HT Update: Week-ending Friday 25th April 2025

Friday 25th April 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, 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 28/04/25;  from Monday the SQA Exam Diet continues;  on Wednesday it’s the Advanced Higher Music Performance Exams;  on Thursday it’s the Junior Maths Challenge;  on Friday S2 Girls in SA/SL are involved in our first ever Girls STEM Day.  

Staffing:  This week we appointed a Teacher of Biology, who’ll join us in August.  We wished Daisy Forbes, PE,  best wishes today as she starts her maternity leave on Monday.   We have no posts currently live on myjobscotland.

Easter School 2025:  My thanks to students and staff who attended our 2025 Easter School at Lasswade during the holiday period.  I’m also grateful to Angela Wallerstein, PT Science, for her leadership of the programme.  Our Easter School was an offer of additional subject specific exam support workshops during the Easter Holidays, aimed at supporting students with their exam preparation. In previous years, Easter School has been highly rated amongst our students for helping them structure revision during the holidays and building their exam confidence; 2025 has proved no different.

A broad range of subject specific workshops were offered over the two week period with multiple sessions running on each day. Over 340 requests for places were submitted with the majority of students receiving a place on their preferred date. This was largely due to the number and range of study workshops offered this year. Over the 9 days of Easter School, students opted into 1 (or more) of the 54 subject specific sessions offered covering a wide variety of subjects including Maths, English, Media, History, Classical Studies, Modern Studies, Psychology, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computing, Business Studies, Fashion & Textiles, Drama, PE, Music, Music Tech, Spanish and French.   

SQA:  SQA exams begin today for tens of thousands of candidates across Scotland, as well as here at Lasswade.  The exam period concludes on Friday 30 May.  More than 132,000 learners will sit exams in schools and colleges across the country.  More than two million exam papers will be distributed to over 480 centres.  We are a relatively small but important part of the process.  All candidates are expected to get their results on Tuesday 5 August.  They can also sign up for a MySQA account to receive results by text and/or email. Registration is open at www.mysqa.org.uk and must be completed by 5pm on Wednesday 16 July using their Scottish Candidate Number.

As HT, but also a parent, I know this is a stressful time for all involved.  We are here to help and please do not hesitate to reach out to Student Support in the first instance if you have concerns.  Use the feedback option at the end of this update to access myself.  Although students are on Study Leave they can still access the building and their teachers if required.   

Study Leave:  A reminder that Study Leave will run from 28th April to 30th May (inclusive). Students who had an exam today were entitled to take an additional study day yesterday.  This pattern is agreed across all Midlothian schools.  

 

Feedback here

Take Care

Campbell Hornell,  Head Teacher

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