Dear colleagues,

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the beautiful view of the Campsies one morning last week. We really do work in a lovely part of the world.  

Thanks again for your help making the new phone policy run smoothly in the first week and thanks for the feedback. I will get the working group together to review the early feedback and plan next steps. Recorded last week:

• 5 confiscations across the school (2 x S4, 2 x S3, 1 x S1)

Linked to discussion about the Positive Relationships Policy, at the staff meeting it became clear that uniform is our next priority. School shoes were rightly highlighted as an issue.  I will email parents with a reminder of expectations (including shoes) this week and then I would ask you to add shoes to the items being logged.  I will share the email with staff when it goes out. 

Thanks to Lynne for highlighting the updates to the Read, Write, Chrome program. Many of our young people already have this as strategy to help include them in classes.  Please ensure you are encouraging and facilitating this. As a follow-up to the input, Lynne will create a spreadsheet. It will highlight all the dyslexic pupils and those with a diagnosis of dysgraphia (impairment of written expression) in one place. Learners who struggle with language but do not necessarily have an ASN will also be on the spreadsheet. 

Overall, prelims are running very smoothly. Many thanks for your help with that.  It is important that the papers are at the venue prior to exam start time in order to allow for set up.  Please prioritise this to avoid unnecessary stress all round.

As part of our Quality Assurance Calendar, this month we are conducting four Pupil Focus Groups (S1-3).  The focus is the Learning & Engagement theme of the Quality Indicator, 2.3. Please see the section below for the questions that we will be asking learners.  These are the sorts of questions that we ask on inspection.  I would highly recommend using these as part of your own self evaluation and reflection.

The winter weather could bring travel difficulties, so please ensure that your team has your up-to-date contact.  In the event of adverse weather, Bellrock contact David and I early and in turn we check safety with bus companies.  Should the roads be unsafe for buses to travel, I seek permission from t he Head of Education to close or partially close the school.  In this event, as soon as I have confirmation, I will start the text tree.  I contact DHTs, who contact PTs and so on. Please note that in the event of dangerous weather, you should always put your safety first.

As the Head Prefects are on study leave, there will be no Thankful Thursday nominations until they return.

Thanks for your hard work and professionalism.  #buildingfuturestogether

Elaine