Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you are well.
This week has in the words of my wife, been badly planned. I have due to a number of commitments been involved in planning days and interviews which has meant that although I’ve been in school all week I’ve not been around the building or interacting with pupils as much as I would normally would. Nonetheless, the time spent has been extremely productive and the week ends this week with a Sports Day in the sun (no easy feat in May in Scotland).
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.
Sports Day
Today (Friday) marked our annual Sports Day. All pupils were encouraged to involve themselves in the largest of our Inter House Competition. Not only that, but staff themselves took part in a range of events including egg and spoon races, relay races and tug of war. A prospect that I was really looking forward to, (particularly after not coming last in the sack race last year) albeit for the good-natured comments shared between pupils and staff, rather than any prospect of a medal! Events such as this week help to build the relationships within our school community, rooted in our inclusive value, that we have sorely missed in the last few years. A massive thank you to all the pupils and staff who have made this week such an enjoyable and successful day.
P7 Science Event
We were delighted to be able to host our P7 Science Fayre this week. Led by the Science Department in conjunction with our Associated Primaries, Primary 7 pupils produced a range of science experiments to test a hypothesis or demonstrate a particular chemical reaction. These experiments were then demonstrated to a team of judges from the Science Community. Whilst the judges were deliberating Mr Cochrane put on an explosive Science Show for pupils and families.
The level of science on show was extremely high and the quality of pupil presentations were particularly impressive. The winning entry was a ‘fan’- tastic example of wind turbine energy. A huge thank you to the pupils who entered and the families who supported the wide range of science experiments on show.
Planning Days
The school is currently working on it’s improvement areas for next session. This involves staff engaging in a range of activities looking at the achievements of the school this session, as well as thinking about areas it needs to improve upon. In the last two weeks, all staff have been engaged in discussions on what they feel has worked and what they would like to improve upon. I have also led two sessions (one with the Senior Leadership Team and one with the Curricular Principal Teachers) where we have explored particular areas. Next week will be the final session where I will meet with Pupil Support Principal Teachers to draw up the outline of our improvement areas. After that I will be keen to hear the views of pupils and families. I appreciate that we all get asked to reply to an awful lot of surveys but I would greatly appreciate if you could find some time in to complete the improvement survey for the school to help us improve for all pupils.
S1 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. Today, all families of S1 should have received a notification that their child’s report is 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.
Currently, there are over 1,000 families who have signed up and are now able to access the Parent Portal. 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.
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
A reminder that this 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 two new permanent Principal Teachers of Pupil Support. These posts have become available following Mr Bradley moving to another post in the Council and Mr Clulow retiring at the end of August. 47 candidates applied to work at Greenfaulds, a complement to the reputation of the school across Scotland. The final group of candidates were selected from across Scotland and all of them had at least 2 years experience, with many of them being established Principal Teachers in their own schools but were keen to come and work at Greenfaulds. After many hours of deliberation, the panel appointed Mr Graeme Galloway and Ms Lisa Gilchrist to the permanent posts. I know I join you in wishing them all the very best in their new posts and I know that they will continue to develop our school into the best school community.
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.
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
Monday 20th May: Parent Council
I hope you have a lovely weekend
Moran Taing
Jamie
Jamie Vaughn-Sharp
Head Teacher
