HT Update: Week Ending 9th December 2022

Friday 9th December 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:  S4 students involved in First Aid Training, Monday through Thursday; Student Voice Year Councils for all year groups are being held across the week;  on Tuesday we’ll hold our S3 Virtual  Parents’ Evening;  on Wednesday there are P7 students visiting in the afternoon to be part of our audience for our school pantomime, Snow White,  with public performances on Wednesday and Thursday Evening beginning at 7.00pm;  next Friday is our last Dress Down Day of 2022 and our now annual Santa Dash organised by our PE Team.

Staffing Update:  Coinciding with Suzanne Yule’s return as DHT in January (intimated last week) Jonny MacWhirter, who has been part of our Senior Team since January, is returning to his substantive DHT role at Beeslack CHS.  Jonny has been a popular and effective member of our school with both staff and students.  We thank him for his work with us and wish him well on his return to Beeslack.  He will finish with us at the end of term.  

Podcast: You can listen to the latest episode of our Lasswade Life Podcast here about our successes and achievements and improvement agenda for this session. Thanks to those involved for their input.

Winter Warmer:  The Parental Employability Support Team within Midlothian Council, are working in partnership with English for Speakers of Other Languages (Midlothian Council), Napier University, Edinburgh College and Skills Development Scotland on an event, please click here for details.  They are looking to connect with anyone who does not have English as their first language, it does not matter if they have been living in Midlothian for a long time or a short time, all are welcome.  Children are also welcome if they are at home with young ones.  It is taking place in Dalkeith Arts Centre on Thursday 15^th December between 2pm and 4pm.  It is a drop in so anyone can pop in between those times, feel free to share with anyone else you think may have an interest in this event.

Christmas Concert: A huge congratulations and thank you to all the Performing Arts students, staff, instrumental teachers, technical support and wider team for a fantastic concert on Wednesday evening. It was brilliant to see and hear such talented students performing for a packed audience of family and friends. 

School Photographs:  Coldwells Art, who undertake our school photographs of students, have asked us to share the following information.   They have delivered everything ordered to date but please, if there are any queries click here.  Parents/carers should now go directly to Coldwells and not to our School Office.  This notice also confirms, there is a provision for digital orders only, before Christmas.  

Digital Learning, Parent/Carer Webinars:   Please find below details of some upcoming webinars for families. You are encouraged, as parents and carers, to register and attend an online session.  There are four webinars that will focus on what parents/carers can do to help keep your child safe online and how you can support your child to get the most out of his/her device.  Each webinar,  we’ve included the primary and secondary sessions, is held from 7.00pm , for an hour, on the following dates:

• Tuesday 24 January- Digital Safety (ELC/Primary) Click here to register
• Wednesday 25 January- Digital Safety (Secondary) Click here to register
• Tuesday 7 February- Supporting Your Child With Their Device (Primary) Click here to register
• Wednesday 8 February- Supporting Your Child With Their Device (Secondary) Click here to register

Industrial Action: Please note that the two main teacher unions, the EIS and SSTA, have announced further days of industrial action in January 2023.  The two days that have been announced are Wednesday 11th January (EIS and SSTA) and Thursday 26th January (EIS).   SSTA plan to announce additional date(s) shortly.  Our hope of course is that there is a resolution to the dispute and these planned dates do not transpire.  However, early notice will alert parents/carers to possible childcare issues.  As always we’ll confirm exact arrangements when we can as we follow Midlothian wide discussion and decision making.  

School Panto:  A reminder that our Christmas Panto, Snow White will be held, in-person, on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th December.    Tickets are available via ParentPay.  

Mission Christmas & Food Bank Donations: From Monday 28th November to Friday 9th December, we have been collecting food bank donations and children’s’ gifts for Mission Christmas. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.  We have had a fabulous response and will share details next week.  

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

Tweet  Share on Facebook