HT Weekly Update: Week-ending Friday 26th April 2024

Friday 26th April 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.  

Key messages from this week  

Calendar:  Significant calendar events next week;  on Monday our Senior Phase Study Leave relating to the 2024 SQA Exam Diet begins; on Wednesday 64 S1 students are taking part in our Bannockburn Trip, on Wednesday and Thursday we have our Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Practice Expedition. 

Staffing:   Congratulations to Harry Gaughan (Science) who has secured a permanent post at Craigroyston HS in Edinburgh. Harry takes up his post there from August. On Monday we welcome Amy Elliot to the Creative Learning team as a Learning Assistant.

Car Park: A reminder to all parents/carers that disabled bays should only be used by those that have a blue badge.

School Office: Our School Office will now close at 4pm on a Wednesday due to weekly team meeting. Reception and the phones will not be manned after this time. 

SQA 2024:  The SQA website has posted a recent item that may be of interest to parents/carers if you have children in our Senior Phase, click here.

SQA 2024:  We are asking that parents/carers reinforce the following message if they have children in our Senior Phase sitting exams. Candidates/students must ensure that they arrive in plenty of time for their exam, they need to be here at least 15 minutes before the start time to be seated and logged in (if appropriate).  In addition, it is vital that students check the boards when they come into school, we sometimes make changes to the rooms and seating, as issues arise, so students need to double check for updates when they arrive.

Student Support Update:  As Mrs Main takes up an Acting Depute Head Teacher role, there are some changes to Student Support teachers within St Leonard’s.  For this term, Miss McDonald will continue as Student Support teacher for 1SL1, 1SL3, 2SL1 and 2SL3.  Mrs Main will resume her role as Student Support teacher for 3SL1 and her previous Senior Phase classes.  Mrs Sharp continues as Student Support teacher for all other SL classes.

Recruitment Event:  Midlothian have asked us to share the following:   Leaving school or starting to consider a future career that will make a difference?   Come along to a recruitment event at Edinburgh College’s Eskbank Campus on Friday 17 May between 4pm and 6pm and Saturday 18 May from 9am to noon.  Teams from Midlothian Council’s Education and Children’s Services, Midlothian Health and Social Care Partnership, Skills Development Scotland, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Third Sector will be on hand with information on job opportunities including apprenticeships and training. 

The kind of jobs and careers information on offer will be:

• Teachers
• Learning Assistants
• Early Year Practitioners
• Children Services Practitioners – who work at Hawthorn Family Learning Centre
• Children and Family Practitioners who work within our residential houses or within our social work teams
• Social workers in Adult Services, Justice and Children and Families  
• Youth Workers
• Care assistants to work in our adult care homes 
• Care at home staff – supporting people in their own homes
• Business Support roles and lots more…

Come along for a chat to find out what’s on offer, how to apply and funded training and support available.   You can also apply online:

• For more Midlothian Council jobs
• For more NHS Health and Social Care jobs

School Leavers:  Any S4-6 student who is leaving in June needs to return their Chromebooks.  They can retain them for the exam period and we understand many will want to do that. After that students need to return their Chromebook to school. Students can bring them in at any time but we’ll have a dedicated return slot on 31st May from 9:30 -11:30am as well. We’ll send a reminder about this. Click here to view a graphic to support students in preparing their Chromebook for return.

School Uniform:  Click here to access a leaflet from Borders re their 20% discount off uniform which closes on Sunday 19th May.  

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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