One piece of feedback received from last week. Helpful suggestion from a parent that I’ll address this Friday in my HT Update.
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 each Monday on the school website.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Significant calendar events next week; on Monday our Senior Phase Study Leave relating to the 2024 SQA Exam Diet begins; on Wednesday 64 S1 students are taking part in our Bannockburn Trip, on Wednesday and Thursday we have our Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Practice Expedition.
Staffing: Congratulations to Harry Gaughan (Science) who has secured a permanent post at Craigroyston HS in Edinburgh. Harry takes up his post there from August. On Monday we welcome Amy Elliot to the Creative Learning team as a Learning Assistant.
Car Park: A reminder to all parents/carers that disabled bays should only be used by those that have a blue badge.
School Office: Our School Office will now close at 4pm on a Wednesday due to weekly team meeting. Reception and the phones will not be manned after this time.
SQA 2024: The SQA website has posted a recent item that may be of interest to parents/carers if you have children in our Senior Phase, click here.
SQA 2024: We are asking that parents/carers reinforce the following message if they have children in our Senior Phase sitting exams. Candidates/students must ensure that they arrive in plenty of time for their exam, they need to be here at least 15 minutes before the start time to be seated and logged in (if appropriate). In addition, it is vital that students check the boards when they come into school, we sometimes make changes to the rooms and seating, as issues arise, so students need to double check for updates when they arrive.
Student Support Update: As Mrs Main takes up an Acting Depute Head Teacher role, there are some changes to Student Support teachers within St Leonard’s. For this term, Miss McDonald will continue as Student Support teacher for 1SL1, 1SL3, 2SL1 and 2SL3. Mrs Main will resume her role as Student Support teacher for 3SL1 and her previous Senior Phase classes. Mrs Sharp continues as Student Support teacher for all other SL classes.
Recruitment Event: Midlothian have asked us to share the following: Leaving school or starting to consider a future career that will make a difference? Come along to a recruitment event at Edinburgh College’s Eskbank Campus on Friday 17 May between 4pm and 6pm and Saturday 18 May from 9am to noon. Teams from Midlothian Council’s Education and Children’s Services, Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership, Skills Development Scotland, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Third Sector will be on hand with information on job opportunities including apprenticeships and training.
The kind of jobs and careers information on offer will be:
Come along for a chat to find out what’s on offer, how to apply and funded training and support available. You can also apply online:
School Leavers: Any S4-6 student who is leaving in June needs to return their Chromebooks. They can retain them for the exam period and we understand many will want to do that. After that students need to return their Chromebook to school. Students can bring them in at any time but we’ll have a dedicated return slot on 31st May from 9:30 -11:30am as well. We’ll send a reminder about this. Click here to view a graphic to support students in preparing their Chromebook for return.
School Uniform: Click here to access a leaflet from Borders re their 20% discount off uniform which closes on Sunday 19th May.
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher
Two responses from parents/carers this week. Both are confidential in nature and have been passed on to staff mentioned or staff with relevant responsibilities.
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 each Monday on the school website.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: It was lovely to welcome the students back on Tuesday, I hope families enjoyed their time together over the Easter Break. Significant calendar events next week; on Monday the 2024 SQA Exam Diet begins; on Wednesday and Thursday we have Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Practice Expeditions; Friday is our April Dress Down Day.
Staffing: Goodbye and best wishes to Neil Stewart who leaves us for Newbattle HS next Friday and to Yvonne Chan who leaves us for Saltersgate School on Thursday. We are also delighted to announce the birth of Caroline Brown’s baby: Ruaridh Alistair Brown was on 12th April weighing 8lb 13oz. Mum and baby are both doing well.
SQA 2024: A number of our students opt to type rather than write their responses during their exams. A video is available on S4-6 Google Year Group Classrooms showing how to use a digital answer booklet. Students who are typing in exams should watch this to familiarise themselves with the format and how to avoid common problems and issues. Parents/carers can click here if they’d like to view the video.
SQA 2024: Early next week a timetable of Grade Booster sessions will be shared on Google Classrooms and posted on our website. These will be hosted virtually through subject Google Classrooms and give students the chance to ask last minute questions, get additional feedback or reassurance ahead of exams. Subjects with exams before the official start of study leave, on Monday 29th April, will organise these opportunities during timetabled classes.
SQA 2024: As SQA exams start next week, rooming across the school will be exceptionally tight. This is to accommodate those students who we can’t fit into the hall or who have bespoke arrangements. It means some S1/2/3 classes are moved to new rooms. This will be particularly true next week as students are not yet on exam leave. Today we held Assemblies with S1/2/3 students stressing the importance of responsible behaviours and a mature attitude during this exam period. Please ask your child about their Assembly and encourage them to show a high level of maturity as they move around the school and patience if their class is not in their normal room.
Fire safety: Due to fire safety regulations and the construction of our new POD outdoor grounds, we have relocated the assembly points for S1 students. Henceforth, the designated assembly points, if the school has a fire/emergency evacuation, will now be situated on the grass near the astro-pitch.
School Leavers: Any S4-6 student who is leaving in June needs to return their Chromebook. They can retain them for the exam period and we understand many will want to do that. After that students need to return their Chromebook to school. Students can bring them in at any time but we’ll have a dedicated return slot on Friday 31 May from 9:30 -11:30am as well. We’ll send a reminders about this. There’s a poster click here to support students in preparing their Chromebook for return.
Lasswade Book Day: Our Book Day will be held on Thursday 23rd May, save the date. Last year was a huge success, with staff and students participating in quizzes and treasure hunts, prizes and lots of dressing up! We are currently planning for more of the same this year. Staff and students are invited to dress up as a character from a book that day, and there will also be activities to participate in both in and out of class. Details to follow over the next few weeks.
Midlothian School Session Dates, 2025/26 and 2026/27: Midlothian wants to hear the views of parents/carers on the proposed Midlothian School Session Dates for 2025/26 and 2026/27. Please follow this link to comment on the proposed school sessions dates: click here – and we would welcome your comments on this proposal. I believe this consultation may be closing on Monday so a weekend activity. Apologies. A report on the consultation and the session dates will go to a meeting of the full Council for approval. Once agreed, the final dates will be on Midlothian website.
Parent/Carer Survey: Thank you to the almost 300 parents/carers who have completed our survey. Please click here to access the summary of the responses from our most recent parent/carer survey. You’ll see, and be able to compare results with two earlier surveys. We are looking to see greens and yellows in the ‘Positive’ column, and that seems to be the trend when we compare years. Although the numbers of respondents have declined over the 3 surveys, the response rate is still statistically valid. Questions 16, 26 and 27 are low due to these often not being relevant. for many parents. We’ll reflect further through this term as we complete more analysis, including looking at the comments. We’ll also delve deeper at our next parent Council Meeting
Friday Youth Club: This poster click here has been placed in all Year Group Google Classrooms
S1 Social Time: As of Monday it has been agreed that S1 will be allowed to go out in the community during break and lunchtimes. Expectations of them during this time will be reinforced at today’s assembly.
School Uniform: Please click here to access a leaflet from Borders re their upcoming 20% discount off uniform which opens Monday 22nd April and closes Sunday 19th May.
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher
Two items of feedback were received from our last HT Update published just before the Easter Break.
The first was a question relating to our P7 Maths Challenge, we’ll pick that up directly with the parent. The second was from a parent thanking our staff for running the Easter School. The student had found the two sessions he attended really beneficial.
This concise weekly HT Update is generally published every Friday afternoon. Given the holiday, it’s a Thursday edition this week! 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 each Monday on the school website link. Again, given the holiday the response will be upon our return.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: School breaks up today and we welcome back all students and staff on Tuesday 16th April; please note our Easter School will run during the break, see below. Events on our first week back are fairly light: on Thursday we’ll hold HPV vaccinations and work with primary pupils on a P7 Maths Challenge; on Friday we’ll allow our S6 to be off-timetable prior to the SQA Exam Diet beginning, our School Captains are working on a special programme of events.
Staffing: The long awaited maternity for Mrs Brown began today. I’m pleased to say she was working right to the end, chairing a meeting with the Head Teacher’s of our associated primary schools. We’ve had the hot water and towels on standby for a wee while but thankfully they were not required. However, our Early Education and Child Care students are disappointed that an anticipated practical assessment opportunity did not transpire. It should not affect their overall qualification. This week Claire Main was appointed 0.4 full time equivalent Depute Head Teacher until the end of June 2024. Mrs Sharp and Miss MacDonald will step up roles and involvement in St Leonards House. Carly Heywood has been appointed full time Principal Teacher Humanities on an acting basis until March 2025. We also appointed Matt Dryden as a Principal Teacher within our Mathematics Team. Matt will join us in August. Today we also said thanks and farewell to two members of our Science Team, Rachel Paul and Jennifer Richmond, who are moving onto new schools after Easter. Rachel to Newbattle CHS and Jennifer to Whitburn Academy.
Quality Improvement Parent Carer Survey: We send out a general survey to parents/carers every two years. The link was sent initially on 15/03/24 as a text message to the main parent/carer contact of all our students. Last Friday we sent a reminder. Thank you to those, over 230 parents/carers, that have managed to complete the survey. We are getting close to a statistically valid sample. A final reminder text will be sent to all parents/carers later today (please ignore it if you’ve already completed the survey). Please take the time to fill it in if you’ve not. Your response helps us to confirm what we do well and gives us a basis to think about improvements to our work. We’ll close the survey on Tuesday 16th April.
SPOTY: Lasswade High School, in partnership with Active Schools, hosted the Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) awards last week. Teachers, parents/carers, VIPs and guests came along to celebrate and promote sporting success within the school. LHS PE staff, Sarah McKay, and Lasswade Active Schools Coordinator, Katie McPherson, organised the event with students from our Sports Council offering help and support. We are grateful to our Parent Council for supplying teas and coffees at ‘half time’. Mark Martin, hosted the evening superbly. Over 1600 votes for the finalists of the main award, Sports Personality of the Year, were cast with Harry Jackaman taking home the main award, for his achievements in rugby. This includes breaking into the Scotland U18s squad. He’s got a truly phenomenal sidestep.
Free School Meals: Reminder that Midlothian have asked us to share the following, click here in relation to free meal payments over the holiday period.
School Uniform: Reminder, please click here to access a leaflet from Borders regarding their upcoming 20% discount off uniform. The offer opens on Monday 22nd April and closes Sunday 19th May.
HPV Vaccinations: Please click here to see the attached schedule for Thursday 18th April. Information will be shared with students first week back.
SQA 2024: We posted an important story on our website today regarding the SQA Examination Diet, please click here.
Easter School: During the Easter Holiday Lasswade teachers are offering Easter School to help support revision for SQA Exams. An updated timetable has been placed in Year Group Google Classrooms. Today students, and parent/carers, should receive an email confirming allocated sessions. Some subject sessions have been oversubscribed and my thanks to Miss Whittingham and colleagues who’ve been working to resolve issues. It has not been possible in all cases I’m afraid.
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 22/03/24. One other comment relating to a broken Chromebook. I’ve passed those details to Ms Struthers.
| My Question | Comment | Suggestion related to the school this week is: | HT’s Response |
| I think it’s great that you recognise sporting achievement in the school – SPOTY this week, although not mentioned in the update is a great example of this and encourages the kids to excel at something else, not just academia. We all have different strengths and should be recognised for them. Well done. | Thank you. Agree entirely. Ran out of time on Friday, will do a SPOTY post this week. |
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 each Monday on the school website link.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Events next week include: on Monday and Tuesday S3 students are involved with Live n’ Learn, an external organisation, working on Entrepreneurial Attitudes; on Tuesday we’ll hold our 5th Parent Council Meeting of the session from 7.00pm, see below; we’ll hold a series of SQA Assemblies on Wednesday for S4/S5/S6 students, our Industry Insights events continue on Wednesday afternoon for Senior Phase students, we’ll also issue a Senior Phase Alert 2 Report via email to parents/carers; on Thursday will hold our Student Parliament, have a extended break, see below, and finally break-up for Easter. Students and staff return to school on Tuesday 16th April 2024.
Staffing: Recruitment continues next week with our aim to make appointments in Mathematics and English. We’ll also continue with the back-fill arrangements resulting from Mrs Brown’s maternity and appointments to date, (it’s complicated, recruitment, not Mrs Brown’s maternity!).
Quality Improvement Parent Carer Survey: We send out a general survey to parents/carers every two years. The link was sent as a text message to the main parent/carer contact of all our students last Friday. Thank you to those that have managed to complete the survey. A reminder text will be sent to all parents later today (please ignore it if you’ve already completed the survey). Please take the time to fill it in if you’ve not yet managed to do so. Your response helps us to confirm what we do well and gives us a basis to think about improvements to our work. We’ll look at the feedback to date at our Parent Council Meeting on Tuesday.
Parent Council 5: Our 5th Parent Council Meeting of the session is on Tuesday 26th March form 7.00pm. Please note this meeting is in-person and will be held in Room 113/114 on the first floor. All parent/carers are welcome, please click here for more details, including the agenda.
Free School Meals: Midlothian have asked us to share the following, click here, in relation to free meal payments over the holiday period.
School Uniform: Please click here for information from Borders regarding their upcoming 20% discount off school uniform. This opens Monday 22nd April and closes Sunday 19th May.
S6 Car Wash: Thank you and well done to those in S6 who helped out with the car wash last Friday. Over £300.00 was raised to go towards the S6 Events Fund.
Read&Write Free for Families: You may be aware of the literacy toolbar Read&Write. We use this toolbar in school to support learning and it is installed on all Chromebooks. Midlothian Council was part of a video case study on the positive impact of Read&Write. You can watch the videos and find out more here. The exciting news is that Midlothian has negotiated a world-first deal that means you can now download the Read&Write toolbar at home, on up to 5 devices for free! Please use this link to download. You will be asked for the school’s postcode and then be given instructions on what to do next. Have a look at this feature tour to see all the things Read&Write.
Easter School: We’ve posted a website story on Study Leave and Easter School click here. This builds on information communicated via the HT Update last week, including Study Leave dates and arrangements.
Midlothian Council: Please click here for information on the proposal to relocate Beeslack Community High School and realign the associated catchment areas. This does affect Lasswade High School. This consultation opened on Monday 19th February and closes on Tuesday 16th April. Midlothian Council are seeking your views. To assist there is an in-person Public Consultation in school on Monday 25th March from 7.00pm to 9.00pm.
Extended Break, Thursday 28th March: To allow our staff to come together at the end of term, we will have a joint and extended break for students next Thursday. The timings for Thursday morning for all classes S1-6 will be adjusted to the following:
IT/ Communication : As part of our ongoing efforts to optimise our communication tools, we will be moving from Zoom to Microsoft Teams for our virtual meetings. This means Information Evenings and Parent Council Meetings (winter of 2024/25) will be held via Teams. Microsoft Teams offers a comprehensive suite of features that align with our requirements, including robust security measures. In addition, it is included in our Microsoft Office 365 subscription, which means we no longer need to pay for an additional Zoom subscription. Every little helps!
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher
No feedback received from HT Update dated 15/03/24.
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 each Monday on the school website link.
Key messages from this week
Calendar: Events next week include: on Tuesday we’ll hold our Sports Personality of the Year Evening; our Industry Insights events continue on Wednesday afternoon for Senior Phase students; on Thursday we’ll hold our Student Parliament, we’ll also undertake a series of classroom visits, with partners from outside LHS, to see learning in action, also on Thursday we’ll aim (weather permitting) to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Silver Training that we postponed this week; on Friday we’ll hold our March Dress Down Day.
Staffing: Recruitment continues, on Monday we appointed Emma Whittingham as a temporary Depute Head Teacher who’ll act as Mrs Brown’s backfill as she leaves at Easter to begin her maternity.
Quality Improvement Parent Carer Survey: I am very aware that you have been asked to respond to a lot of surveys and consultations recently. We send out a general survey to parents/carers every two years. Later today we’ll send a text to the main parent/carer contact of all our students with a link to the survey. Please take the time to fill it in. Your response helps us to confirm what we do well and gives us a basis to think about improvements to our work.
Ramadan: Please note we have advised our staff with information and guidance regarding supporting the Muslim members of our school community during Ramadan, which began on Monday of this week. We have stressed the impact that the fasting aspect of Ramadan may have on students and asked staff to make allowances within their teaching approaches and activities as required. Information has been shared with students via Year Group Google Classrooms.
Live n’ Learn: All S3 will be engaging in sessions with Live n Learn about Entrepreneurial Attitudes in order to develop resilience, responsibility and self-improvement strategies. Each House Class will be in a workshop for a double period across Monday 25th March and Tuesday 26th March. Details for students of their time will be placed in Year Group Google Classrooms.
Easter School: During the Easter Holiday Lasswade teachers are offering an Easter School to help support revision for SQA Exams. The timetable has been placed in Year Group Google Classrooms (please note the timetable may evolve further as we gauge student interest and staff availability, e.g., N5/ Higher Business is still to be added). We are asking students to look at the timetable over the weekend and think carefully about whether there are sessions they would like to attend. Students are advised to focus on the subjects they find most difficult to help make the best use of their time. Parents/carers should click here to access the timetable, note Week 1 is w/b 1st April and Week 2 is w/b 8th April. On Monday afternoon we will post a ‘note of interest’ Google Form in Year Group Google Classrooms. Students interested in our Easter School should complete this by the end of next week to indicate which sessions they would like to attend.
Midlothian Council: Please click here for information on the proposal to relocate Beeslack Community High School and realign the associated catchment areas. This does affect Lasswade High School. This consultation opened on Monday 19th February and closes on Tuesday 16th April. Midlothian Council are seeking your views.
Coldwells: For the latest update from our school photographer click here. Relevant for school leavers.
Burges Salmon Partnership: We are absolutely delighted to forge a relationship with Burges Salmon, a Law firm based in Edinburgh, to support a group of our S5 students who are interested in pursuing a career in Law. This will be primarily through a mentoring programme that will provide much needed experiences, advice and opportunities to meet the demands of applying to University to study Law, and/or related courses. Each of our S5 students has been allocated a solicitor as a mentor and the group has had an introductory session in the firm’s offices. The mentoring sessions will then begin properly in the next few weeks. We are hugely grateful to Burges Salmon, and most importantly the individual mentors who have put themselves forward for this programme, that has potential to be hugely supportive of our students.
If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below
Take Care
Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher