Dear colleagues,

Welcome to the new term. I hope that you have had a restful and positive summer overall. 

Congratulations to Marie-Claire Maxwell who successfully competed for Scotland in the World Touch Rugby Championships 2024.  It was lovely to see FP, Jamie Carruth, also representing Scotland but in the mixed open squad. 

It is important to recognise the devastating news that former pupil, Sandy Holroyd, took his life last month.  I am sure that we have all reflected on what we can do to support our young people and each other, when life feels desperate.  

Neil has met with Alex and agreed that as a school we will remember Sandy annually in a new inter-house rugby competition in his name.  I feel strongly that we must come together to shine a light on mental health, particularly boys' mental health, in our improvement activities, curriculum and relationships this session. All ideas absolutely welcome.  

I want to thank everyone for the support that Alex has had from the school community.  In particular, thank you to Ross Haig for speaking so well at Sandy's funeral.  Ross did an excellent job in the most challenging of circumstances - it certainly cannot have been easy. Thanks also to our counsellor, Karin Figliolini, who has been sharing support resources on social media for families and young people.  As mentioned in her email, Karin works Tuesday-Friday and offers a Time2Talk service to young people. Teachers can refer young people.  Young people can self refer through the QR code.

Relationships with young people are so important.  Please keep your ear to the ground so that we can quickly identify anyone who needs support with grief or who may be struggling.

Despite this tragedy, let's move forward optimistically into a new academic year.  There is much to celebrate and build on.  Our SQA results at S5 and S6 have improved. This has had a positive impact on breadth and depth.  Details are in the inset slides below. To make a difference to the lives and chances of all young people, Insight analysis last session pointed us in the direction of our lowest 20% of S6 pupils.

We are looking forward to another school show this session.  Young people and the expressive arts team agreed that 'Grease' is our show for 2025.  Thanks in advance for your support of the team and young people who will be involved.

Overall our school priorities are:

1. Increased consistency in high quality Learning & Teaching

2. Improved Wellbeing & Inclusion of all young people

3. Increased offer in Curriculum Pathways

4. Improved Attainment & Achievement (5@ all levels, & progression)

5. Increased influence of Pupil Voice on Improvement

We should never forget that it is a massive privilege to contribute to building young people's future and we each contribute to that in a range of ways, in and out of the curriculum. 

I hope you can all get behind the school motto 'Building Futures Together' as a neat platform to shape decisions.

Thank you for your hard work and professionalism.

Elaine