Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you are well.
And so in keeping with tradition – the moment the Senior School goes on study leave the sun comes out! I’m delighted to report that our Seniors have had a positive first week in school sitting their SQA exams at either National 5, Higher or Advanced Higher. Like all schools, this marks the culmination of the 9 or so months of hard work for pupils, staff and their families and we continue to offer support during this time (more information later). However, it’s also great to see that this amazing school community continues to work hard in so many ways and a number of these are on show in the blog this week.
As always, if you have any questions in relation to the information contained within this blog or any other school matter please do not hesitate to be in touch with the school.
Our Story
I, alongside the other North Lanarkshire Head Teachers, was recently involved in a training session on school improvement. One of the areas that was stressed to us all was the importance of every member of a school community knowing the story of the school. In other words, what has the school achieved in line with it’s plans over the course of this school year? To that end, we have spent the last few weeks collating a document entitled Our Story. It is a small flavour of all the progress we have made as a school this year and helps frame some of our next steps for next session. Over the course of this month and next I will be looking for family feedback on our plans and would appreciate any and all comments around areas to improve upon. The document is available here.
S2 Reports: Parent Portal
In line with our policy of using Parent Portal, moving forward no future pupil reports will be printed, but are accessible to families via the Portal. This means that next Friday, the S2 pupil reports to families will only be available via Parent Portal.
As you will know from a number of HT Blogs this year, I have been keen to encourage families to sign up to the Parent Portal as it provides a one stop shop for families to access parent/carer evening appointments, view their child’s timetable, make online payments, report absence and monitor their attendance.
If you have been unable to register for the Parent Portal yet, the sign up process is relatively straightforward and is available here. If you are struggling to sign up, there is a help document which is available here. Alternatively, please contact the school and we can support you to access this resource.
School Show
All families should have received a communication this week regarding the process for purchasing tickets for our school show this year ‘High School Musical’. The show is deep in rehearsals and pre-production activities and is shaping up to be a fantastic evening. The dates for your diaries are 11th – 13th of June at 7.15pm with tickets being an absolute steal at £5.
Payment for tickets will be through the online school payment system, ipayimpact. Or, when the coffee pod is open, tickets can be paid for using the contactless system at the pod.
All families have been invited through Ipayimpact to pay for tickets on their preferred evening or all 3 nights for all you die hard Musical Theatre fans! The funds will be called High School Musical School Show. Once the tickets have been paid their child can collect tickets from the office.
If you are having any issues with purchasing the tickets, please contact the school.
Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award
On Monday evening, Mr Adler and I were delighted to attend the annual Mark Scott Awards in Glasgow. Greenfaulds pupils were the largest single school represented across Central Scotland with the following pupils completing this highly prestigious award:
Nathan McCartney
Izabella Masteron
Elizebeth Shanks
Leila Frame
Charley Graham
Charlie Mackie
Ben Farmer
The Mark Scott Award combines a residential adventure in the wild with a project back in your community. Our pupils spent five days in Loch Eil near Fort Wiilliam working as a team in a range of activities including rock climbing, abseiling and raft building as well as an overnight expedition. Our pupils then returned to the school community to research, design and implement a community project. This year our pupils chose to undertake to create and present a series of sex education lessons with other pupils.
Our pupils were a huge credit to themselves, their families and the school community and we were absolutely thrilled to see them achieve this award on Monday.
Barista Bar Plea
This year Greenfaulds have been proud to launch ‘The Coffee Pod | Beanfaulds, our school Barista enterprise. Our trained baristas have picked up excellent employability skills and been recognised for their hard work and dedication in winning the Social Enterprise Award for Glasgow and North Lanarkshire.
To expand our enterprise next session we would like to offer a range of cold brews and iced beverages. To do so we will need to obtain a small chest freezer, ice-machine and blender. If you have any contacts who could help supply any items or donate we would appreciate hearing from you.
Tackling Poverty
Mrs Foley and I were in attendance this week when North Lanarkshire launched its new reducing poverty plan. One of the key areas for schools is to ensure that families are all accessing the supports and services available to them. As such, I thought it appropriate to remind all families that applying for Free School Meals and Clothing grants is available here.
Rugby Success for our S1/2 Pupils
On Tuesday, Greenfaulds pupils took part as part of the Cumbernauld Schools Rugby Team in a 9-aside competition. Our S2 pupil Max Peacock reports that ‘After some competitive matches the team including Zane McColl, Shay Murphy, Aiden Quinnell and Max Peacock made it through to the final. In the final we were outsized but managed to pull through a win with a score of 8-5’.
A great result and well done to all the pupils involved.
New Signing-In System
To improve safety and security within the school, if you visit the school there is a new sign in system for all school visitors. This touch screen system requires all visitors to sign in and then to have a picture taken of them – their pass and photo will then be printed and visitors will be given a lanyard. This system will help ensure an up-to-date record of school visitors and fire register.
Bright Red Publishing Offer for Greenfaulds
Bright Red Publishing offer a range of revision materials for National 5 and Higher Courses. Very kindly, they have provided a special discount code for all families who wish to purchase any of their items via their website https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/ . Please note this offer runs all the way up until the end of April.
Leckie and Leckie
We also received a special offer from Leckie and Leckie for revision guides and course notes for National 5 and Higher. If you go to leckiescotland.co.uk and use the code N5&HIGHER24 you will receive 30% off all revision and practice workbooks.
Online Study Resources
For Senior Pupils we wanted to ensure that we were providing as much support for them as possible for studying and revising. Alongside traditional supported study in school I felt it appropriate to draw your attention to two online resources.
Firstly, this year we purchased a school account to provide our pupils with access to interactive study materials via the ACHIEVE platform https://achieve.hashtag-learning.co.uk.
When signing up to create their own account pupils should use their school GLOW Email address and use the unique Greenfaulds High School Code (XQfQPVhy) to activate their account. As you will see they will have access to many resources for learning key concepts, testing their knowledge, self-evaluating etc.
Secondly the e-sgoil study resources – Pupils can access a range of resources including help with Study planners, revision tips, managing stress etc. They can also access a wide range of subject webinars every week. Details are posted each week to advise what topics are being covered each evening in the Webinars. They can google Esgoil Study support and it’s very straight forward or can use this link. We have posted the link on Teams for them already.
Dates for your diary
Thursday 2nd May: Inset Day – School closed to pupils (*ALTHOUGH the school is closed for inservice, pupils should still attend in good time for their exams on that day.)
Friday 3rd May: S2 Reports issued
Monday 6th May: School closed for public holiday
I hope you have a lovely weekend
Moran Taing
Jamie
Jamie Vaughn-Sharp
Head Teacher
