HT Weekly Update: Week-ending Friday 15th March 2024

Friday 15th March 2024

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 each Monday on the school website link.   

Key messages from this week  

Calendar:  Events next week include:  on Tuesday we’ll hold our Sports Personality of the Year Evening;  our Industry Insights events continue on Wednesday afternoon for Senior Phase students;  on Thursday we’ll hold our Student Parliament,  we’ll also undertake a series of classroom visits, with partners from outside LHS, to see learning in action,  also on Thursday we’ll aim (weather permitting) to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Silver Training that we postponed this week;  on Friday we’ll hold our March Dress Down Day.   

Staffing:   Recruitment continues,  on Monday we appointed Emma Whittingham as a temporary Depute Head Teacher who’ll act as Mrs Brown’s backfill as she leaves at Easter to begin her  maternity. 

Quality Improvement Parent Carer Survey:  I am very aware that you have been asked to respond to a lot of surveys and consultations recently.  We send out a general survey to parents/carers every two years.  Later today we’ll send a text to the main parent/carer contact of all our students with a link to the survey.  Please take the time to fill it in.  Your response helps us to confirm what we do well and gives us a basis to think about improvements to our work.  

Ramadan:  Please note we have advised our staff with information and guidance regarding supporting the Muslim members of our school community during Ramadan, which began on Monday of this week.  We have stressed the impact that the fasting aspect of Ramadan may have on students and asked staff to make allowances within their teaching approaches and activities as required.  Information has been shared with students via Year Group Google Classrooms.

Live n’ Learn: All S3 will be engaging in sessions with Live n Learn about Entrepreneurial Attitudes in order to develop resilience, responsibility and self-improvement strategies. Each House Class will be in a workshop for a double period across Monday 25th March and Tuesday 26th March.  Details for students of their time will be placed in Year Group Google Classrooms. 

Easter School: During the Easter Holiday Lasswade teachers are offering an Easter School to help support revision for SQA Exams. The timetable has been placed in Year Group Google Classrooms (please note the timetable may evolve further as we gauge student interest and staff availability, e.g., N5/ Higher Business is still to be added). We are asking students to look at the timetable over the weekend and think carefully about whether there are sessions they would like to attend. Students are advised to focus on the subjects they find most difficult to help make the best use of their time.  Parents/carers should click here to access the timetable,  note Week 1 is w/b 1st April and Week 2 is w/b 8th April. On Monday afternoon we will post a ‘note of interest’ Google Form in Year Group Google Classrooms.  Students interested in our Easter School should complete this by the end of next week to indicate which sessions they would like to attend.    

Midlothian Council:  Please click here for information on the proposal to relocate Beeslack Community High School and realign the associated catchment areas.  This does affect Lasswade High School.  This consultation opened on Monday 19th February and closes on Tuesday 16th April.  Midlothian Council are seeking your views.   

Coldwells:  For the latest update from our school photographer click here.  Relevant for school leavers.

Burges Salmon Partnership:  We are absolutely delighted to forge a relationship with Burges Salmon, a Law firm based in Edinburgh, to support a group of our S5 students who are interested in pursuing a career in Law. This will be primarily through a mentoring programme that will provide much needed experiences, advice and opportunities to meet the demands of applying to University to study Law, and/or related courses. Each of our S5 students has been allocated a solicitor as a mentor and the group has had an introductory session in the firm’s offices. The mentoring sessions will then begin properly in the next few weeks. We are hugely grateful to Burges Salmon, and most importantly the individual mentors who have put themselves forward for this programme, that has potential to be hugely supportive of our students.

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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