HT Update: Week ending 2nd September 2022

Friday 2nd September 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

Staffing: We have welcomed a number of new staff to our school this session.  A full staff list is available on our website click here

Parent Council:  A reminder that our first Parent Council Meeting of the session will be held on Tuesday 6th September.  The meeting will be our first in-person one for a while and begins at 7.00pm.   The Parent Council is a crucial part of our school and I’d encourage as many parents/carers as possible to attend.  A news story was posted on our website earlier this week giving additional details click here

Senior Phase Awards Ceremony This important celebration in our school calendar takes place on Thursday 22nd September.  Mrs Brown leads on it.  She uses SQA data to identify the subject related recipients with staff nomination and other school data taking care of those in receipt of an award.   Student rehearsals are an inevitable part of our preparations but rest assured we’ll aim to keep disruption, i.e., time out of class, to a minimum. 

SQA Appeals: Today is the deadline for appeals. As you’d expect we have progressed appeals in line with the SQA’s guidelines and timescales. Around 350 appeals are being submitted.  Priority appeals were submitted earlier as these candidates are relying on them for places at college and university.  SQA have informed us that they will confirm the outcome of these priority appeals to schools on Monday 5th September, and will notify UCAS by Tuesday 6th September.  The results of all other, i.e., for those students still at school are scheduled to be issued to schools by the end of October 2022, with new certificates posted to students by mid-November 2022. However, the SQA has informed schools it may be necessary to extend these dates, depending on the volume of appeals they receive.

School Uniform:  Thank you again for your support regarding school uniform.  In the first three weeks many minor issues have been resolved.  From next week we enter a new phase in monitoring uniform compliance with details highlighted in a recent website post click here   The website post does include details on our ‘Lasswade Wardrobe’ initiative designed to offer support to students and families.  In addition,  the Scottish Government is currently consulting on school uniform and I’m aware that there are a range of views on the topic and that people may want to have their say.  The consultation closes in the middle of October and can be assessed via this link click here

Assembly: On Monday morning all S1 students will attend an Extra Curricular/Sports Assembly during period 1. The Assembly will help to set the scene and encourage sign-up at our Extra Curricular Fair on Thursday of next week. 

Scottish School Football Association:  We were delighted to learn this week that we have been recognised as the ‘School of the Year’ by the SSFA.  This is largely a recognition of our on-going work that has built our School of Football programme over recent years and was undoubtedly helped by two of our teams securing Scottish Cup success.  Congratulations to all the players, coaches and parents who provide on-going support and encouragement.    

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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