HT Weekly Update; Week-ending Friday 13th October 2023

Friday 13th October 2023

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, where appropriate, will be responded to and published by Monday afternoon on the school website link.   With the school holiday this will be published on Monday 23rd October. 

Key messages from this week

Calendar:  Next week,  we are on holiday, with students returning to school on Tuesday 24th October. On week beginning 23/10/23 we’ll hold our P7 Open Evening on Tuesday from 6.00pm,  on Thursday N5 and Higher RMPS students are on a school trip,  Friday 27th October will be a Dress Down Day.

Staffing: Congratulations to Carly Heywood who was successful at an interview for the temporary 0.5fte PT of Humanities.  She’ll take this post up after the October break.  Today was the last day for Ali Mitchell DHT and most recently my HT Job-share.  This week many staff and students have thanked Ali for being part of our school.  Personally, it’s been a privilege to work with her.  She’s  brought poise, professionalism, calmness and kindness to our school.  In her time with us she’s made a significant impact on the school curriculum and practices but also on many colleagues and young people.  She’ll be missed by many and I’ve no doubt will be a huge success in Fife at Balwearie HS.

October Break: A reminder that we break up for our October holiday today.  Staff return to work on Monday 23rd October and our students on Tuesday 24th October.  This, for subject rotation purposes, will be Week 2.

Academy of Performing Arts:  Congratulations and thanks to the APA staff and well over 70 students who put on an amazing performance last night at their showcase event.  Under the title, ‘Nicest Kids in Town’ the S1/S2/S3 students involved showcased all their work over recent weeks.  It was an epic evening with so many positive comments from the audience as they were leaving.  Thank you to those in attendance for your support of this project.

Fire Evacuation: Our planned practice fire evacuation this week went well.  SLT carried out a debrief following the event and will share our learning and minor adaptations with staff and students in due course.  

Parent Council AGM: Last night we held our Parent Council AGM.  This was a short meeting where we confirmed our Office Bearers;  Chair, Treasurer and Clerk.  We’ll update the website shortly with details.  

House Captains: Our House Captains are organising a few Halloween themed events as competitions and team building activities.  On Friday 27th October there will be a Halloween Bake-Off open to entries submitted on the day from S4/5/6 and staff. On Tuesday 31st October staff and S6 are invited to dress up for Halloween, with prizes and house points for the best dressed. On that same day, there will be a judging of a Halloween Doors competition. Doors will be decorated from Tuesday 24th October onwards ready for Halloween.

Dyslexia Awareness Week Scotland:  Thank-you to those parents/carers who are able to support this event (posted last week).  As a school we will focus on dyslexia awareness from the week beginning Monday 30th October. We’ll use this time to raise awareness of dyslexia in our school.  We are planning resources for good practice for teachers, lessons for PSEd, informative and supportive displays and sharing stories from some of our students, staff and hopefully parents/carers. We are keen to speak to any parents/carers who have dyslexia and would be willing to share their story. This can be shared on an anonymous basis if preferred.  Please reply to this post, via the feedback facility, if it’s you.  Our team will then contact you for further information.

LASSLanguages: A new and exciting Modern Languages event is taking place between Monday 13th and Wednesday 15th November. All of our associated primary schools will be attending a ‘fun-filled’ event in the Assembly Hall, which will be led by our Modern Languages staff and Senior Phase students.

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

 

Feedback here

 

Take Care and enjoy the break.

Campbell Hornell,  Head Teacher

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