HT Weekly Update: Week-ending Friday 23rd August 2024

Friday 23rd August 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 on Monday on the school website.  

Key messages from this week  

Calendar:  Significant events next week;  on Monday and Tuesday our school photographer is in;  on Wednesday and Thursday Tree of Knowledge will work with our S1 Students;  Friday is a Dress Down Day 

Staffing:   We have a number of vacancies currently live on myjobscotland:  Teacher of Creative Design closing 04/09/24; x2 Learning Assistants (Creative Learning) closing 04/09/24; Learning Assistant (The Pod) closing 02/09/24; Home School Practitioner (shared post with Burnbrae PS) closing 28/08/24   

Bus Times:   We continue to monitor the arrival time of our school buses.  They should arrive at school each morning no earlier than 8.20am.  Midlothian Council’s website does have information on times for each route, click here 

School Uniform:  We have noticed a significant improvement in the compliance with our uniform expectations. As a reminder these are to have a school badge or school tie on display when in the school building. From next week, SLT will follow up on this through class visits to check uniform compliance. Student Support will then be in contact with parents/carers to seek further support or intervention for those who are not suitably dressed. Thank you for the ongoing support with this. 

Contacting the School:  When you call the school and select option 1 (Student Absences and Appointments) or option 5 (All other Enquiries) you are in effect calling the School Office.  Our aim is that staff in the main School Office will answer calls in the morning from 8.00am, each school day.  Please note that on Wednesdays, to allow a Team Meeting, the School Office phones will be answered from 8.15am.  Staff ‘clock-off’ at 4.00pm Monday through Thursday and at 1.00pm on Friday. At all times other times the Options 1 and 5 will divert to our answer machine.  In addition, at times due to the volume of calls and/or staff availability the answer machine will ‘kick-in’ during the school day.

Dress Down Day: Friday 30th August is our first Dress Down day since our return after the holiday. We relax our regular dress code expectations for the day and ask students and staff to donate what they can.  Senior students are stationed at entrances to the school with buckets for any coins or notes given over.  Two thirds of next Friday’s donations are going to be given to the Anthony Nolan Charity and Fire Scotland. The other third goes to our general school fund.  Anthony Nolan connects people who are willing to donate their stem cells, to patients with blood cancer and blood disorders in desperate need of a lifesaving transplant. The Anthony Nolan charity urgently needs donors aged 16-30 from as many different ethnic backgrounds as possible, to give everyone the best chance of survival. The drive to sign up to join the register and become a donor is on Wednesday 11th September in Lasswade High School for people aged 16 and above. Your stem cells hold limitless potential. By donating your cells, you have the power to give someone with blood cancer or a blood disorder another chance to live. Please give what you can on Friday 30th.  Please note parents/carers can also donate through Parent Pay.

Student Volunteering:  Our expectation is that all S5 and S6 students volunteer within and out with our school community. Miss McCurdy and Mr MacPherson spoke about this at recent assemblies and students are expected to sign up through their Year Group Google Classroom. Students will hear soon regarding where they will be volunteering.  Students log their volunteering hours through Saltire Awards – click here.  Our aim is to surpass last year’s incredible school total of over 3,200 hours of volunteering.

NEC Cards:  We have had a few enquiries this week regarding NEC Cards.  The first port of call for all students should be getyournec.scot.  We’ll be sending out forms in September for S1 pupils only who have not already applied for a card themselves, please be aware however this process is much slower than going online or using your local library.

NHS Flu Vaccination – Whole School:  Students will be issued with their Flu Vaccination Consent forms over the coming week.  If your child misses the issue of these in class they can be collected from Student Reception.  Consent forms should be completed and returned to Student Reception by Monday 2nd September.  Our Flu Vaccinations are scheduled to take place early December, however the nursing team requires the forms in advance to allow them to triage these.

Photographers Monday 26th & Tuesday 27th August:  Coldwells will be in school on Monday and Tuesday next week to take individual photographs as well as our S6 year group photo.  Click here to view our planned schedule.  As always it is subject to change on the day. Click here to access additional information from Coldwells around purchasing photographs.  

S1 Tree of Knowledge Workshops:  On Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th August our S1 students will complete a 2 period session in the Assembly Hall. For your information Tree of Knowledge has a great website. Please visit it regarding the content of the workshop. Our S1 are great and will follow the S2 Planet of the Chimps course, click here.

Parent Council:   We have finalised Parent Council dates for the session.  We have five ‘dotted’ throughout the year.  We have also confirmed the date of our Parent Council led Christmas Fair.  The dates are as follows, and also on the calendar on the website;  

• PC 1  Thursday 5th September 2024
• PC 2/AGM  Tuesday 29th October 2024
• Christmas Fair:   Thursday 5th December 2024
• PC 3 Tuesday 4th February 2025
• PC 4 Thursday 27th March 2025
• PC 5 Tuesday 27th May 2025    

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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