HT Update: Week-ending Friday 10th January 2025

Friday 10th January 2025

Happy New Year to all in our school community and welcome to the first HT Update of 2025. 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, and where appropriate, will be responded to and published on Monday afternoons on the school website.

Key messages from this week

Calendar: Significant events week beginning 13/01/25; on Monday, having left on Sunday, our Ski Trip students and staff will hopefully be safely navigating the slopes for the week, we’ll also hold our S2 Student Voice Year Council Meeting; on Tuesday we’ll hold our S6 Student Voice Year Council Meeting; on Wednesday we’ll hold hold our S3 Student Voice Year Council Meeting; on Thursday we’ll hold hold our S4 and S5 Student Voice Year Council Meetings; on Friday it’s our S1 Student Voice Year Council Meeting.

Staffing: Congratulations to Stella Fotheringham on her appointment to the permanent PT BGEd Creative Design and CLPL role within the school. Congratulations also to Robyn Taylor who was successfully appointed as Acting PT BGEd (0.124FTE) Science. This is in effect a Friday role as Mrs Easterbrook covers the role Monday through Thursday.

Coursing: Our S2 into S3 Course Choice process has now begun and will conclude for students on Wednesday 22nd January. It’s an exciting time for our S2’s and over the next few weeks we’re encouraging them to ask their teachers questions regarding subjects in their area. This helps ensure our students make informed decisions. As parents/carers do not hesitate to contact Student Support if you need to regarding this process. Contact details, click here.

Anti-Racism: As part of our continuing work towards achieving The Anti-Racist School Award with Leeds Beckett University, we would be keen to hear your views. We are currently working to produce and adopt a discreet Anti-Racism Policy and would value your thoughts on this too. If you could spare a few minutes please give us your thoughts via the feedback form below. Ideally thoughts on whether you consider racism a significant feature within our community and what kind of things our policy should contain. Your thoughts would be really appreciated by those staff and students working on this important initiative.

P7 Information Evening, Second Offer: Any P7 pupil who missed the October P7 Information Evening will be invited into school on Friday 24th January from 12:45pm with a family member. My thanks to Mrs Main for organising this.

Google Guardian: We are now rolling out Google Guardian to S/6 parent/ carer(s). Today you should have received communication which allows you to opt out, if you do not want to receive weekly learning summaries, or to inform us of an additional, or different email address to be added. If you’re opting in, you’ll receive an email week beginning 20th January to invite you to join. It’s important to note that this email will be from Google, not school, so could be easily missed or might go into junk. We will send an alert to all S5/6 parents once emails have been sent so you can look out for it. Following S5/6, we will roll out Google Guardian to S1 – S3 students, in year group order, aiming to have the roll out completed by the February break.

Conduct in the Community: This week we posted a message on all Year Group Google Classrooms regarding students behaviour in the community. Essentially a reminder for students that their conduct in the community before and after school, but really importantly at break and lunch, is expected to show our school values in action. We expect, as I’m sure you do to, that our students should be respectful of all members of our community in how they interact with them. We expect our students to be kind to anyone that they come across and be respectful of our environment by putting any rubbish in the bin. Some of our local shopkeepers have told our senior staff that they have not always had great experiences with some students when speaking with them or even describe some blocking the way of some of their customers. Our belief this type of behaviour is not typical and almost all of our students are strong role models and ambassadors for the school. Nevertheless, we’ve reminded students that the area around our community is covered by CCTV and any footage can be reviewed by the school or Police Scotland. We also have asked students to be ‘whistle-blowers’ where necessary and let any of the Depute Head Teachers know if they see inappropriate conduct in the community.

Rear Gates to the School: Please note that the gates to the rear playground, and alongside the Astroturf pitch, will only be open for entry to the school campus at the start and end of the day. These gates will be locked in the interests of security throughout the school day, including break and lunch time. Entry and exit to the school campus/building should only be through the front doors via reception during the school day. The gates would be opened by our facilities team in the event of an evacuation of the school, to allow normal access to the assembly points.

Teenage Booster Consent Forms: Teenage Booster Vaccinations are scheduled for February 2025, NHS consent forms were issued prior to the Christmas break to all students in S3 and any students in S4-6 who have missed this vaccination previously. If you have not already done so please complete and return the forms to Student Reception on Monday as the vaccination team will be triaging the returns early next week.

S1 Students: We are pleased with how our S1 have settled in during the first two terms. Prior to Christmas I visited most S1 classes to hear some feedback from the students. I’ve a handful of the 16 classes still to see and will do that next week. Nevertheless, a strong emerging theme was a desire for S1 to be off-campus at break/lunch if they so choose. Our SLT met this week to discuss and have agreed that this is appropriate. S1 Students were informed today and will be permitted to be off-campus, at the appropriate times, from Monday.

Skills Development Scotland, SDS: Our colleagues in SDS (careers service) have asked us to share the following with you. There have been some changes which they have made to their timetable of delivery arrangements from this week onwards. They are hoping that these changes will enable SDS to continue providing a consistent and accessible service to Midlothian residents. The SDS phone number is still the same – 0131 663 7287 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm). Please give the team a call if you would like to book an appointment with one of their advisers. The new career service delivery timetable in Midlothian is as follows.

Monday 09:00-16:00: Midlothian Voluntary Action – 4-6 White Hart Street, Dalkeith, EH22 1AE
Tuesday 09:00-17:00: Midlothian Campus, Edinburgh College – 46 Dalhousie Road, Dalkeith, EH22 3FR
Wednesday 10:30-17:00: Midlothian Campus, Edinburgh College – 46 Dalhousie Road, Dalkeith, EH22 3FR
Thursday 09:30 -16:30: Gorebridge Beacon – Hunterfield Road, Gorebridge, EH23 4TT
Friday (Morning) 09:00-13:00: Midlothian Campus, Edinburgh College – 46 Dalhousie Road, Dalkeith, EH22 3FR
Friday (Afternoon) 14:00-17:00: Food Fact Friends – 42 John Street, Penicuik, EH26 8AB