HT Update: Week-ending Friday 14th March 2025

Friday 14th March 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 afternoon on the school website.

Key messages from this week

Calendar: Significant events week beginning 17/03/25; on Monday through Thursday we have our N5 and Higher Music Practical Exams; on Tuesday it’s our Parent Council 4 meeting, see below; on Thursday it’s our Higher Drama Practical Exam and in the evening it’s our Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) Awards Ceremony.

Staffing: LHS posts currently live on myjobscotland are Teacher of Computing and Teacher of Biology, both close on 26/03/25.

SLT and Student Support Roles/Remits: We look forward to welcoming back Caroline Brown, DHT, from her maternity leave on Monday 31st March. This means a number of staff will return to their substantive posts following the Easter holiday

Claire Main will return to her post as Head of House, St Leonard’s
Shaunie Sharp will return to her post as PT Tracking & Monitoring, St Leonard’s
Katie Gallagher will return to her post as Teacher of Home Economics.

A huge thank you Claire, Shaunie and Katie who have done an outstanding job for the past year.

Linked to the above, there will be a number of changes to DHT House Links, again applicable from Easter.

Caroline Brown will link with St Leonard’s
Hana Petrie will link with St Anne’s
Lynsey Struthers will link with Mount Esk.
Neil Chisholm will link with Melville

Some changes to DHT remits are in the pipeline from August 2025-26. Neil Chisholm is moving into the DHT Student Support remit and Suzanne Yule is moving into the DHT Community & Culture remit. Wider DHT remits, year group responsibilities and faculty links are also under review. Any other potential changes will apply from August.

Parent Council 4: This meeting will take place on Tuesday 18th March. The meeting will be online, via Teams, and begins at 7.00pm. Full details via the website, click here.

SQA: The SQA have now published ‘Your Exams’ on their website. It contains important information, rules and advice for students on what to do before, during, and after their exams. We’ll encourage all our students who are entered to sit upcoming National Qualification exams to download it. Rest assured we’ll also cover aspects of this with students in the last week of term. You can find it at www.sqa.org.uk/yourexams.

Midlothian Young Musician Solo Performer of the Year 2025: Congratulations to prize winner, Amelia Klain who was awarded runner up for her impressive vocal performance. Outstanding performances from Maisie Walker (flute), Cecily Scally (vocalist), Amelia Klain (vocalist), Maria Karpinska (guitar) and Mila Dickson (cornet).

Rotary Club Young Musician of the year 2025: We were treated to incredible performances from our talented musicians: Maisie Walker (flute) Cecily Scally (vocalist) and Rebbeca Ramage (vocalist). Congratulations to Cecily who was awarded first place vocalist. Cecily went on to perform in the area final for Borders, East Lothian and Midlothian.

Rugby Final: On Saturday 29th March, Lasswade High School Under 18’s will compete in the East Shield Final at Lasswade Rugby Club against their local rivals Preston Lodge. The previous game between the two teams was a thriller, finishing 38-31 to Lasswade. The boys would really appreciate the support of the school community in their biggest game of the season. Kick off is at 2pm on the main pitch. Hope to see you there!

UNICEF Donation: Throughout February, Tareena, one of our School Captains has been sharing her thoughts on the humanitarian impact of conflicts across the world. As stated, in March, the plan is to move to a series of in-school fundraising events. As parents/carers I appreciate that you also may want to contribute. Thanks to those who have already. To that end we have set up an option for you through Parentpay, click here.

Feedback here

Take Care

Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher

Share on Facebook