HT Update: Week-ending Friday 17th January 2025

Friday 17th January 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 20/01/25;  on Monday we’ll welcome our Ski Trip students and staff back to school (they return on Sunday);  on Thursday we’ll hold House Assemblies for our BGEd (S1/2/3) students and in the evening our S6 and Staff Burns Supper   

Staffing:  We’ll undertake our interview/classroom observation process with candidates for our Teacher of Physics on Tuesday.  

Wider Achievement Newsletter:  Our Winter 2024 edition of this publication is now available on our website, click here.

S3 Student Progress Consultation Evening:  Details of this event, to be held on 29/01/25,  were posted on our website earlier this week, click here

Graduate Apprenticeship Event:   We’ve made our S5/S6 students aware of the Heriot-Watt Graduate Apprenticeship Recruitment Fair on 20 February 2025.  This is a chance for those interested to speak to employers about some fantastic career opportunities in construction, civil engineering, engineering, software development, data science and business.  The event is aimed at

• School students/leavers who have achieved or are on track to achieve at least 4 Highers or equivalent at level B or above
• Parents/carers

It is an opportunity to speak directly to employers, and the Heriot-Watt Graduate Apprenticeship Team,  about opportunities they have available for September 2025.

Here’s why Graduate Apprenticeships are a great option for many young people

• Earn while you learn – work towards a degree while in full-time employment
• All degrees are fully funded – avoid student debt
• Apply learning in the workplace immediately
• Fast-track your career with 4 years’ work experience

Just click here to sign up for the event.

Lasswade High School Childcare Service:  Reminder.  In consultation with Midlothian we are consulting on a proposal to close the service.  The consultation opened at the end of November 2024 and closes on Friday 24 January 2025 and Midlothian Council are seeking your views.  You can find more information, such as the consultation proposal document and online survey, at https://midlothiancouncil.citizenspace.com/education/lasswade-hscs-consultation

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.  Please note all young people in S3 are offered the MenACWY and DTP vaccines which protect against meningitis, diphtheria, tetanus and polio. These vaccines are given as an injection in the upper arm and provide longer-term protection against these serious and, in some cases, life-threatening diseases. Please visit www.nhsinform.scot/chat-sign-protect for further information, including videos about why vaccines are offered to young people and what to expect at the vaccination session.

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. Thanks to those who contributed last week.  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.

If you have any feedback/questions relating to this update please submit them via the link below

Feedback here

Take Care

Campbell Hornell,  Head Teacher

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