HT Update: Week-ending Friday 22nd August 2025

Friday 22nd August 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.  Any feedback received will be responded to and published on Monday afternoon on the school website.  

Feedback received from last HT Update:  Click here.

Key messages from this week  

Calendar:  Significant events week beginning 25/08/25;  on Monday and Tuesday next week the school photographer is in school, see below,  on Monday we’ll also hold our S4 Student Voice meeting;  on Tuesday we’ll hold our S6 Student Voice meeting;  on Wednesday and Thursday  we have Senior Phase Awards Ceremony rehearsals;  on Thursday our Lab Skills class visit Seafield, our Silver DofE Award group undertake canoe training and we’ll hold S3 and S5 Student Voice meetings;  Friday is our August Dress Down Day 

Staffing:   Congratulations to Stella Fotheringham, who in line with our established practice, will step up to ‘act’ as PT Creative Design for Amanda Montague when she begins her maternity.

Senior Phase Awards Ceremony 2025:  Our seniors’ achievements will now be celebrated on Wednesday 10th September. This week I was pleased to meet with the following principal prize winners to break the news and offer my congratulations,

• Charlotte Gee, S5 Dux
• Chloe Gilbertson, S5 Proxime Accessit
• Jessica Price, S4 Dux
• Abigail Wong, S4 Proxime Accessit

Reporting:  As highlighted in last week’s HT Update I’ve tried to summarise our approach to reporting for this session.  Click here, to read more.

Whole School Photographs:  Our school photographers Coldwells will be in on Monday and Tuesday next week to take individual photographs for all students as well as the S6 Year Group photograph.  Please see our webpost for more details including the planned schedule and how to book sibling and fun sessions.

NHS Flu Vaccination – Whole School:  Students will receive their Flu Vaccination Consent forms over the next week. Consent forms should be completed and returned to Student Reception by Friday 29th August.  Our Flu Vaccinations are scheduled to take place on 26th & 27th November, however the nursing team requires the forms in advance to allow them to triage these.  Thank you in advance for this quick turnaround.

Parentsportal:  (Reminder) Thank you to the many of you who have already signed up for Parentsportal.  This application is now available to our new S1 parents and carers. If you have not yet done so please see the link for more information. This session Parentsportal will be the platform through which you will access all future Student Reports, as well as a number of other functions designed to support communication and engagement including reporting student absences and the ability to view student timetables.   It is therefore important that you sign-up.  If you have any questions or problems please get in touch with the school office lasswadehsoffice@midlothian.education

Performing Arts:  We are delighted to announce that this year’s Junior Panto, held on 17th and 18th December,  will be ‘Peter Pan’. If you’ve a child in S1/2/3 please let them know that auditions are open to anyone from S1 – S3 and will be taking place on Monday 1st September and Wednesday 3rd September from 3:30pm – 5pm in the Assembly Hall. To apply all students need to do is fill out the google form attached to a recent post in their Year Group Google Classroom. This must be completed by Thursday 28th August. If students have any questions, they should pop in and speak to Mrs McKenzie (Rm 007) or Miss Brown (Rm 006) in the Drama Team.

‘Family Friendly’ Midlothian Council Service Improvement Plan:  We’ve been asked to share this with you.  It gives an overview of the improvement that Midlothian as a local authority is aiming to secure through all schools and helps inform our own school plan.  Family Friendly Service Improvement Plan. 

Advice for Families re Online Safety:  As the new school year begins,  Midlothian Council are asking us to remind all families that you can find webinars and website links on the digital safety page of the Equipped for Learning website to help with keeping children safe online. You may be aware that internetmatters.org is a particularly helpful site that has downloadable parent guides for commonly used apps and platforms, including this one for WhatsApp.  If you are worried about online communication involving your child, please visit the CEOP site for advice and reporting. 

 

Feedback here

Take Care

Campbell Hornell,  Head Teacher

 

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