Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you are well.
I’m not sure how it is possible but shorter weeks often feel busier than long weeks. Perhaps it is just a me thing, but I do feel that this week has been packed full of events. The highlight for me though was the qualification stage of the Inter House Bake Off Competition when I was ‘forced’ to judge 7 different variations of home made jammie dodgers cooked by teams from the 7 house groups. The judging was far from an ordeal (albeit I did eat too many delicious biscuits) but a real testatment to the fact that when your son/daughter tells you nothing happened at school today that is never true. This week alone we have had exams, a hill walk for a group of pupils, Inter House competitions, appointment of staff, Gaelic meetings and whole school improvement discussions to name just a small sample of the activities taking place across the school.
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.
Parent Council – New Facebook Page
Families will be aware that the role of the Parent Council within our school is an incredibly important one to help support the school to improve for everyone. It provides a forum to raise and discuss any issues as well as providing me with an opportunity to discuss areas for improvement for the school. One area that recent family evaluations raised was that families were often not fully aware of the work of the Parent Council or indeed the topics being discussed. At our most recent meeting we discussed how to improve the profile of the work of the Parent Council. To that end, the Parent Council have now established a Facebook Page to ensure that all families are able to access information about the school and the work of the Parent Council. This will be a closed group for school families and is accessible here.
Mental Health Week
Over the past few years the area of mental health has been rightly gaining a greater profile and recognition. As such I felt it important to highlight that next week is Mental Health Awareness Week.
As well as reminders across the school for our young people, the online resources that the school offers to everyone via our health & wellbeing Padlet is an excellent resource for all of us.
The Padlet has a range of supports and resources covering topics including Mental Health, Mindfulness and Wellbeing and is accessible here.
Staffing Update
Yesterday (Thursday) I was leading an interview panel where we were looking to appoint a new permanent Principal Teacher of Support for Learning. The candidates were all of a very high calibre and we were delighted that so many staff from across the country want to work at Greenfaulds High School. I am delighted to share with you that we have appointed Ms Einir Jones to the post and I know she will have an incredibly positive impact on the lives of the young people that she is currently, and will soon be, working with.
Uniform
As the weather improves after what has felt like a very long winter and spring, a small number of our young people will try to convince their families that non-school uniform is acceptable (shorts, crop tops, etc.). Could you please stress to them the importance of uniform whilst at school? There has been occasions this session when non-Greenfaulds young people have tried to access the school. Them not being in uniform has been an easier identifier. I know that we all understand and emphasise the importance of safety of pupils above all else and as such, uniform is an important part of this building safety for us all. Thank you for your support in this.
School Show
The excitement for the school show is growing. As such, I thought it worth reminding all families that tickets for the show are now on sale. 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. The dates for your diaries are 11th – 13th of June at 7.15pm with tickets being an absolute steal at £5.
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.
Barista Bar Award and Plea
This year Greenfaulds have been proud to launch ‘The Coffee Pod | Beanfaulds, our school Barista enterprise.
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.
Staff talent on show
I’m a huge fan of our administration team – never flustered, always supportive and helpful. Not only that but they also have many hidden talents. One of them is that Andrea Taylor is a very talented local artist. On the 1st of June, she along with a range of other local artists (including an ex-member of staff) are holding an exhibition at Craighalbert Church from 10am – 4pm. If you get the opportunity to visit, Andrea’s artwork is exceptional.
Community Events
I’m always delighted to share community initiatives with you via this blog and this week I’ve been asked to share the following information.
Community Boards
Local community groups and residents are more than welcome to come along to their local Community Board to discuss issues relating to their local community. We want to ensure that as many people as possible know about their local Community Board and also when/where the meeting is taking place to enable them to come along if they wish to do so.
This link to Getting involved/Community Boards animation Community planning (northlanarkshire.gov.uk) provides a brief introduction to Community Boards.
The next meeting of Cumbernauld community board is Tuesday 28th May 6.30pm, Muirfield Centre, South Muirfield Road, Cumbernauld G67 0NA
If you would like to find out more about Community Boards, please contact the Community Partnership Team via communitymatters@northlan.gov.uk.
Jazzart Scholarship Programme
Our scholarships can offer the opportunity to study in a dedicated private college without the worry of finance! We are accepting students for August 2024 entry.
Jazzart is an SQA approved centre of excellence delivering HNC and HND courses in Musical Theatre and Professional Dance Performance since 2011. Our graduates leave us industry ready and many of our Alumni are starring on screen and stage both nationally and internationally.
We would love to hear from any of your young people, interested in performing!
NHS – The Chat
Over the past months the NHS sponsored ‘Chat’ has been speaking to parents and carers about how they support our children to learn about relationships, their bodies, being safe online and issues like consent. We have now launched our national survey for parents and carers, located on our site https://thechat.scot This will be live until May 31st.
I appreciate everyone is very busy with day-to-day demands, this national survey is one way that parents can have their say about the important learning that they support at home.
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
Friday 17th May: S1 Reports via Parent Portal
I hope you have a lovely weekend
Moran Taing
Jamie
Jamie Vaughn-Sharp
Head Teacher
