HT Weekly Update: Week-ending Friday 8th December 2023

Friday 8th December 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.   

Key messages from this week

Calendar:  Next week sees a series of events across the school;   on Tuesday we are holding our S3 Parents’ Evening, a reminder this is via our on-line platform;  on Wednesday and Thursday our catering team will be offering our Christmas Menu,  also on Wednesday we’ll hold our Christmas Concert from 7.00pm, see below;  on Friday we’ll hold our Santa Dash

Staffing:  On Monday we welcome Emma Ward as our new PTC of Technologies to our school.  My thanks to Mrs Rankine and Mrs Anderson  who assumed interim leadership of the Technologies faculty over the past few weeks and have done an excellent job. 

Dress Code: SLT are at the entrances to the school building at the start of the day and are working with Student Support, and all staff, to reinforce dress code expectations. On occasion we are agreeing with parents/carers that some students go home to change, or are lending others some uniform items from our store. If there are continuing concerns for any student who is not keeping to our simplified expectations, click here, we will reach out and seek your support.

Christmas Concert:  This excellent evening of entertainment is being held in the school on Wednesday 13th December.  Click here for details.

Cinderella Ticket Release:  Tickets have now been released for general sale for Lasswade’s production of Cinderella on Wednesday 20th & Thursday 21st December.  Please choose which day before purchase.  Tickets cost £7.00 each and are available to purchase now via ParentPay.  There is a purchase limit of 5 tickets for each show with a review on amounts at a later date.

S3 Teenage Booster Vaccinations:  The S3 Teenage Booster Vaccinations are scheduled for early next year, intended for all S3 students and those who may have missed this vaccination previously. Please ensure completion of the consent form and return it to the school office by Friday, December 22nd.

Learning Walks.  On Tuesday we welcomed visitors to the school from our Midlothian Central Team.  They worked with our staff and visited 33 classes, enabling us to gather a picture of our current strengths and next steps in Learning, Teaching and Assessment. The significant messages we collated at the end of the day was that positive relationships were observed in almost all lessons and students demonstrated respect and kindness in their interactions with one another and with staff. Learning was all also purposeful, and students demonstrated clear engagement and were able to explain what they were learning. Our areas for development continue to be formative assessment and digital pedagogies. We will continue our work on this as we move into the new year.

Mission Christmas & Hamper Appeal: Our S6 Charities Committee continues to work well on Mission Christmas and our Christmas Hamper Appeal, for local families. If you are able to help contribute items we’ll be happy to receive.  Today’s Christmas Jumper Day again resulted in an excellent response.  Donations are welcome at our School Office at anytime during the school week.    

Christmas Fair:  Thanks to all for supporting our annual Christmas Fair.  Particularly to our Parent Council and Sara Adam, our Parent Council Chair, for organising an excellent evening.  Thanks also to KIC Dance for their support.   A huge well done to all staff and students involved in organising stalls and festive products.  This event allows our community to come together, get some Christmas shopping done and also is a significant part of the Parent Council fund-raising role.

Visible Consistencies and Core Expectations: We regularly share with students and staff what we expect as behaviours.  Next week Miss Struthers and I will aim to sense check where we are with this across our schools. This will involve some interruptions to lessons as we visit classes. We’ll do this sensitively. For ease our Visible Consistencies and Core Expectations are here for you to see.

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

Share on Facebook