HT Update Week Ending 23rd June 2023

Friday 23rd June 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: Key events in school next week; on Monday senior students are visiting the V&A Tartan Exhibition in Dundee, we’ll also hold BGEd Awards Ceremonies for Melville and St Leonard’s students;  on Tuesday we’ll hold BGEd Awards Ceremonies for Mount Esk and St Anne’s students;  Wednesday is our last day of term, there is no early closure with a normal 3.25pm finish for students.   We will adjust and extend the morning interval on Wednesday to allow us to collectively say farewell to staff who are moving on elsewhere or retiring.

Staffing Update:  Congratulations to Marion Reid following her successful application for Pupil Care Welfare Officer in our Complex Needs Provision (Pod).  After the Summer break, Marion will be PCWO in the Pod on a Mon-Wed and PCWO in Student Support (SL) on a Thursday and Friday.  At the end of this term we say goodbye and thank you to Kirsteen Wilkinson (Creative Design), Andy Scott (Mathematics), Gillian Wilson (Creative Learning), Gregg Meikle (Citizenship and Society), Christopher Leslie (Creative Design), Chloe Henderson (English), Racheal Moffat (English) and Ian Carpenter (Science).   We thank these colleagues for their work with our students and wish them the best of luck in their next adventure. Finally, happy retirement to Fiona Williams (Humanities) and Mike Smith (Mathematics).  Both colleagues have put many years of service in our school and in Mike’s case in Edinburgh schools too.  We hope both will enjoy their future time away from the ‘chalkface’.

Sunshine on Leith:  On Wednesday and Thursday of this week those present were privileged to witness an outstanding piece of entertainment.  Our summer show was Sunshine on Leith, written by Stephen Greenhorn and featuring songs by The Proclaimers.  All on stage, the back stage technical teams and the staff from our Performing Arts Team supporting our students came together to deliver two outstanding evenings.  Particular praise and recognition to the main cast;  Keir Allison, Sandy Bishop, Maggie Goodall, Sophie Kayembe, Jenna Masson and Daniel Wheeler.  The evenings were the final school performances for former S6 students Keir, Sandy, Sophie and Daniel.  Thank you and what a way to leave us.  Phenomenal. 

Football Celebration:  Today the whole school came out into the Atrium area towrds the end of period 4 to celebrate the achievement of our U15 and Senior Girls footballers.  Both teams won the Scottish Shield this session.  Please see our social media platforms later today for footage.  

School and House Captains:  This week we appointed 15 School and House Captains. We had almost 40 applicants in total and the standard was incredible.  We will work hard to keep those who did not come through to Captain roles as involved as they can be in opportunities across the school.  Our 7 School Captains for session 2023/24 are; Eve Foley, Maggie Goodall, Georgia Graham, Manolis Patronis, Kirstie Phillips, Caitlin Tough and Natalie Vinall.  Our House Captains are:  Grayson Urquhart and Kamila Blazkhova (Melville); Robbie Hamilton and Phoebe Kong (Mount Esk); Lara Boot and Laila Campbell (St Anne’s) and Aimee Scott and Roisin Free (St Leonard’s).  We are looking forward to working with these students on a range of projects throughout their S6.   

Beginning of Term: A reminder that students should return to school, following our summer break, on Wednesday 16h August. 

Thank you:   Ali and I would like to thank you for your on-going support of the school.  It’s been another highly successful year for LHS and our colleagues continue to work hard to improve both the experiences and outcomes for our students.  We hope you enjoy the summer and look forward to resuming our weekly HT’s Update on Friday 18th August.    

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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