HT Update: Week-ending Friday 5th December 2025

Friday 5th December 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.

No Feedback from last HT Update

Key messages from this week

Calendar: Significant events week beginning 08/12/25; on Monday we’ll begin our School of Road Show visits to our associated primary schools, they run through until Wednesday, we also have a School of Course Choice for P7 parents/carers held online, S3 Mandarin students are out on a trip and we’ll hold S2, S4 and S6 Christmas Assemblies; on Tuesday LS Productions will work with our Media students, there’s a CYP Meeting and in the evening it’s our Parent Council 3, see below; on Wednesday, and Thursday, it’s Christmas Lunch; Thursday is Christmas Jumper Day for staff and students, we’ll do an online P7 School of Drop-in session for parents/carers and in the evening it’s our Christmas Concert; on Friday it’s our Santa Dash

Staffing: Our PT Learning & Teaching Mathematics, Learning Assistant, Teacher of Biology and IMS Guitar Instructor posts are all live on myjobscotland.

Parent Council 3: Our next Parent Council Meeting will be held via Teams on Tuesday 9th December from 7.00pm. Further detail on the website, click here.

QI 3.1 Evaluation Visit: Our visit on Wednesday and Thursday of this week went well. The team looked at our work, and our impact, in ensuring Wellbeing, Equality and Inclusion across the school. Our provisional feedback is that the team have validated our evaluation of the QI as ‘Very Good’, and have highlighted significant strengths in a wide range of aspects of our work. This is deserved recognition for all of the commitment and hard-work by all members of our staff and student teams at Lasswade. More detailed feedback on strengths and next steps will be provided once the full report from the team is received.

Team Home Economics: My thanks to all the students from HE, and the colleagues who teach them. Yesterday they catered for our visiting group of HTs and national officials. Phenomenal work. Particular thanks, from a student perspective, to our S1 School of Cookery and Heath students and our Senior Phase Barista students.

S2 Chromebook Clinic: The Digital Learning team have been in school today running a Chromebook Clinic for S2 students. Appointments will also be available on Wednesday 10th, Thursday 11th of December and Tuesday 16th December. Learning Technologists will work 1:1 with students for a 25 minute slot to make small repairs to Chromebooks and ‘powerwash’ older devices, improving their efficacy. Appointments last 25 minutes and students will also be given some tips and tools for managing common device issues. Students have been allocated a slot via their year group Google Classroom, this has been shared as an assignment.

ParentsPortal Reminder: We ask all parents and carers who haven’t yet completed their Annual Data Check on ParentsPortal to do so as soon as possible. We would also like to remind parents and carers that reporting absences is quick, simple and can be done at any time on Parentsportal, without needing to call the school, you will also receive confirmation when the absence has been recorded. Thank you for your continued support.

Midlothian Education Appeals Panel: A recruitment campaign has launched to find new volunteers for Midlothian’s Education Appeals Panel. If you’re keen you need to register your interest by the deadline of 5th January 2026. A dedicated webpage, with more information, is now live and can be found here: Midlothian Appeals Panel.

Christmas Appeal: Reminder. Each year our staff and students come together to support young people and families. We launched this earlier this week and need your help. Please click here for more information.

Feedback here

Take Care

Campbell Hornell, Head Teacher

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