HT Update: Week Ending 11th November 2022

Friday 11th November 2022

This concise weekly HT Update will be published every Friday afternoon with 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 afternoons on the school website link. 

Key messages from this week

Calendar: Next week’s key events include;  activity around Geography Awareness Week and Book Week Scotland; Student Voice Year Council Meetings and our Student Voice Parliament on Wednesday; our video conference based S4 Parents’ Evening from 5.00pm to 7.00pm on Wednesday;  our in-person Art & Design Exhibition is on Thursday from 6.00pm to 8.00pm; Career Ready on Friday.

Staffing Update:  This week we welcomed Michelle Livingstone, Learning Assistant to Creative Learning.  Congratulations to Dawn McNeil, who has been successful in securing the temporary post of PT Tracking and Monitoring for Melville House to start on 28th November. Dawn will cover this role whilst Jamie McQueen takes on the role of Head of House following Jill McLaren’s recent appointment as DHT Curriculum and Innovation.  Jill’s last day as a LHS member of staff will be on Friday 25th November.

School Podcast:   Episode 1 of our School Podcast Series, ‘Lasswade Life’ is now available to listen to here. This is our introductory episode and we aim to release further episodes fortnightly. Each episode will cover aspects of our plans and work as we continue to move the school forward and seek improvements.  Essentially it’s about what life is like at Lasswade High School. You’ll hear from our whole school community on the matters that are central to the work we do.  Please use the link below to provide feedback and suggest areas for future podcast episodes. .

Industrial Action: You will almost certainly be aware that yesterday the main teacher’s union, the EIS,  announced the result of a recent statutory ballot of members.  The result was decisive and exceeded the legal threshold required to carry out lawful industrial action.  The union then announced the first day of strike action as Thursday 24th November, with the further dates from early in the new year to be confirmed.  Clearly these announcements will have a significant impact, as the EIS represents 80% of Scotland’s teachers,  and you do not have to be the Chief of Police to work out what is likely to happen.  As I’m sure you’ll understand I’m not yet able to confirm exact arrangements as schools await the outcomes of Midlothian wide discussion with school leaders.  However,  I expect to communicate next week with you regarding the full implications and associated arrangements for Thursday 24th November.  

School Panto:  As a ‘Save the Date’ notice please be aware that our Christmas Panto, Snow White will be held, in-person, on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th December.   This will be our first live show for three years.  The show cast will be made up of S1/2/3 students with Senior Students and staff assisting behind the scene and with music, lighting e.t.c.   Please keep an eye on our website and socials for more information over the next few weeks. Details of the ticket release will be issued shortly.  

Remembrance Ceremonies: A big thank you to Miss Dowie, the Social Studies Champions and School Captains for all of their hard work with the delivery of our Remembrance ceremonies this week. The assemblies were planned exceptionally well and were a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by those who have been involved in conflicts around the world. Our Remembrance Week culminated in the S6 Assembly on Friday and our school wide Minute’s Silence at 11.00am. 

Lasswade Art & Design Exhibition 2022: Thursday 17th November 6pm – 8pm. We hope you can make this event to celebrate the achievements of our creative and talented S1-S3 and senior students! There will also be work on display from Design and Technology, Fashion, Origami Club and some live music performed by students.  

Learning Walks: Learning Walks will begin towards the end of November, with SLT visiting classes for 10-15 minutes at a time. The aim of these ‘walks’ as before, is to engage with students about their learning and gather a picture of how we are progressing with whole school learning & teaching priorities. We are aiming to ‘grow’ our learning walk team as we move into the new year, working with interested staff and with students. We will keep you up to date as we develop our programme.

Parking:  In our update w/e 16th September we shared the following message,  ‘Please avoid parking in the disabled spaces near the main entrance, unless of course you have a ‘blue badge’.  We regularly receive complaints from parents/carers and centre customers with a ‘blue badge’ who cannot secure a space.  They usually cite the end of the school day and parents/carers collecting their children.  We have no authority to move cars/drivers who are parking there inappropriately and rely on individuals doing the right thing.  However, we do liaise with our ‘Campus Cop’ and he is able to organise periodic checks around those waiting in disabled bays.’   This morning was one of those checks.   This included Police action on cars ignoring the Bus Only signs and dropping-off in the Bus Bay.   Please ensure that if you are dropping off your child by car you do so in the school/centre car park.  Police monitoring will continue.  

Mission Christmas & Food Bank Donations: From Monday 28th November to Friday 9th December, we will be collecting food bank donations and children’s’ gifts for Mission Christmas in the Atrium and at reception. If you can, we would appreciate any/all of your donations. Thank you for your anticipated kindness and generosity.  Donations only accepted from Monday 28th November.   The following website statements have additional detail click here  and also click here

If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below

Feedback here

Take Care

Campbell Hornell and Ali Mitchell,  Head Teachers

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