Embedded Files
Category: Head Teacher Updates
Category: Head Teacher Updates
HT Update 28/06/2024
There was plenty of sunshine for the House Games yesterday, and it was great to see so many having a go in an inclusive, informal atmosphere. As I write, we still don’t have a winning House, as we ran out of time to do the tug of war and there is very little in it! I guess that’s the very definition of it being the joining in that counts, though. Thank you to the Health and Wellbeing team for once again going over and above to provide a great opportunity for some fun!
It was also my pleasure to attend the end of term celebration event at the Brae. Sarah Fleming and her team have worked tirelessly this year to build their provision from scratch and I am so proud of the community they have developed. Hearing about the progress the young people have made, and their highlights of the year, was such a positive experience- top marks for the scones with jam and cream, too.
Another proud headteacher moment came this week when it was confirmed that the Solarpunk Island work developed by our Global Citizenship Faculty earlier this term is to be written up as a case study example of good practice in curriculum development. This is very well-deserved and it is wonderful to have the efforts of Laura Anderson and the other teachers involved recognised.
There has been plenty of activity on the professional learning front. Huge congratulations go to Millie Mitchell for her completion of the Education Scotland Middle Leaders Leading Change programme. Millie will now further build on this work as she continues her Masters in Education, with a specific focus this year on the development of newly qualified teachers. Congratulations also to Caitlin McRobbie, Rachel Murphy, and Richard Watson, who have been accepted onto ELC’s First Steps in Leadership programme. Caitlin is focusing on the poverty related attainment gap and barriers to accessing learning, Rachel on collaborative approaches to pedagogy, and Richard on coaching to support young people’s learning wellbeing and learning. Further to this, an additional 7 members of our class teacher team will be taking on strands of whole school improvement. We are also excited to be working with the Masters in Leadership and Learning team at the University of Glasgow. We will be contributing to their research around leading, building and sustaining a culture of school self-improvement. We are all well versed in the unique circumstances of our school and we are really pleased that this will be recognised and recorded to capture some core learning for the system as a whole.
Our Standards and Quality Report and Improvement Plan have been finalised and will be published on the website for our return in August. Part of this work is our planning for the use of our Pupil Equity Fund. We are waiting for confirmation of the final figures for this, so this part may still be in draft in August. There will also be several other updates to the website undertaken over the break, so please bear with us if anything seems to be missing/out of date over the next few weeks. All should be in order by the 12th August, in good time for young people returning on the 14th August.
The staffing transfer window is almost closed! You will recall that we hoped to appoint a part-time Spanish post, but have made the decision not to recruit at this time. The allocated teaching time has been absorbed into a slightly altered Languages and Literacy timetable for now and we will be looking at different options in August. All young people in S1-S3 will still have full access to French, and Shona Robertson has kindly offered to do some German and Spanish input to meet out 1+2 language requirements. We will also be offering National 5 French as planned. We appointed our final member of staff to the Brae on Wednesday, and our final Pupil Support Worker yesterday. They are very excited to join us in the new session. We are also saying some farewells to staff moving onto new roles. Jessica Stevens will be joining the team at the Mary Erskine school, and our new Chemistry teacher, Joe Spence, is all set to step in, in August. Bryony Carr, our Science Technician, is moving to the University of Edinburgh. Huge thanks go to both for their efforts in the establishment of our Science and Technology Faculty.
And finally, a word or two on Mr Neil Valentine, as he heads off for his career break. We salute Neil’s bravery and sense of adventure. We’ve made sure to buy him a travel journal, a travel mug (teal, of course), and some alpaca wool socks (see Twitter!). But most of all we salute his kindness, his calm, and his absolute commitment over the last 18 months. Character counts.
We wish all of you a safe and enjoyable holiday period and look forward to welcoming the young people back on the 14th of August from 8.20am for an 8.30am start.
Headteacher Update 21/06/2024
A huge well done to our P7 visitors, who really did engage and give their all over their three days of visiting Rosehill. As you will be aware, we had to add an extra year group to our timetable without additional secondary staffing, so it really was all hands on deck to deliver the success we had. Huge thanks go to the partner primaries who sent staff to support, to Neil Valentine and Catherine Lock for leading on the planning and organisation, to House Teams for doing the highest step count ever, and to our curriculum leaders and class teachers for going over and above in terms of taking classes, covering other classes, and supporting around the school. It’s hard to pick a highlight but an honourable mention must go to us having the whole year group in Science on Tuesday afternoon (making use of all our open plan spaces), and it not actually being too noisy!
Some our S3 Sports Ambassadors were supporting the Wallyford Primary Sports Day this week, and did exceptionally well. We had a lovely email from a parent commending them for their politeness, their engagement with the children, and (which made me smile) there not being a single mobile phone in evidence! We had further compliments on the conduct of our cycling group, who visited Glentress. It is so kind when people take the time to notice the positive things that our young people do day to day.
Last night was also our first ever Achievement Ceremonies. It was a pleasure to be able to welcome so many families to both the S1 and S2 Values Celebration and the BGE Graduation. Delivering event like this is a massive team effort to which we all contribute but specific shout outs need to go to Rachel Murphy and her catering team; Millie Mitchell, Aaron Aitken, Chris Day and the technical team for being absolutely determined to use all of our very fanciest equipment; Jules McCabe and Michelle Yeoman for conceiving of and enacting the BGE Graduation, and to the admin team for making sure it all happened. We have had lots of lovely feedback already but one comment from a guest that meant a lot was, ‘It was totally original. You didn’t just do what other schools do. It was your own.’ It only looks effortless because of the effort that is put in.
In staffing news, it has now been confirmed that Martha MacLean will be able to join us full time from the start of the session, and she will be eager to engage with our House Heather families from August. Please remember that Jules’ promotion takes her over to House Thistle, where she will work closely with the existing team to get to know families there. Our last interviews of the season take place over the next week.
As we approach the final week of term, a reminder that we don’t stop learning and progressing. All young people continue to be expected to attend and engage with all classes. Staff also continue to be busy with planning for next session, with a particular focus on finalising timetabling arrangements and preparing our senior phase courses.
Headteacher Update 14/06/2024
We’re looking forward to welcoming 128 P7 pupils today, Monday and Tuesday, for taster days at Rosehill. Although the majority come to us from our catchment schools (Pinkie and Wallyford) young people are joining us from across 8 additional primary schools, too. As you can imagine, this involves intense planning and collaboration; though it does still feel like a bit of a luxury in comparison to over 300 new starts (and three year groups) last session! All young people will have the chance to take part in activities related to literacy, numeracy, and health and wellbeing, as well as a range of sessions across additional faculties. Please be aware that this means staffing being stretched across those three days, so do bear with us if we can’t get back to you as quickly as we prefer to.
Our young people were an absolute credit to Rosehill at the County Sports this week. Our Active Schools Coordinator James said, ‘every single one gave 100% and more’. Special mention goes to Lacey who gained the Eric Liddell 100 award for ‘embracing the spirit of the games’. This was yet another first for us and I am very proud of all of the participants. Another first this week was Rosehill’s participation in the Youth Philanthropy Initiative’s national conference. You may remember our participation in this project earlier in this session, when a group of our young people were able to win £3,00 for local charity the Teapot Trust. This next stage in our relationship with YPI allows us to begin an ambassadors’ scheme with young people supporting other learners in their understanding of social issues.
Thank you to the parents who took time last week to feedback on our S1 Consultation Calls. All but one of the respondents had managed to book all the calls they needed, and the majority received all calls as scheduled. However, the information highlighted 4 staff in total where one or more calls had been missed and/or had to be rescheduled. This is helpful information to have as we can look at where barriers have been on an individual basis. Thank you also for the suggestion that we share information about staff absences on each day of the consultation call week, as this seems to have been the source of a couple of the issues. We’ll continue to gather information across the coming session to support a full evaluation of the process next spring.
The summer term staffing marathon continues. This week we have been able to identify a preferred candidate for the post of Teacher of Chemistry, and it looks likely that they will be with us for an August start. Our remaining interviews (Brae class teacher, part-time teacher of Spanish, and additional Pupil Support Worker) are all scheduled to take place before the end of term. We will be able to confirm a start date for our new Heather House Head, Martha Riddell (though she will be Ms Macleod by the time she starts!), soon.
We are all starting to get ready for next session, and I wanted to draw your attention to some slight changes to the school day for next year. All East Lothian School are instructed to follow the same timings of the school day. Our unique circumstances meant that we were able to do things differently for year one, but from August we need to start aligning ourselves more closely to the other secondary schools to meet ELC policy. There are no changes to start or finish times:
Homeroom: 0830-0845
Period 1: 0845-0934
Period 2: 0934-1023
Period 3: 1023-1112
Break: 1112-1132
Period 4: 1132-1221
Period 5: 1221-1310
Lunch: 1310-1345 (5 minutes earlier for college pupils if required for travel needs)
Period 6: 1345-1435
Period 7: 1435-1525
Plans are well underway for our achievement ceremonies on Thursday 20th June. Thank you to all who have booked a space. Doors for the S1 and S2 Values Celebration will open at 5.55pm for refreshments available ahead of the main event at 6.15pm. Those attending the S3 BGE Graduation are asked not to arrive before 6.55pm, when we will welcome you for refreshments ahead of the 7.15pm start. The small number of families with young people involved in both events should be aware that we will be clearing the hall in between the two ceremonies. Lynsey, Neil, Jules, Michelle and I have written a lot of certificates in the past few days and we have loved seeing all the nominations coming in.
HT Update 07/06/2024
We have been spending some time this week looking at overall data for the year, as this will support us in deciding where to target our small pot of flexible funding to give the best support to young people. The key message has been: non-attendance is the big barrier to doing well. Having interrogated our literacy and numeracy data in particular, we can see the clear link between non-attendance and under-performance. I’m sure everyone also appreciates that literacy and numeracy are the foundation of success across any of the subjects the young people undertake. Therefore, good attendance is the key to achievement and attainment.
ELC already has robust policies in place around sharing attendance information with families, and clear triggers for attendance letters. Whilst we appreciate that there can be complex circumstances which make attendance a challenge, attendance is a statutory matter and we are legally compelled to follow up any issues.
We are currently working on a plan for next year to hone in on key groups for closer monitoring. We will be keeping you updated with this throughout the next session. In the meantime, as we head into the last few weeks of the session, please be aware that there is absolutely not a ‘wind down’ or a ‘slower pace’ as we approach the holidays! If anything, the pace picks up as we try to ensure that young people are ready for the next stage. Normal learning and teaching will continue throughout June.
As you know, we are really passionate about reducing the Cost of the School Day, and we are delighted to have partnered up with the national charity, Magic Breakfast. You can find out more about their work here: Magic Breakfast UK. This partnership will enable us, from August, to offer a ‘Meet and Eat’ support with our Pupil Support Workers, supporting young people with a breakfast and a check in at 8.20am each morning. We will be starting small and expanding across the session. Our House Teams will be identifying our early adopters over the next few weeks but please, if you think this would hep your child, so get in touch with the House Teams to let them know and we will support as many as we can.
In terms of staffing, we now have a preferred candidate for the post of Principal Teacher in the Brae. This has gone to our internal candidate, Euan Dixon. We are of course delighted for Euan, but this means having to go to late recruitment for an additional teaching post! Sarah Fleming has already put a plan in place to ensure that all four Brae classes have a teacher in place for August, as our newest start may not be with us right at the beginning of term. We thank everyone for their understanding on this one. We can also confirm that both of our Newly Qualified Teachers (Biology and Food & Health) are all set to join us, and were each able to make a brief visit to introduce themselves and meet key staff this week. We are really excited about welcoming them to the profession.
HT Update 31/05/2024
It was a pleasure to meet with Parent Council this week and to be invited to reflect back on the learning and the achievements of the last year, as well as outlining plans for our next steps. The HT Updates slides are here for your information: Head Teacher Update for Parent Council 28th May 2024
Thank you to everyone who has engaged in our parent consultation calls both this week and over the course of the year. I know we all appreciate the time to have individuals conversations about learning. We have had a small number of parents identified issues with consultation calls coming through as expected. I will send a survey out to S1 parents on Monday to ensure we get some accurate data on this to support any modifications that need to be made.
It was a very successful first time out at the Willie Innes Youth Games yesterday, which involve school across ELC. Both of boys’ and girls’ badminton teams took 3rd place overall. We fielded a rugby team for the first time ever, and must admit to having been a wee bit chuffed to beat MGS. It was a similar story with the boys’ football, and our girls’ football team also put in a great effort. James Sloggie from Active Schools has asked us to emphasise how well our young people represented the school, with a special acknowledgement of the S3 helpers who took on roles often reserved for seniors. We are just delighted that we were able to make this happen under unpredictable circumstances, not least Mr Cuthbertson going on paternity leave somewhat earlier than expected! Huge congratulations go to Paddy and his wife on the safe arrival of their baby girl.
We are very nearly there with recruitment. We have all ASN auxiliaries appointed for the Brae, a preferred candidate for our House Head of Heather, and interviews for the PT Brae take place today. Our House Head recruitment involved several S1s on the panel. I have to admit that it was a actually quite emotional hearing what they had told candidates about our school. Comments included: it’s somewhere you have fun but you also know you are here to learn; our teachers really want you to do well; everyone here is really kind. Before the end of term, we will be advertising for our new Chemistry teacher and an additional Pupil Equity Funded PSW post. This post will take the PSW team to four, which will be a huge support as we expand further in August.
And finally, a reminder of our Achievement Ceremonies on the 20th June. We are already looking rather full for the S1/S2 Values celebration, but S3 BGE Graduation has been a little slower. Booking remains open until close of business on Monday. If you have any issues, please contact admin.
HT Update 24/05/24
This week started with our fifth Professional Learning Day for all staff. Our theme was ‘Time to Think’ and the team collaborated to look in depth at what we have achieved, what we have learned, and where we want to go next as a school. All of these were very big lists! It was a particular pleasure to have almost all of our August starts joining us and beginning to be part of The Rosehill Way.
We have a couple of upcoming events for parents that will support us further in planning for next session. Our next Parent Council Meeting is Tuesday 28th May. Participants can arrive from 6.45pm for a prompt 7pm start. As part of the agenda, I will be sharing some of the reflections from the recent SLT Extended Planning Day as well as the Professional Learning Day. Please remember you can listen in online if you wish:
Parent Council Meeting
Tuesday, 28 May · 6:45 – 8:00pm
Time zone: Europe/London
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/vmo-ympa-dai
Minutes will be shared by the co-chairs after the meeting.
We also have a proposed session for our Parent Engagement Group on the 4th June, on the subject of attainment and achievement. Members of the group have already been sent invitation details.
Thank you to all of the families who joined us for our ‘Meet the SLT’ online event this week. It was great to see so many new faces and we look forward to getting to know you better in the coming months.
Invitations to our Achievement Celebrations will be out over the course of next week. These will go out to the families of S1 and S2 pupils who have received Values Celebration nominations, and all of those with S3 pupils will be invited to the BGE Graduation. Please can I ask everyone to ensure that they book their spaces when the link is sent as we need to know exact numbers. Our amazing Food and Health teacher Rachel Murphy will be working with the young people to provide refreshments and we are really excited to see some of this year’s learning in action.
The arrival of ‘summer’ means a busy upcoming time for our PE team and Active Schools colleagues. As well as the ongoing targeted work with the Gold and Grey soccer academy, Rosehill pupils will be participating in the upcoming Willie Innes Youth Games and County Sports, and also supporting the Wallyford Primary Sports Day. Our first light touch ‘House Games’ will take place in June. Let’s hope the vibe is more Family Fortunes than it is Game of Thrones…
Our Quadrant 4 Knowledge Organisers are up on the website, meaning that you can now access the full range of core curricular experiences that our young people have had across the year. Our upcoming ELT meeting will include discussion around how we can extend this sharing of the learning into the senior phase.
The next step for our expanding team is the recruitment of our Heather House Head, with interviews taking place next week. Two additional learning assistants also join us this term, taking our current pool to 6 and helping us to prepare for an expanding population. Knowing the crucial role that our Pupil Support Workers play in supporting the wellbeing and learning of all, we are also seeking to increase their number further next session, subject to finalising our Pupil Equity Funding priorities. Congratulations go to Miss Stevens who will be undertaking a new role in the independent sector from August. We will now be seeking to appoint a Chemistry specialist to ensure we don’t have any gaps in our Science and Technology provision.
HT update 17/05/24
I had a really positive start of the week engaging with the School Leaders Scotland Professional Learning Steering Group, hosted at Bertha Park High School in Perth. It’s always valuable to spend time with other school leaders sharing practice at a national level, but there was an extra bonus in terms of going back to a school I visited over a year ago now to talk about what opening a new school really means. Bertha Park opened to S1 and S2 only in 2019 and now has its first S6. Talking with staff there was an important reminder that school culture, ethos and identity is always a work in progress and never really goes off the ‘to do’ list!
On this theme, we held an extended planning day for SLT last Friday (clashing, of course, with the first real warm sunshine of the year…) and taking that time to pause and reflect on where we started out and where we are now was just the boost that was needed in a long, busy summer term. I’m now able to begin work on both our Standards and Quality Report and our new Improvement Plan, and I look forward to sharing some key messages and gaining further feedback at our upcoming Parent Council Meeting on Tuesday 28th May.
We have tried hard to lead and manage the pace of change effectively this session, with a relentless focus on what we are teaching, why we are teaching it, and how we are teaching it. Staff efforts have had to be focused on developing resources and approaches directly related to our curriculum, and on their leadership within their own faculties. We are now able to offer a number of leadership opportunities to teaching staff and the positive response to this has been very encouraging, enabling us to further our work around e.g. Rights Respecting Schools status; equalities, diversity and inclusion; and various aspects of pedagogy. In alignment with this, almost half of our class teachers plan to apply to be part of the ELC run First Steps Into Leadership programme, which supports them to take forward key aspects of school improvement. I cannot emphasise enough what this says about their commitment to their role and to your young people in all already crowded landscape.
This week’s blog is a lovely reminder to appreciate what we have in the moment. Bonus points for references to an eighties classic (NB I am not advocating for this approach towards school attendance!]: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/updates/pupil-voice-updates
HT Update 10/05/2024
A former colleague of mine used to always say that the four-day weeks were the busiest weeks, and I think he might have been on to something!
In terms of transition from primary, it’s been lovely to see some of our families at dress code drop ins over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve been hearing lots of positive stories from the teachers who have been visiting our partner primaries. Rosehill staff have also invested a lot of time in in-person meetings to support young people in the child’s planning process to ensure the smoothest start possible. Next week, Lynsey Stewart-Young and I will be working on a timetable for the 3 day visit in June. As you will appreciate, we will have around 10 staff fewer in June than we will in August, so it is not possible to replicate a ‘normal’ S1 day. However, we’ve had to be nothing if not creative this year, so we’re looking forward to planning an exciting and engaging experience for the young people.
Further to my letter to parents at the start of the week, a key piece of pre-summer recruitment is to our House Head post in Heather. Our House Teams have already begun succession planning in earnest to ensure that incoming staff members have all the information they need and we will keep you updated. We continue to work towards staffing the doubling of the Brae (with our first new class teacher appointed this week) and expanding the team of support staff in the mainstream. This necessary recruitment for a growing school does take staff away from normal duties for extended periods, so thank you for your understanding of this.
S1 and S2 participated in the second half of their Solarpunk Island experience and, once again, did us proud. One thing that we work on continuously with young people is how we treat our guests, and it was lovely to get specific feedback from partner organisations as to how welcome they felt and how many young people gave it their all.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks, all staff will be asked to think hard about the young people in S1 and S2 that they want to nominate for our Values Celebration. Each faculty and each House Team will have the chance to nominate two pupils in each category; respect, kindness and responsibility. We will send formal invitations to the families of those nominated the week beginning 27th May. Please remember that the key date for your diary is Thursday 20th June, 6pm-7pm for S1 and S2.
Our House Heads are also busy organising the S3 Broad General Education graduation, which will be open to all S3 and their families from 7pm-8pm on Thursday 20th June. Although this is a universal event, we will still need to know numbers, so will send out of formal invitation and booking information well ahead of time. The young people will be spending time in My World focusing on their BGE profiles, which summarise the skills, knowledge and experience they have developed both in their time with us and in their previous schools.
Our Friday afternoon session with staff next week will include time to review our school level polices. You may have noticed that most of these still have ‘draft’ written on them, which is very much deliberate. We had to start somewhere to open the school successfully, but we knew that we were likely to make modifications as we established our community. Our polices are continuously available on our website: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/policies/school-policies If you have any comments or queries regarding these as we go through this process of review, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
And finally, if you want a wee bit of joy going into the weekend, please take a look at our latest blog from one of our S2 pupils. It seems that, contrary to some of the messaging out there in the wider world, there is still plenty of joy to be found in being a teenager, being in school, and learning: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/updates/pupil-voice-updates
HT Update 03/05/24
It wouldn’t be the summer term without mentioning recruitment on a weekly basis! I’m thrilled to share that we have a preferred candidate for the post of Depute Headteacher (Pupil Support) and will write formally to all families next week with a summary of next steps for the leadership team. We have also continued our support staff interviews. As well as recently identifying preferred candidates for ASN auxiliary posts, we have also introduced a new post based in Food Tech and have identified a preferred candidate here, too. Rachel Murphy has two (very full!) senior classes next sessions and this role will support with the practical preparation of these lessons. Sarah Fleming and I will be interviewing for an additional class teacher in the Brae next week, with further posts in the provision to follow.
In our classes, S1 and S2 pupils at Rosehill are engaging in an exciting project called Solarpunk Island this quadrant. This is mainly taking place in their Sustainability and IDL lessons and is part of a pilot offered by Daydream Believers. You can find out more here if interested. This week our Solarpunk Islanders had an incredible opportunity to deepen their understanding of how to survive on the island. You may have seen photos on Twitter of the first groups of S1 and S2 pupils engaging in the workshops offered by our partners. Balfour Beatty offered pupils the chance to construct shelters for island survival; JM Architects (the very architects involved in the Wallyford Learning Campus) supported pupils in designing their communities;, SSE Renewables taught pupils how to make wind turbines; Scottish Water helped the pupils design community water management schemes, and DWQR taught them how to ensure safe drinking water. S1 and S2 classes were either involved this week or will be taking part next Wednesday. We were very proud to see the high level of engagement and the respect and kindness shown to our guests.
A clear focus for this term is around our improvement planning cycle. Each school is required to produce a Standards and Quality report reflecting on what has been achieved over the course of the year, as well as an Improvement Plan which projects into key aims for the upcoming session. These Improvement Plans are completed to align the overall ELC priorities as well as those come from ELC Education. However, these will have a specific Rosehill focus, and we will be looking for input from all stakeholders over the next few weeks. To support this work, you may wish to review our current Improvement Plan, which is available via the website: Rosehill Improvement Plan Summary 2023-2024
This theme of reflecting back on achievements has been picked up by our blogging group, and you can see the latest post here: Pupil Voice Updates. I love the point that Tapha makes about the tricks time plays on you when you aren’t paying attention!
Those of you with young people who engage in evening sports activities at the campus may have noticed the recent soft launch of the Grab and Go Cafe in the reception area. Please note that this is not a school facility, but is operated by the catering team within the East Lothian Council Facilities Management Services. Therefore, if pupils are accessing these facilities after school, they are doing so unsupervised and as members of the public. The current times of the Grab and Go are below:
· Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 3.30pm- 8.30pm.
· Saturday: 10am-1pm
· Closed Thursday and Sunday.
In line with the East Lothian school calendar, school will be closed to all on Monday. We hope you enjoy the long weekend if you are fortunate enough to have it. We also have our Professional Learning Day for staff on the 20th May, with all ELC schools closed to pupils. Thanks to the generosity of a number of headteachers, we are going to be able to welcome most of our August new starts to join us that day, giving a great early opportunity to begin to build relationships within Rosehill and to familiarise themselves with the way we do things round here.
HT Update 26/04/24
Our bespoke transition events have begun for next year’s S1, and CLs continue to visit out partner primaries on a weekly basis. To support all incoming families, please see the link below to our Google transition site, which seeks to anticipate common questions: Rosehill High School: What You Need To Know
The new S1 families will also be invited to an online ‘Meet the SLT’ meeting on Wednesday 22nd May. The link will be sent via your primary schools.
As promised last week, please find below links to presentations from the faculties who were part of our final Family Learning event of this session. Whilst this event was aimed at S3, parents of S1 and S2 pupils may also want to take a look, as this will help you to familiarise yourselves with what to expect in future years:
There has been more recruitment activity this week and we are now well on the way to be set for August. Last week, we welcomed Shona Robertson to the Languages and Literacy department. Shona has settled right into the school very quickly and we are delighted to have her after an unavoidable gap in our Modern Languages provision. Next week also sees our interviews for the crucial DHT Pupil Support post, and we look forward to welcoming candidates to the school, with staff, pupils and parents and playing a role in this important process.
This week we welcomed Gillian Hamilton to the campus. Gillian is the interim Chief Executive of Education Scotland and her visit was focused on the excellent work ongoing in The Brae. It was lovely to have the opportunity to share all that has been achieved so far. The coming weeks also see visits from our local councillors, MSP Colin Beattie, the Musselburgh Twinning committee/guests, and numerous ELC staff for meetings of subjects collaboratives. Having so many visitors coming into the school really is an important reminder of how lucky we are, as the general reaction to walking in the door is, ‘Wow!’
Whilst we will write to families separately in due course, you may wish to add Thursday 20th June 6-8pm as a date for your diary, as this is when we are planning to host our end of term achievement events for S1-S3. We have been very conscious of wanting to devise something that feels uniquely Rosehill, whilst also marking important transitions in a meaningful way. At the moment, we are developing the theme of recognition for upholding values for our S1/S2, and the idea of a BGE graduation for S3. Our 5 A Day conversations and assembly inputs over the next couple of weeks will focus on achievement to ensure that young people have their say on what matters to them. We will update you with further details in good time.
HT Update 19/04/24
A couple of weeks away means this is slightly a longer edition than usual! We hope everyone was able to find some time for both fun and relaxation over the Easter break, despite the distinctly wintery weather. We did all roll our eyes at the sun finally coming out on Tuesday morning, though it didn’t last too well.
Transition planning has begun in earnest with our Curriculum Leaders scheduled to make visits to our partner primaries over the course of the next month. This will be followed up with a Meet the SLT session for our new S1 families in May (date tbc and will be shared via our primary links), and the three-day visit programme in June. We have also enjoyed welcoming large number of families to our optional building tours, the last of which takes place today. Pupils who require a bespoke transition with further activities will continue to be supported through the child’s planning process, as led by their current primary school. These bespoke transition plans will be communicated on an individual basis. Please can we remind our incoming families that any questions around transition should be directed to your child’s current school, who can seek information from us as required. As a support for those practical, day to day transition questions, our transition Google site is currently being updated and we will share a link to that by the end of this month.
Our Ambassadors programmes in school are going from strength to strength and are now a core part of our pupil leadership opportunities. Please see below for an update on some of the work of our Inclusion Ambassadors:
Our Rosehill Inclusion Ambassadors recently visited The Crannie Community Centre just behind Waverley Station to take part in a workshop run by the Scotdec Team. The pupils tried out different activities that they can use with other pupils in school. These peer education activities encouraged discussion about issues the pupils care about and helped them decide on what action they could plan to do something as a group. They have been challenged with planning an event or activity so watch this space! For more info on how we are working with Scotdec, please go to https://scotdec.org.uk/projects/issue-to-action-health-and-wellbeing/
As you will recall from before the holiday, we put out a parent and pupil survey to explore whether we would like to offer a more formal option for dress code in the senior phase. Just over 50% of S3 parents and around 60% of S3 young people participated in the survey. We kept it to this year group because they would be the only ones affected by any change this session and, as you know, we always said we would keep the dialogue open. At this stage, there is not an appetite for change. Although around half of respondents said they felt having ties/blazers as an option was a good idea, it was clear that this would not translate into people actually choosing to buy/wear them:
· Only 36% of parents thought their child would want to wear a tie.
· Only 33% of parents thought their child would want to wear a blazer.
· Only 33% of pupils thought they would wear a tie.
· Only 40% of pupils thought they would wear a blazer.
We will therefore maintain the same dress code expectations for all year groups for session 24-25, and review again next year. Thank you to everyone who took the time to take part.
As we all know, the Wallyford Learning Campus is much more than Rosehill High School and it has been a pleasure to see the Creative Communities team begin activities on campus in earnest. This means that the campus is gradually getting busier and we would ask for everyone’s support in ensuring it remains safe and accessible. In particular, our parents have made us aware of misuse of disabled parking bays and pick up/drop off on the double yellow lines immediately in front of the school. Please be mindful that facilities and restrictions are in place to support the safety and inclusion of the whole community, and refrain from accessing these areas unless a Blue Badge holder.
Recruitment continues at pace. We are in the middle of the recruitment period for new teaching staff in The Brae, and are also recruiting support staff for both the Brae and Rosehill mainstream. Further to this, the recruitment process for our new DHT Pupil Support gets underway at the end of the month. Recruitment and retention in education are national issues at the moment, and there is further information on the overall picture in the Parent Council notes linked below. We are very fortunate to consistently attract a high number of quality candidates, and this will only continue if we all play our part in sharing the positive messages about all that is being achieved at Rosehill and within our community as a whole. Thank you to everyone who supports us in sharing good news stories.
On the subject of achievements, our current assembly theme is ‘growing’. Over the few weeks, we will be encouraging our young people to reflect on what they have achieved since they same to Rosehill, and how we might celebrate this within Houses and as a whole school. Our blogging group will also be exploring this theme and I’ll share their thoughts through the Pupil Voice updates on this website, as well as some of those from our 5 a Day discussions. We hope to organise a family event to acknowledge these achievements towards the end of the summer term- more to come.
Our most recent Parent Council meeting took place this week, which included our AGM. The notes from my update within the session are here: HT Updates for Parent Council 16th April 2024 As always, Parent Council are keen to continue to expand their membership, and will publish dates for meetings in the new session in due course.
It was lovely to see our S3 families for the final Family Learning session of the year on Thursday. They were able to select workshops from subject specialists as well as attending a session of supporting mental health and wellbeing in the crucial exam years. I will gather the presentations used at the event and share them next week for easy access to links and resources. Thank you to all who attended, and to our staff team for their contributions. Particular thanks must go to Caitlin McRobbie, who organised our first small scale fundraiser in support of the Cost of the School Day. We look forward to continuing to take these small steps as a growing school.
HT Update 22/03/24
It’s hard to believe that we are hurtling towards our final (long!) term of our first year, so we’re beginning to look forward as well as looking back. Neil Valentine and Catherine Lock have been working on our P7 transition plan and will be liaising closely with our primaries to develop this work as we head towards the summer. As noted last year, a lot of people think of transition as being about visiting the building for a few days, but there is so much more that goes on in the background.
We will also be working to develop our Improvement Plan for session 25-26. School improvement plans must always be aligned with those of East Lothian Council and Scottish Government. Our job is then to look at how we translate those shared priorities into meaningful action as a school, with a particular focus on the resources required and ways of measuring success. Improvement Plans are most successful when everyone contributes, so look out for ways to do so through April/May.
In terms of learning, teaching and assessment, we have a current specific focus on formative (ongoing) assessment and supporting pupil understanding of where they are in their learning, and what they need to do to progress. From our 5 a day discussions, we have found that many of our young people still think that assessment means ‘a test’, whereas pupil progress is continually monitored and evaluated through e.g. questioning, self and peer assessment, groups discussion, presentations etc. As we move into the summer term, all faculties will be identifying an area of formative assessment upon which they would like to focus to build pupil knowledge of their own strengths and development needs.
Further to previous communications, we have also spent time this week on supporting young people’s understanding of our phone free learning approach through Homeroom input, pupil voice activities, and My World activities. Summary information, and our ask of you, will arrive via email.
We haven’t forgotten about out survey on senior phase dress code. Around 60% of our S3 parents responded to the survey, so thank you. Unfortunately, our pupil survey has a wee gremlin and didn’t collate any answers, so we’ve had to re-issue! We will update you after the holiday.
It’s an unusual weekend for me as, along with my Business Manager, Paula O’Neill, I will be attending the School Leaders Scotland residential council meeting. This forum gives both Rosehill and ELC a voice in national discussions around educational reform, and I look forward to taking part in conversations on a wide range of topics including the roles of SQA, HMIE and Education Scotland.
In terms of upcoming engagement with parents, it’s straight into it on our return to school with our Parent Council Meeting on the 16th April. Please join us from 6.45pm for tea/coffee/informal chat if you can, with the meeting starting at 7pm prompt.
Our final Family Learning Event of the session takes place on the 18th April and is for S3 moving into S4, and a separate communication with the details and booking link has already been sent to families.
I’ve had some lovely emails this week about young people’s achievements in co-curricular activities. These include participants in:
· The City of Glasgow College Secondary Schools Jewellery Design Competition
· East Lothian Table Tennis Championships
· East Lothian Young Musician of the Year
We are very proud of all of these young people for taking part in the things that help them to grow.
Given the term dates, this will be the last update before we finish for the holiday on Thursday 28th March. I’m lucky enough to be heading for Barcelona for a few days, so I hope my Duolingo Spanish is up to scratch. I am sure with, ‘Otra jarra de sangria, por favor’ in my vocabulary, I can’t go too wrong. I hope everyone has the chance for some quality time with friends and family.
Head Teacher Update 15/03/24
I write at the end of a very busy science week, which has seen young people take part in quizzes, discussions, and hands on activities based on the theme of time. Huge appreciation to Miss Stevens for organising this with the support of her Science and Technology colleagues. There has been a real buzz in the building. On a personal note, I enjoyed representing Tony Wright for one task. He is the current record holder for the longest time spent with no sleep… strong relate.
As part of our continuous work in creating a learning, growing and thriving school, we have been focusing in the last few weeks on things that both help and hinder our learning. In line with work undertaken by the Visible Consistencies SLWG, we have identified a clear desire to further develop a ‘phone free learning’ approach.
You may recall a letter sent earlier this week, which posed some reflective questions in terms of your young person’s use of their mobile phone. As well as impacting on learning, we are all now well versed in the link between excessive mobile phone use and poor mental health. We have therefore been working collaboratively to explore how we can support our young people to be able to give their all in their lessons, as this will support both their wellbeing and their learning. A further letter outlining clear processes and procedures will be sent out before Easter, and we will be looking at this with all young people through Homeroom, My World, and within faculties.
An important date for your diary is Thursday 18th April, which will be our final Family Learning event of the session. This will be focused on our S3 learners and features advise on supporting wellbeing through the exam years, as well as input from the faculties of Language and Literacy, Health and Wellbeing and Global Citizenship. A separate invitation/booking information will be out ahead of the holidays.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete our recent surveys. We'll gather the data and get results out as soon as we can.
Our blogging group has recently been working on the theme of future plans. Here’s a lovely one that really reflects the sense of possibility we have in our teens: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/updates/pupil-voice-updates
And finally, a big Fantastic Friday well done to Mr. Watson. We are hugely proud of Richard’s incredible achievement last weekend- completing the John Muir 50K ultra marathon. I very much enjoyed his reflection that, ‘The first 45K was sort of okay, but the last 5K… they were hard.’ Such an impressive show of grit and determination. Richard ran on behalf of the Simpson’s Special Care Babies unit, and perfectly exemplifies kindness in action. Maybe a goal to work towards in next year’s Outdoor Learning classes?!
HT Update 08/03/24
I’d like to begin with a brief reminder of the two parental surveys that are currently open.
The first of these is on homework/home learning and is open to all: Home learning survey: Parents
The second is on formal options for dress code in the senior phase and is directed at S3 parents in the first instance: Senior Phase Dress Code: S3 Parents
Thank you for taking the time to complete these.
In addition to the ongoing work from the homework/home learning short life working group, our other teams have also been making progress with their areas of development.
The Cost of the School Day team has set up the ‘helping hands’ service, about which a separate communication was issued this week. They are currently working with our community partners to establish a clothing/lost property exchange, as well as considering structures and funding around potential breakfast club model. Thank you to parents who have got in touch with further ideas for future projects, we really do appreciate your knowledge and experience.
They also felt it was worth reminding families of the huge range of completely free activities that we have available to young people here at Rosehill. These are only made possible because of the many hours of unpaid time that our staff give to our community. Our current co-curricular offer is available here: Co-curricular opportunities at Rosehill Young people are welcome to chat with staff about any of the opportunities listed.
The Chromebooks team has looked at both short-term and long-term planning with regards to making the best use of digital devices. In the short term, this will include a reorganisation of charging locations, clearer ‘ownership’ of devices when charging, and reaffirmation of expectations around what to do if a pupil presents in class without the device they need. We will be taking the young people through these changes over the next couple of weeks. In the longer term, we are working with IT and our learning technologists to explore sustainable ways of allocating devices when we have an increase to our school population. East Lothian Council does not operate a one-to-one devices policy, but we are very fortunate in the generous provision we have.
The Visible Consistencies Working group has had the most complex task (as this could cover everything, really!) but have decided that their priority is to ensure consistency around our approaches to mobile phones and other personal electronics. This will involve an ask of parents, and a separate communication will come out with the details of this before the Easter break.
Another topic that came into our discussions around consistencies was lateness the morning. Our young people, overall, are very good at being in school and making their way to Homeroom in plenty of time. However, a small minority is arriving during Homeroom rather than at the start. Homeroom is learning time. It is not simply ‘registration’. This is where we gather pupil voice, share key messages, and support the young people in e.g. building character and looking after their wellbeing. Class teachers will be alerting us to any persistent Homeroom lateness using the SEEMiS system, and we will pick this up with young people and their families as required.
It's been a busy time of interviews and this week has seen us identify preferred candidates for our new posts in English, Business Education, History, and Support for Learning. We will continue with recruitment processes through the rest of this term and beyond and prepare for the considerable expansion of both Rosehill and the Brae. We were also delighted to have Dean Pearson join us in Computing Science this week, and have our Modern Languages start date confirmed for April. It’s also important to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of Neil Finlayson and Peter Robertson, who have had an important role to play in maintaining learning for the young people in the last few weeks as our regular supply staff.
Our pupil voice blog this week is just beautiful. Our young person has perfectly explained the concept of learning happening across the campus, not just in the classroom. He has also accidentally produced the best argument against ‘silent corridors’ you could have. Please have a read here: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/updates/pupil-voice-updates
HT Update 01/03/2024
Thank you to everyone who attended our Parent Council Meeting on Tuesday. It was good to have the space to have a real round table discussion around what’s coming up in the second half of the session at Rosehill (that took a few slides!) and some of the key programmes we have developed to support our ever-growing, ever-changing population (that took another few!). The basic notes are here: Parent Council Meeting 2th February 2024: HT Update
We have begun a period of intense recruitment as we expand our staffing ahead of further growth in August 2024. Huge credit must go to the pupils who have toured candidates across the school. They have conducted themselves in an exemplary way and embodied the school values at every turn. We are looking forward to another busy but productive week next week.
We have two asks for you to support our ongoing development work.
As you may already be aware, one of our short life working groups has focused on home learning and homework. As a school we value our parental/carer voice and would like to give you the opportunity to share your thoughts with us. Please complete the form (only completing the parent/carer part) and have your say by Friday 8/3/24. Once all views have been collated and a proposal has been established this will be shared with our parental/carer body.
You may also recall that we have been working with S3 on their views around the possibility of introducing more formal options to senior phase dress code. Pupils will be asked to complete a survey during My World time over the next couple of weeks, and the parent survey is here: Senior Phase Dress Code: S3 Parents Please note that this is aimed at parents of S3 only in the first instance, as they are the ones who would immediately be affected by any potential additional costs. I will keep the survey open until the 15th March.
If you haven't already checked them out, a nudge that out Knowledge Organisers for Quadrant 3 are now available. These include helpful links that you can explore with your child to support their learning: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/living-our-vision/learning/knowledge-organisers/quadrant-3
You may also want to catch up with our pupil blogs, where they have the opportunity to reflect on their learning experiences. They have recently been reflecting on the places they learn best: https://sites.google.com/edubuzz.org/rosehill-high-school/updates/pupil-voice-updates
HT Update 23/02/24
It was nice to come back to some slightly lighter mornings and evenings- spring may well be on its way. We hope everyone enjoyed the break.
Our Professional Learning Day on Monday involved multiple activities around learning, teaching and assessment, as well as the finalisation of proposals from our short life working groups, and faculty reviews of our improvement plan. All of these activities will feed into an exceptionally busy second half of the school year.
You may have noticed from Twitter that we are full steam ahead for out recruitment drive for session 24-25. As we add a whole new year group, and begin to build a senior phase, we are in an expansionist phase. Families may well be aware of the current recruitment challenges in Scottish education, so we are pleased to have attracted a healthy pool of applicants to these new posts. We will be interviewing for this first tranche throughout the next two weeks. Robust interviews processes such as those we have designed require a great deal of staff resource, but it is vital that we get the right fit for our school community. I am particularly appreciative of the mature, responsible input from our young people. They have been generating pupil voice questions and will be giving candidates a tour of the school as part of the interview process.
Thank you to all the families who joined us for our third family learning event of the session on Tuesday, with a focus on the transition between S3 and S4. As well as subject specific advice, it was also valuable to have time to look at study skills and techniques around retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving and self-assessing. Highlighting class notes in pretty colours may look nice, but it isn’t learning! We will hold another S3 event in April, with the ‘other half’ of the school and inputs around supporting wellbeing in the qualification years. Here are the slides used by the team (Maths will follow next week!)
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GS9xrehxb_zcO91IdYwtvCgRaQEm7UxiozFYcVFyfPw/edit?usp=sharing
S3 course choice has been going well, with our 5 a day programme generating some very positive feedback about the ease of the initial process and the information that has been provided. We have been really impressed by how quickly they have grasped the concept of the integrated three year senior phase. Lynsey Stewart-Young will now begin to look at viable classes; as with any other school, we can’t run classes that don’t have sufficient uptake. From there, she will look at how the options can best fit together into timetabling columns based on the wants and needs of the majority. Your young people are aware that we may need to come back to them for a ‘round two’ once these have been established to ensure we get the best fit available for each learner. Our House Heads will support them through each part of this new process.
As part of our ongoing work around visible consistencies, we have been looking at the use of our breakout spaces. Our school design incorporates a number of seated spaces outside our classrooms. These areas can work really well for e.g. developing a group presentation in social studies, engaging in extension work in Maths, or working on literacy with one of our learning assistants. However, a minority of young people have struggled to use these appropriately and missed out on learning as a result. To this end, our next focus fortnight will be a ‘re-set’ on these so that class teachers can then build pupil skills in using them in a planned and coherent way. Our build up of focus fortnight messages looks like this and will be revised with all classes across this Friday morning.
· Feet on the floor, hands to yourself!
· Keep left in the corridor
· Corridor passes required
· The classroom is the place for learning
To support safety and security in our building, we need all young people clearly identifiable as members of the Rosehill community, so have been doing dress code spot checks each morning so that families know if this is not the case for their young person. I’ve also enjoyed hearing the views of our S3s in terms of introducing a more formal dress code option for the senior phase. Surveys on this will go out to pupils and parents next week.
Our new website is now fully accessible and we will continue to develop and update throughout the rest of the session. In particular, pupil voice blogs will start again from next week.
Our next meeting of the Parent Network (Parent Council) from 7pm-8pm on Tuesday 27th February. All are welcome. Doors will be open from 6.50pm that we can get you signed in and settled.
HT Update 9th February 2024
Further to information last week, we join you (hopefully!) on our new school website!
As you can imagine, this has been a significant piece of work, so will continue to be a work in progress for a few weeks yet.
As we continue to learn how to use our building in the optimum way, I wanted to let you know about steps we have taken this week to further enhance safeguarding for all.
Our main front entrance was designed to be accessible to users of the Wallyford Learning Campus as a whole. However, as our partners build their services up, we know that traffic during the school day is for Rosehill. (The exception to this is the Wallyford Community Centre, which has its own entrance.) In line with other ELC secondary schools, we are therefore currently operating on a ‘buzzer’ system for visitor entry to the school reception. A recent increase in admin staff means that this is much more manageable than it would have been a few months ago. You will be asked for your name and who’s expecting you before being asked to sign in and seated in the waiting area. We will keep this access approach under review with our partners.
We would therefore like to emphasise again our policy on communications between home and school, available here: The Rosehill Way: Communication Between Home and School In particular, you may find this reminder on ‘walk ins’ helpful. This is particularly relevant when we are all trying to ensure that we know who is in our building at all times.
Every member of our team is directly involved in working with young people throughout the school day. They may be teaching classes, in scheduled meetings, or supporting safety and wellbeing across the school building. Therefore, they are not able to speak with parents via ‘walk-ins’, or to take unexpected calls during the course of the school day. Where full discussion by phone, in person or online is required, an appointment will always be made to meet the needs of all involved.
Our admin team are able to pass on any urgent messages as required.
In terms of continuing our work with the parent community, we thank all participants of out Cost of the School Day session this week. We really value the local knowledge that our parents bring in terms of third sector support and successful practice elsewhere. Julie McCabe joined us a representative of the relevant Short Life Working Group and has some positive actions to take back to the team.
Our Family Learning Evening takes place on the 20th February, with S3 parents and young people welcomed to find out more about how they can get the most out of the end of S3 and the beginning of their senior phase. As well as visiting faculties, this also includes advice around study skills. Booking for this has closed but we are acutely aware that new families have joined us in the last few weeks, so please contact the admin team if you are new and have missed this opportunity.
In staffing, we are delighted to have a preferred candidate for our Computing Science post. This is another shortage subject in Scotland so we are thrilled that our young people will benefit from skills and knowledge in this area. Following on from pre-employment checks, we hope that our newest member of staff will be able to join us in the next few weeks.
We hope all of the young people enjoy the chance to relax and refresh during the February break. A reminder that school is closed to pupils on Monday 19th February for staff professional learning. We look forward to welcoming them back on Tuesday 20th February with, we hope, a few lighter mornings!
Having our guest team in throughout the week has been a really positive experience and a great opportunity to have professional dialogue with our colleagues. Huge thanks go to the young people who participated in giving their feedback on their school experiences, both through our Homeroom surveys and through pupil focus groups. We’ll share some of the key messages from our discussions next week, though a significant theme that emerged quickly was around the quality of relationships within the school and the positive work that takes place each day.
Thank you to everyone who attended our Parent Council Meeting on Tuesday. We had a thorough and supportive discussion around our improvement planning and next steps. The slides for the HT Update are here: HT Update for Parent Council 16th January 2024
Following on from our Curriculum Evening in October, we will be providing at second Curriculum Evening next week, with details below. This event is aimed at parents of young people in S3, who will be making course choices during this quadrant. Our House Heads will be providing extensive support through the My World programme. Lynsey is leading on this and will guide us through a very exciting time for the school.
Curriculum Evening 2
Thursday, 25 January · 7:00 – 7:45pm
Time zone: Europe/London
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/dcx-nvkt-dbz
Our next Parent Engagement Group takes place on the 6th February. The topic is the Cost of the School Day. This is also the subject of one of our current Short Life Working Groups. We’ll be able to share something of the ‘big picture’ in terms of school funding, steps we have already taken to minimise costs to parents, and are keen to hear your ideas of how we can take this further. If you are new to the school and would like to sign up to this group, please contact our admin team. Participants in this group will be sent their Google link directly.
As you know if you’re reading this, we make extensive use of our school website. Our site is currently hosted and updated via WordPress. However, a decision has been made not to renew WordPress licenses. The reality of this is that we will only have access to our current website until early February. Ross Thomson (CL Science and Technology) and I will be working hard on developing a new site via Google over the next few weeks but, realistically, there may be a brief period ahead of the February break where info is missing/out of date, and another period thereafter when we don’t have all the pages you are used to. We will let you know as soon as we can when the new site is built- all with the correct fonts and colours, of course.
by gpreston
Happy New Year! It may be a distant memory now, but I do hope that everyone managed to have a chance to enjoy some family time.
Our school population continues to grow, so a warm welcome goes out to the new families who have joined us already/will join us this month. As you may recall, this growth in population has necessitated the creation of an additional form class. The S2 class changes have gone smoothly and Heather pupils have managed the new arrangements well so far. Thanks go to both them and the teaching team for enacting these changes part way through the year.
Our current focus value is responsibility. We began the term with a welcome back assembly reminding your people of what responsibility looks, sounds and feels like. We had some really helpful definitions coming through our pupil voice work at the end of term, with a personal favourite being a young person who defined responsibility as ‘not getting involved in drama that isn’t even your drama.’ Wise words. We sent a communication to all families just after the new year reminding everyone of expectations regarding security passes, digital devices, dress code etc. Thank you for your support in helping us to maintain high expectations.
This term sees a particular staff focus on learning, teaching and assessment. Staff trios have formed based on a variety of topics such as meaningful beginnings and endings to lessons, questioning, and eliciting evidence of learning. Each trio has engaged in professional reading around the relevant research areas, and will now spend some time trying out new ideas with their classes and reflecting on what works for our young people.
Our middle leaders are also driving forward some short life working groups over the next 6 weeks. These will be focused on the following topics:
The Cost of the School Day
Use of Chromebooks/Digital Devices
Visible Consistencies Framework
Homework/ Home Learning (Thank you to our Parent Engagement Group for getting this conversation started with us)
This work feeds into our overall Improvement Planning, which we review on an ongoing basis. We will be sharing our mid-session review after the Professional Learning Day in February, which then sets us up for pupil and parent contributions towards next year’s planning
Further to previous information, Rosehill will be welcoming members of the central team to the school from 15th-19th January. Rosehill is in a unique position within the authority and we are all keen to learn as much as possible from the usual experience of setting up a brand new school and all of its associated systems and processes. As per the letter email this week, there are two ways in which parents are able to contribute to this case study process. There is a Google Form here, which can be completed until Monday morning: https://forms.gle/QGiTQTkeji1TsmEK6 . The team will also be hosting a parent focus group online, the details of which are here:
Parent Focus Group Rosehill Case Study
Tuesday, 16 January · 5:30 – 6:15pm
Time zone: Europe/London
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ufm-erhf-vyd
Tuesday the 16th also sees our next Parent Council meeting, from 7pm-8pm. Please come to the main reception a few minutes ahead of time if you plan to attend. We do not have reception services at this time, but a member of the team will be there to meet you.
In staffing news, we welcomed Clare to our office team and Jo to our Pupil Support Worker role this week. Both have enjoyed getting to know the building, staff and pupils. We are also delighted to have a preferred candidate for our Maths vacancy. As you will be aware, this is a national shortage subject so we are pleased to be able to work towards having a full team again. The candidate’s start date will be subject to pre-employment checks and we will continue with our current system over the next few weeks to ensure that all classes have access to a Maths specialist.
by gpreston
Well- what a 2023 it has been. From the crazy scramble of literally still unpacking the hour before the pupils arrived, to looking around the atrium yesterday and thinking ‘Yep, I think we’re getting there’, it’s been quite the adventure.
If you haven’t yet watched our showcase, you can do so here: Rosehill Festive Showcase 2023 (YouTube) We hope you enjoy a few highlights from the story so far. It really is a lovely watch that captures our inclusive ethos and a real sense of fun.
It’s important, at the end of this key phase, to thank a number of different groups.
Thanks go to everyone in East Lothian Council and beyond who has supported the complex process of opening and running a brand-new building on this huge scale. We continue to welcome partners on board who will further enhance what’s on offer across the campus.
Thank you to all parents and carers for working so positively with us to fulfil our shared duty in supporting our young people. Again, we appreciate how many new systems, processes, and people you have had to get your heads around, and don’t take this engagement for granted.
Thank you to our young people for embracing this huge change. We all know about the challenges on P7/S1 transition, so having all our young people to experience this at once has been a huge ask. We have loved seeing the progress they have made.
And finally, the biggest thanks must go to our staff team. Their efforts have been extraordinary. Most of them only started their new jobs two days before the young people did. They are in a new school, with new colleagues, and new children and families. They have had to build all their relationships from scratch, whilst simultaneously devising a whole new curriculum to meet the needs of a very diverse catchment. They have done brilliantly.
There will be no let up to the pace of change and development when we return next term. During the weeks beginning the 8th and the 15th of January, staff will be working with our S3 on making their course choices for the first part of their senior phase. This will include time in class to look at the options on offer and how these link together to support progress and, ultimately, a positive destination after school.
The week beginning the 15th of January sees guests from the central team arrive for a Case Study visit. There are ongoing discussions around how we best use our limited resources to meet the increasing levels of need in our communities, and this is a great opportunity to look at what’s working well and what we might do differently as a local authority. As part of this process, we’ll be sending out a parent questionnaire the week beginning 8th of January and would value your input. There will also be an opportunity to take part in a parent focus group.
Our values focus for the next quadrant will be around responsibility. To support this, we’ll send a communication out a few days before the start of next term highlighting the areas we’ll be working on with the young people. One of the most common questions we get from parents is, ‘How can we help?’, so have tried to provide a brief checklist of things to check with your young person before they return to take on 2024.
Some staffing news as the year turns. As part of our Pupil Equity Funding, we will be welcoming an additional Pupil Support Worker in the new year. Jo will be based within the Support for Learning team and she is looking forward to getting to know the young people. January will also see a new face in our office team, Claire, to support ongoing admin and communication. We have just appointed two new learning assistants, who will join us when pre-employments checks are completed. We also say goodbye today to learning assistants Gillian Stephenson and Karen Fraser, who are moving to local primary schools. The young people with whom they work directly have been supported to say their goodbyes over the last couple of weeks, and we will be interviewing for their posts early next term. Nick Trowell in Modern Languages is also changing role, with a new position in the independent sector. Nick will be with us until mid-January, and recruitment is currently open for his replacement. We thank all of them for their service during our establishment phase and wish them the best in their new roles.
Our pupil blog for this week can be found here: Pupil Voice – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org)
And finally, our staff team would like to wish you and yours all the best for the festive season. I’ll be spending a lot of mine with my nose in a book, and am especially looking forward to a family trip to a forest lodge with a hot tub for a few days before we return. I have been warned that the laptop is banned! I hope that you too will be able to spend time with loved ones doing the things you enjoy.
See you next year!
by gpreston
This week began with a visit to Rosehill from the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Jenny Gilruth. Ms Gilruth met with members of the leadership team, class teachers, and pupils to explore the themes of curriculum, attendance and engagement, and the reality of life in our classrooms at present. I am confident that she returned to the Scottish Parliament with a strong sense of both the complexities we face at present and the ways in which we work collectively to face these. Thanks go to all who gave up their time to take part in focus groups. Our young people did us proud.
We continue to work with our young people around our school values and Rosehill Ready expectations. A recent staff survey suggested that, whilst we have many young people doing the right things across their subjects, the value that the greatest number find it hard to enact is responsibility. To this end, we’ll be spending the next couple of weeks of Pupil Voice activities focusing in on what responsibility currently looks like and where we can improve. We’ll also explore this theme within our Homeroom input. Come the new year, you will also hear us talking about Focus Fortnights, where we dig down into key messages around being Rosehill Ready.
Our House Teams have also conducted a wellbeing check in across our student population asking them to rate themselves against the key wellbeing indicators or safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, responsible, respected, and included. The average scores were all 7/10 or higher with particularly high scores in being healthy and active. Given the huge transition the young people have been through and the wellbeing challenges that come from adolescence, we don’t take these strong results for granted. Where individuals have scored themselves lower than we might expect, House Teams will pick up on an individual level.
I’ve had some helpful conversations with parents in the last few weeks around what information we share and when. Whilst much of this, including likely response times, is covered in The Rosehill Way: Communication between home and school , I have drawn together some summary points here:
Communications coming into school: Emails come into one of four inboxes: Rosehill admin, House Heather, House Thistle, or the Brae.
Central inboxes rather than personal inboxes are used for three reasons.
Firstly, it allows a triaging process so that the right message goes to the right person. Secondly, where staff are absent/away from their desk for an extended period, it means that someone else can potentially pick the issue up. Thirdly, this promotes transparency so that we can support all our staff in ensuring the highest standard of written communication.
Everyone working in a school is bound by the same contractual expectations regarding confidentiality/GDPR, so our admin team, as well as our teachers, are very used to dealing with confidential information in a sensitive and appropriate way.
Communications going out of school: If your child has experienced a difficulty with another child, no member of staff will comment on any responses or disciplinary procedures pertaining to another child. Rules around GDPR apply here, as does the UNCRC and a child’s right to privacy. In some cases, families may agree to information sharing to support mutual understanding and restorative conversations, but this is looked at on a case-by-case basis.
Communications during the school day: Please continue to be mindful that, further to previous communications, mobile phones are not welcome in our classrooms. We have had to deal with a small number of instances of pupils bringing these out in class because parents have been calling them during lesson time, and expecting a response. We would ask that anything urgent is communicated via our school office and that any calls or messages are saved for rest breaks.,
This brings us onto the subject of valuables. It is important to be aware that no school can take responsibility for a pupil’s personal belongings. Whilst we will always support as best we can if things go missing (the office have gathered quite the range of water bottles this year!), schools are not insured for personal items. In particular, you may find the following information from PE helpful:
To reduce the risk of accidental slippage and accidental damage, personal belongings should not be in practical areas
Bags and jackets should be left in the area of the changing village allocated by class teachers
If pupil have chosen to bring items to school that they deem to be valuable, they should inform the class teacher of this and place them in the allocated locker
The class teacher will secure the locker and open it again at the end of the lesson
Pupils must ensure that they check (and double check) at the end of the lesson that they have not forgotten to collect anything and should alert the class teacher at once to any issues
Pupils arriving late to class miss out on this opportunity but can ask the class teacher to support them with any possible alternative; however, an alternative cannot be guaranteed
As noted in previous communications, our campus will be entirely cash free from January. Pupils will not be able to use cash to top up their cards for the food court. This need to be done via our online system. More information is here: SchoolPay | East Lothian Council If you require any support with this, please contact our admin team.
Our campus is in the spotlight once again with two nominations in the Scottish Property Awards; one for Public Development of the Year and one for Architectural Excellence. A huge congratulations to the design and construction teams.
We’re continuing our publication of pupil blogs. You can find the most recent one here: Pupil Voice – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org). On the same section of the website, there is also a summary of Pupil Voice activities across the year thus far.
And finally, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Our wonderful Brae team has produced this lovely video that is bound to get you into the festive spirit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCEA_sA3UE0&t=7s. We all enjoyed the chance to have a shared Christmas lunch on Wednesday (Stoggie’s yule log was so popular that seconds and more were secured by a few), and our House Teams will be leading in-person festive assemblies next week on the theme of gratitude. Our Rosehill Festive Showcase will also be available to watch next week. The purpose of the showcase is to provide a virtual celebration of the work that goes on in the wider learning community, and will be available to watch live on our official YouTube Channel at 7pm on Tuesday the 19th of December, or to be streamed any time thereafter. The link to the video will be able to be found on the school’s X (Twitter) page from Monday at www.x.com/RosehillHS, or can be found by searching “Rosehill High School Festive Showcase” on YouTube.
by gpreston
This week started on a real high with our Youth Philanthropy Initiative finals. Along with parents, S1 pupils, and representatives from YPI Scotland, I was honoured to have a judging role. I know we always say these things are a tough decision- but it really was a tough decision! In the end, the winners were those representing the Teapot Trust. The Teapot Trust is a local charity that provides mental health services to support children and young people living with chronic illnesses, and the £3,000 awarded to the charity will be used to fund art therapy workshops. Seeing our S3 pupils thrive as part of this challenge has been a powerful reminder of just how far we have come already in terms of their role as leaders within the school.
We’ve also been enjoying connecting with parents through our consultation calls and thank everyone who has engaged for taking the time to talk openly and informatively about the progress and achievement of our young people.
All information required for S3 Pathways (course choice) will be issued on our return in January 2024. Curriculum leaders have been working with teachers to plan for our first year of senior phase next session. All faculties are offering a variety of courses, to suit the needs of all learners within the school. The finalised Curriculum Pathways booklet to support course choices will be issued on our return to school in early January, ahead of choices happening that month. This will detail the various courses offered throughout the school, to include the progression options to courses both in and out of school.
Our S2 pupils will also have choices to make in our next quadrant (likely late February/early March). As you will be aware, our S3 curriculum allows for further personalisation and choice by asking all learners going into S3 to select two pathways to further their development in specific curricular areas. To ensure a broad and balanced curriculum, all young people will continue to experience learning across all curriculum areas throughout S3.
We’re continuing to publish regular pupil blogs on experiences at Rosehill, and the latest can be found here: Pupil Voice – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org)
As part of our East Lothian commitment to self-improving schools, we will be involved in a local authority case study visit the week beginning the 15th January 2024. As with many other secondary schools, ours is one with a wide range of pupil needs, and we are always keen to be involved in professional dialogue and planning around how we best meet these. To this end, a small group of our local authority colleagues will be spending time in school across the week in question, convening focus groups of staff, pupils and parents, and spending time in classes. There will be a specific focus on HGIOS indicators 2.1 (Safeguarding and Child Protection) and 2.4 (Personalised Support). A copy of the Education Scotland publication How Good Is Our School?, against which all schools reflect on their strengths and development needs, can be found here: HGIOS 4 PDF . In the New Year, we will also send out a link for you to give your feedback as part of our case study. It’s a privilege to be part of the ongoing ELC discussions around how we can all contribute to getting it right for young people.
by gpreston
Happy December! I will be going home to get out the festive tea towels and oven gloves tonight, because that’s my current life stage…
Thank you to all the parents who attended our Parent Engagement Group on home learning/homework earlier this week. It was an open, roundtable discussion on the purpose of home learning, the interface between home and school, the explicit teaching of study skills, and the balance between wellbeing and learning. If you’d like to take a look at the slides we discussed, they are here: Parent Engagement Group 2: Home learning/ homework. We’ll now take the summary points to our staff team for their consideration, as well as gathering pupil views through our regular pupil voice opportunities. This will support us working towards a Rosehill home learning policy in the new year.
Our school population continues to grow, and it’s a more rapid expansion than we could have predicted when we set our classes and timetables back in the spring. In particular, our S2 has increased by over 20% since August. S2 began as our smallest year group, and was set with only 3 form classes (2H1, 2T1, 2T2). These 3 classes began with an average of 23 pupils each, but we now have 2H1 heading towards 30. Fortunately, our teacher allocation allows for us to create an additional form class. There will be no change at all to practical sets at this time, which account for around half of the school week. Lynsey has been working hard on making timetable changes to allow for this to happen from January 2023. To minimise the disruption of young people moving House, we will be maintaining 2T1 and 2T2 as they are. However, we will be splitting Heather pupils over two classes. The House Team will work carefully to do this, ensuring that existing positive friendships can be maintained. I am sure you will agree that it is important to maintain reasonable class sizes wherever we can, so it’s a short-term investment in a long-term benefit. Our roll cap for S2 this session is 100, so this is an important piece of future proofing to ensure we don’t breach class size limits as the year progresses. House Teams will ensure that all Heather pupils are aware of any changes that impact them ahead of the Christmas break.
Along with other members of SLT and some of our S1 pupils, I was fortunate to be involved in judging the Youth Philanthropy Initiative semi-finals this week. Huge thanks go to our Global Citizenship Faculty for supporting this programme and to the young people who have been engaging with local charities that support a variety of different social issues. The finals take place on Monday 4th December, when one of our groups will be awarded £3,000 for their chosen charity.
We are currently homing in on our school value of kindness, and young people were asked in homeroom this week to tell us about acts of kindness they have done for others, or acts of kindness others have done for them. Below are just a few examples of ideas that came up repeatedly across the year groups:
Giving compliments
Holding doors open
Asking how someone’s day has been
Saying good morning
Just having good manners in general
Smiling when you see someone
Not leaving anyone out
Making people laugh if they feel low
Helping each other when the work is hard
Saying well done
It was a total pleasure to read hundreds of responses on this theme and a great reminder of how many of our young people absolutely know how to support positive interactions in our school community. And a special shout out to all the mums and dads who have managed to persuade their young people that making them daily cups of tea is just a kind thing to do, as this one came up a few times, too!
Recent work on monitoring our Improvement Plan identified pupil voice as a real strength of the school. This week, we’ve published another blog from one of our young people, reflecting on their first few weeks at Rosehill: Pupil Voice – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org). We hope you enjoy it.
Just as I finished writing this, Mr Cuthbertson got in touch to let us know of our S1 boys’ football team’s 7-2 win against MGS. It’s great to start to see these teams shaping up and proving real contenders across the county, still just weeks after forming. Well done to the boys, and thank you to the adults who support them.
by gpreston
It’s 100 days since opening Rosehill, and there continues to be plenty going on…
Firstly, we’d encourage you to spend some time if you can taking a look at our Quadrant 2 Knowledge Organisers: Learning: Knowledge Organisers – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org) If your young person’s preferred response to asking what they did/ learned at school today is ‘nothing’- we have your back! Huge thanks go to our teaching team for going over and above in making curriculum content visible for all.
It was great to be able to host our first ‘full’ meeting of the Rosehill and The Brae Parent Network (Parent Council) on Wednesday. The focus of the meeting was around setting out where we are as a school at present. My HT Update reflected on our school context and our progress with our Improvement Plan. A copy of the summary slides is available here: HT Update Parent Council 21/11/23 We were pleased to be able to welcome four of our local elected members and appreciate their support of what continues to be a complex and exciting new venture. It was also great to see some parents join the in person meeting online, and we will continue to offer the Google Meet ‘listen in’ as an option moving forward.
In staffing news, one of our Maths team, Craig McDonald, will heading on a new venture at the end of next week. Craig will be moving to Scottish Borders Council, and we wish him well in this next step in his career. Craig has been a valued part of the Maths team in this crucial establishment phase. You will all be aware of the national picture with regards to Maths teacher shortages, but we are in the positive position of being able to interview for a replacement next week, with the hope of a new start in January. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we will have input from Neil Finlayson. Neil is from a Science background and has a huge amount of experience working across East Lothian schools. He has already spent several days with us getting to know the young people, and is a great addition to the team. Mrs Woodhead will be making some small tweaks to the timetable to ensure that all young people continue to have access to specialist Maths input in this transition period.
Following on from our letter about catering, we look forward to enjoying a Christmas lunch with young people on the 13th December. Please also be aware that we are phasing out any cash on campus and that, post Christmas, all monies will go through East Lothian School Pay. The link is here: SchoolPay | East Lothian Council.
Next, some information to share on behalf of Active Schools, particularly on football matches and the costs of referees. Although Active Schools programmes are free, there is a cost to the SFA of £30 per game for a referee, which is payable on the night. Young people have been asked to contribute £2 towards this cost each time, with exemptions already in place for those most likely to be experiencing financial hardship. To be clear, this is not money that goes to either Rosehill or the Active Schools programme, and this arrangement is in line with other schools in the local authority. If you have any concerns about payments for your young person, please speak with James Sloggie directly.
I’d also like to let you know that the Rosehill cycle club now has a couple of free spots. This meets at the front of the school at 1pm every Friday. Your child can speak to our PSW, Phil, if they’d like to get involved.
We are very proud of our approach to pupil voice at Rosehill and the importance of learning from their experiences. As an extra stretch and challenge, I have been working with some of our young people on blogs sharing their thoughts about being here. The first of these, by Tapha Seydi, is here: Pupil Voice – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org) We will publish further blogs in the coming weeks.
I’ll be having a Friday afternoon with a difference today- heading to Queen Margaret University, and participating in a panel discussion as part of the Scottish Education Research Association’s annual conference. Through my recent Masters in Education, I was asked to participate in research focused on professional learning for teachers, and how we can best support this through partnership with universities. As we’ve noted before, our story has attracted a lot of attention, and my contribution will be around how you decide on professional learning priorities and processes when you are doing everything- EVERYTHING- for the first time, and with a team who haven’t worked together before. I am seriously considering wearing my Rosehill hoodie with pride…
Our values focus as we approach the end of term will be kindness, which seems particularly appropriate to the time of year. I look forward to hearing about and sharing examples of the ‘wee wins’ that make everyone’s day that bit better.
by gpreston
As it’s halfway through November, are we allowed to mention the ‘C’ word yet? I think it’s permissible if it’s just a date for the diary at the moment! On the 19th of December, we will be sharing, via our school YouTube channel, our Festive Showcase. This will share some of our young people’s achievements during their first two Quadrants at Rosehill. You will be able to access the recording at any time after the launch date. We will send further information and a link in due course. Thanks to our Curriculum Leader Miss Mitchell for leading on this.
Further to the letter sent to all parents, we have our Parent Council Meeting scheduled for the 21st November, 7-8pm. My HT Update in this forum will be focused on data around our school context, and an update on our progress with our Improvement Plan. You are welcome to join us from 6.45pm for tea/coffee.
Another partnership opportunity comes via our Parent Engagement Group session of the session on Google Meet on the in 28th November, 7-7.45pm. A reminder that our Parent Engagement Group is an opportunity to meet informally with senior staff in order to explore a one item agenda; in this case, home learning. We are aware that a number of new families have joined us since we set this group up in August. Therefore, if you would like to join the mailing list for these Meets but haven’t yet, please contact our admin team.
You will know that our unique context has already attracted a lot of attention nationwide. Most recently, I was asked to write an article for School Leaders Scotland (SLS) magazine. SLS is a national professional association which supports the professional learning and development of school leaders, as well as guiding them on the legal aspects of their role. It was an absolute honour to be asked to reflect on what it means to start a school ‘from scratch’- not least why I always challenge the notion that anything begins from nothing! You can read the article on pages 25-27 (13 and 14 of the document) via the link here: SLS 2023 Magazine (adobe.com)
Although it’s a long way off for our young people, I thought it was worth sharing with you, at this early stage, a communication that is going out to all the other East Lothian secondary schools today. This outlines the parameters for hosting leavers’ events for S6: S6 Communication. It’s good to be aware of these at an early stage. When the time comes, our intention is to take advantage of the beautiful venue we currently have here, and host a family/ community celebration that is inclusive for all of our young people.
We continue to focus in on our whole school value of respect: respect for our environment, respect for others, and respect for ourselves. As we are in our second reporting period, I’ll be speaking with young people next week about why we report against character and what that tells them about their readiness for success. Our S2 and S3 pupils will both have consultation call periods prior to Christmas. Further information about schedules will follow in good time. Although staff will make a note if they feel a call would be particularly beneficial, please be reminded that any parent is able to make an appointment. You’ll also know already that we’re not shy about picking the phone up to communicate with you ourselves, so we look forward to connecting with as many families as possible during this period.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks of Rosehill Tours, with lots of families of prospective P7 young people visiting our building and getting a first introduction to the way we do things round here. It’s almost easy to forget how lucky we are sometimes, so I’ve really enjoyed the ‘Wows!!!’ from those getting their first looks. It’s also been great to see our P7s working with Mark in the library, focusing on building a reading culture to continue to improve literacy. If you have friends and family members who are due to come to Rosehill, please do encourage them to make use of these updates and the wider website as a way of getting to know the school. Transition is not just for young people!
by gpreston
A bit of a bumper HT Update this week, so grab yourself a coffee before you dive in…
It felt like a real milestone to be able to meet with our Parent Council co-chairs this week and to decide on the shape of our partnership over the coming year. Echoing the letter from our admin team this week, please note that meetings of the Rosehill and the Brae Parent Network will take place on the following dates in session 23-24. All meetings will be held at the school between 7pm and 8pm, with participants welcome to arrive for tea/coffee from 6.45pm:
21st November
16th January
27th February
16th April
28th May
It was also helpful to get a sense of any Frequently Asked Questions coming through to parent representatives. In response to this, you may find the following useful on a couple of themes:
Food Court provision: The amazing work from our catering team means that this is a popular, busy option. Additional staff have been trained in the last few weeks, and queues are now consistently around 9 minutes maximum at afternoon rest break, and slightly shorter at morning rest break. Now that we are a few weeks in, it’s getting easier for the catering team to gather data to work out which menu items are most popular and to provide more or less as required. Your child can pick up a leaflet with meal offerings at any time, either from reception or from the tills in the Food Court.
School trips: Though we all appreciate and enjoy the chance to explore the wider world with young people, there is no statutory obligation for any school to organise off site excursions. Given the size of our team at Rosehill (only 18 class teachers in total, some of whom are the only subject specialists in their area of the curriculum), any staff absence to support trips has a significant impact on pupils’ overall experiences. Absence means that our teachers need to cover multiple periods for colleagues, usually outwith their subject specialisms. This is not ideal for pupil progress. Further to this, there is currently very limited supply available for secondary schools, with none at all in some core subjects. We are also mindful of the level of winter illness that looks set to be around again this year, adding to staffing pressures. As such, we are all ‘cawing canny’ with time out of school this session, but will continue to review this over the course of the year. I am sure you will agree that high quality learning and teaching in our classrooms always has to come first.
Cost of the school day: This is another consideration linked to the above point. We have an obligation to ensure that all educational opportunities are available equally to all young people. In practical terms, this can mean a substantial financial pressure on schools when a school trip is offered that is beyond the financial reach of some our families. Our draft policy on protecting the cost of the school day is here: The Rosehill Way: The Cost of the School Day. Further to this, our Senior Leadership Team is working closely with the Global Citizenship Faculty to look at other ways in which we can continue to support our families and the wider community in keeping education related costs down.
P7 Transition: As per previous communications, plans are already afoot for this. In summary:
November-December: Rosehill Tours are available for parents and young people across a range of date. You can book here Visiting Our School – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org)
January: The Rosehill Team will host a ‘Meet the SLT’ Google Meet to introduce ourselves and the school community; invitations will come through partner primary schools
April/May: Rosehill staff will visit young people in their primary schools for some taster learning sessions.
June: In keeping with other ELC schools, Rosehill will host young people from our associated primaries for visits across the 14th, 16th and 17th of June
Given that (unlike every other secondary school) we don’t ‘lose’ any year groups this year for exams/June, we have to look at staffing this creatively. Our partners at Wallyford and Pinkie will be sending a number of staff with their young people to support June activities and we look forward to planning with them over the course of the year. In addition to the above, our Pupil Support Team will work closely with partner schools to identify pupils in need of further input throughout the spring/summer.
Please note that no transition work takes place with out of catchment pupils until their placing request has been processed. Pupils who are out of catchment should always be liaising with their catchment schools until places are confirmed.
We’ve had a couple of queries about home learning provision. Following on from previous communications, a reminder that your child is linked to a Google classroom for every timetabled subject. Google classroom can be accessed from any device at home. We also publish a range of resources to support home learning via our Knowledge Organisers. The Quadrant 1 Knowledge Organisers are here: Learning: Knowledge Organisers – Rosehill High School (edubuzz.org) and the Quadrant 2 resources will be updated in the second half of this month. As we begin to prepare some of our young people for the senior phase, we will also be looking at this topic in more detail through our Parent Engagement Group.
As noted last week, we are having a specific focus on the core value of Respect at present. This week’s theme is all around respect for others and how we can show this in simple, cost-free ways. In our Monday briefing, we asked all young people to pick one of the following targets:
Greeting members of staff in the way that they greet you (a smile/ hello/good morning/how are you)
Saying thank you when someone has helped you with your learning or a problem you’ve had- or just for the lesson!
Following an instruction the first time to make sure teacher time is spent on helping, not correcting
This theme of respect has also been coming through in ongoing discussions around positive use of our outdoor sports areas. As you will be aware, our staff team volunteer to supervise this area doing rest breaks, providing an ideal opportunity for young people to be active throughout the school day. Unfortunately, Mr. Cuthbertson had to restrict access to our S2 pupils on a temporary basis. He met with them this week to refocus on expectations in this area and we look forward to working positively with them around respectful conduct on and off the pitch. Even more impressively, the young people themselves met and discussed the issue ahead of time and came to the meeting with their own solutions. Winning and losing gracefully are both life skills and there was real learning here!
It was lovely to take time to reflect on ‘wee wins’ at this week’s extended leadership team meeting. The overall message was that the routines and structures in place are really bearing fruit in terms of young people being in the best place to learn. This means we can have a real focus on making sure we get the most out of each lesson. Given our commitment to ‘no surprises’, we will continue to contact you when your young person is encountering difficulties in the classroom, and thank you for your support. Perhaps even more importantly, you will also know when they are doing well; through reports at the end of each quadrant, Fantastic Friday calls, and departmental methods of recognising achievement.
by gpreston
As well as a weekly parent update each Friday, you may not be aware that we also have a weekly pupil update each Monday morning. Via Google Meet, all Homerooms receive the same key messages around where things are going well and where improvements could be made. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some of those key messages here, to support us working as a team. Our current focus is on the school value of respect. We are exploring with young people what we mean by:
Respect for our school environment
Respect for each other
Respect for ourselves
We are taking a closer look at respect for our school environment. We have focused in on using our spaces safely, and on leaving them in the state we would like to find them. I was delighted to note that there has been an improvement around litter in the atrium this week- we now need to sustain this going forward. I also reinforced messages around the spaces that are and aren’t for our use at different times of day. This is going to be especially important with a wider opening to the public in the coming months.
Our food court is extremely popular, and we thank our catering team for their efforts here. As you will be aware, payments in the food court are via smartcards. Our campus was originally envisaged to be completely cashless from the get go. However, given the complexities of establishing who would be on our eventual school roll and the need to ensure that all young people could access our food court, temporary machines were installed in the atrium to allow young people to deposit cash if required. However, I am giving you and early warning that these machines will be functional only until Christmas. Any money going onto smartcards will need to be through school pay. A link to further information on this is here: SchoolPay | East Lothian Council If you encounter any issues after looking at the guidance here, please contact our admin team for support.
Quadrant 2 continues to be busy in terms of supporting pupil voice. Our S2 coaching programme starts next week. This groups will benefit from weekly one to one check ins with members of staff, identifying and working towards short term goals using the GROW coaching model. There are lots of freely available resources about this online if you would like to find out more. We have also identified pupils from S1-S3 to take responsibility for our pupil voice blogs. They will be meeting with me around once a month to complete short writing tasks reflecting on their experiences at Rosehill. These will help to record this unique endeavour we have all undertaken, inform our work as a leadership team, and communicate with parents and our wider community via the website.
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Curriculum Evening on Wednesday. There is so much to discuss and consider here that we know more questions will emerge in the coming months, but hope that this was a useful reminder of our curriculum rationale and a first step in getting to grips with the senior phase. Slides from the evening are available here:
Curriculum Information Evening November 2023
If you are currently in possession of an S3 pupil who hasn’t yet considered their direction of travel, you may wish to took at the Skills Development Scotland My World of Work website: My World of Work | We use this a lot in schools so you may find it helpful to familiarise yourself with the platform ahead of further coursing information.
And finally, a few firsts to celebrate. Our girls’ football team took part in initial matches against other local teams; two of our S2 pupils have been working with schools across ELC as members of a pupil voice forum; and one of our absolute superstars supported the Brae with their Hallowe’en party. These are all what we term ‘small wins that make a big difference’ and we are very proud of the young people involved.
Page updated
Report abuse