HT Update: Week-ending Friday 28th February 2025

Friday 28th February 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 03/03/25; on Thursday we’ll issue our second S3 Report

Staffing: We’re continuing the process of teacher recruitment. Our Teacher of Business Studies vacancy remains ‘live’ on myjobscotland. In addition we have added vacancies in; Teacher of ASN Complex Needs, Learning Assistant ASN, Principal Teacher Humanities and Teacher of PE with Dance.

SQA Update: We’ve posted an important update on our website. It includes Study Leave dates agreed by Midlothian Secondary HTs to ensure consistency across schools. Click here to access the information.

Scottish Apprenticeship Week: The following resource, created by Caroline Rosie, our Developing the Young Workforce Coordinator is definitely worth a look. It has live vacancies and a webinar with employers from the region discussing their opportunities and hints and tips for a successful application and interview DYW – Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2025 – Employers and Vacancies. It is also shared on Google Year Group Classrooms.

Transport Review: Reminder: We’ve been asked to advertise the following consultation with our school community. Midlothian Council is developing an integrated transport policy covering Home To School Transport (HTST), Additional Support Needs (ASN), Children’s Services, and Adult Social Care. This approach is essential to ensure the policy is consistent and accurately reflects the transitions between services. As part of this online engagement, they are keen to gather the views of ASN parents and carers regarding current and future transport provision.Please ensure that any necessary feedback is provided by Wednesday 5 March 2025 using this link, click here.

Message from Tareena Amin, School Captain: For my last week of statements, I would like to tell you a little bit about the humanitarian crisis in Syria. Children in Syria are facing one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world right now. UNICEF reported that over 7 million children are in need of urgent care – more than 6 million in need of security and protection due to the many child rights violations that occur in the country.

The presence of international military operations, ISIS and other armed groups, heavily contribute towards the attacks, human rights violations, and destruction that occur in the country. It has been reported that nearly 40% of destroyed hospitals and healthcare facilities have been left partly or completely non-functional, leaving the access to healthcare limited. More than 2.4 million children have had their education stopped due to mass displacement and damage to schools. This results in these children to be exploited – risking child marriages, forced labour, trafficking, and potentially being recruited to join the armed forces that cause all this conflict. Citizens of Syria also have a lack of access to clean water, poor sanitation, and access to food is becoming limited. This has increased the likelihood of waterborne diseases amongst civilians and children, and their collapsed healthcare system means that citizens are more vulnerable as they aren’t provided the treatment they need.

Through our chosen charity, UNICEF, we will be able to donate towards their humanitarian aid packages which are working towards improving the educational opportunities for Syrian children and provide them with nutritional packages that include safe, clean drinking water and vaccines against the diseases that they are vulnerable to. As a school community, we can also help Syrian children get access to the education and basic human rights that all of us are fortunate to have.

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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