As part of our commitment to continuous school improvement, our aim this session is to keep parents and carers up to date with the latest school administrative/business news on a weekly basis. As such, 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

In-service Days: Our staff-only days on Monday and Tuesday of this week allowed us to: re-engage as a group, share important operational information, fulfil statutory obligations (such as Child Protection training) and finally, to consider our ‘mission’.

School Mission Statement: As part of our review and refresh of our school values we have updated our School Mission Statement. It is as follows, ‘Lasswade High School is committed to nurturing, inspiring and empowering our students and staff to learn, progress and achieve at the very highest standard. We believe in our values; creativity, effort, kindness and respect and work together as a community to provide all our students with opportunities to succeed and reach their goals. Our school leavers are equipped and ready to contribute positively and embrace the challenges of being a local, national and international citizen.’  This statement is an important reference point for our staff and will help as we continue to move the school forward.

School Calendar: We are working with the Midlothian Digital Team to share our whole school calendar with parents/carer via our website. The current issue is around security settings and only shows events as ‘busy’. This calendar should allow you to see term/holiday dates, Parents’ Evenings, Reporting dates, school events, Parent Council Meetings e.t.c. We are working hard to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

New S1: We welcomed 292 new First Year students on Wednesday morning. They created a positive impression in June on their Induction Days and again this week. They have been supported by their S6 Buddies this week. From Monday we scale back this support. Any concerns/questions you have regarding your child’s start to school please get in touch with the school via email, lasswade_hs@midlothian.gov.uk, and mark your email for the attention of ‘ Mrs Brown DHT. She will direct any issues to the relevant staff from there.

Welcome Back: This session we used our school tannoy to allow students to maximise their in-school time on their classes/subjects, to welcome back students, and offer a gentle reminder around some key expectations. These included school day timings, dress code expectations and Covid-19 mitigations. Year Assemblies are scheduled for next week.

Student Re-coursing: All requests for re-coursing have now closed. Our aim is to complete all re-coursing by Wednesday 31st August at the latest. Miss Petrie is leading on this

Dress Code: Thank you for your support regarding school uniform, student compliance has been impressive with work ongoing to maintain, and also improve, this great start to the session. Our initial feedback would be please double check your child’s footwear. Shoes should be all black. Having said that, next Friday is a ‘dress down day’. Given the cost of living challenges, we make a recommendation regarding the amount students and staff should consider as a donation, however, students should only donate what they can.

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