HT Weekly Update: Week-ending Friday 3rd May 2024

Friday 3rd May 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.  Given the holiday on Monday, feedback received, where appropriate, will be responded to and published on Tuesday on the school website.  

Key messages from this week  

Calendar:  Significant calendar events next week;  Monday is our May Day holiday,  there are no SQA exams on Monday and school reopens for staff and students on Tuesday; on Tuesday and Wednesday 14 students will be involved in their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Expedition;  on Thursday we’ll issue our S2 Full Report via email,  we’ll also hold the first of a series of online P7/S1 Transition Events. 

Staffing:   A quiet week,  unusually, no significant news.

BGEd (S1/S2/S3) Award Ceremonies: Staff organising these events are currently collating data and nominations to identify recipients of awards.  For your information rehearsals will take place week beginning 3rd June.  The ceremonies themselves fall on week beginning Monday 17th June; Monday AM Melville/ Monday PM Mount Esk  and Wednesday AM St Anne’s/ Wednesday PM St Leonard’s.

Thinking Through Strategies: A group of BGEd students have been working on creating our refreshed advice to support students when they are stuck.  Being temporarily stuck is sometimes a necessary part of the learning process.    The advice has been designed, based on our metacognitive work, as a set of questions for learners to work through to direct them to the next step in their learning. They will be rolled out as posters in all classrooms across the next few weeks and also appearing on Chromebook home screens. The great thing is that much of this work has been designed by students to help them get unstuck in their learning. 

New S5/6 Induction: We are currently planning for our new S5 and S6 students (current S4 and S5 students who are returning for our 24/25 school session) to participate in an induction event over the course of 30th and 31st of May. This is an important part of our work between the end of Study Leave and before the timetable changes on Monday 3rd June.   Students should keep an eye on their current Year Group Google Classrooms and I’ll update parents/carers through this weekly update, alerting you to relevant website posts. 

Wider Achievement News: Our latest Wider Achievement Magazine is now live on our website.  Please click here to take a look at what our students and staff have been up to.  The latest edition is the Winter 2023/2024 edition.  

School Day Alignment:  A reminder in case you missed the text message on Tuesday that the outcome of the recent school day alignment consultation is now live.  Please click here for additional detail.

School Uniform:  BE UNIFORMS – FURTHER REDUCED PRICE ORDERING WINDOW.  BE Uniforms have a further reduction in price for any 1/4 Zip Top orders received before 30th May 2024.  Any orders placed between these dates will be at the reduced price of £25.30. After this time they will increase to £28.  If you intend to order 1/4 Zip Tops for the 2024/2025 school session please take advantage of this offer before prices increase on the 1st June.  For ordering information and details, click here

2024/2025 School/House Captains:   Mr Chisholm placed information and the application form on the S5 Google Classroom.  We’ll close the applications phase on Friday 24th May.  The application should take around an hour to complete and we think, from experience, this timeframe gives plenty of time for applicants as we want them to prioritise studying, as well as thinking about Captains roles in S6

Car Park: A gentle reminder was given last week to all parents/carers that disabled bays should only be used by those that have a blue badge.  This week I’ll add please don’t park or wait on double yellow lines.  This reminder is to support safe practices as our students leave school and as often there is a Traffic Warden who will issue parking tickets.

SQA 2024:  You may recall that I informed you about Year Assemblies we held with students in S1/S2/S3 prior to the exams beginning.  We stressed the importance of mature and respectful behaviours from them as older students were sitting their exams.  You’ll hopefully recall I asked parents/carers to reinforce this message.  This week, through a tannoy message from Miss Whittingham, we thanked students for their positive response to date and asked them to keep up the good work.  well done to these students and thanks for the support from parents/carers. 

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 an infographic to support students in preparing their Chromebook for return.    

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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