we have a short paper on communication with students and with parents/carers, click here. Please have a look at this short paper and consider what’s positive/effective and what would help improve our communication. Thereafter, we’d welcome feedback via this Google Form
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher