Balfron Matters 

Dear colleagues,

It's a big week for inter-house.  Form Class Leaders, please bring your Form Class to the atrium at 910am on Monday morning.  Endrick House will be on the ground floor, Campsie House on the first floor balconies and Lomond House on the 2nd floor balcony. 

Neil Macquarrie and I will announce the House Captain of the Year and the winners of Inter-House 2023-24.  Massive thanks to everyone who has contributed to the many inter-house activities.  Special thanks to Neil for the huge organisation undertaken in bringing the events together, coordinating and keeping track of the points.  The inter-house programme contributes significantly to our school ethos and successfully encourages a sense of belonging and pride.  As ever Neil will be looking to increase the range of activities next session.  It would be great to see every team contribute in some way to inter-house.

I am really looking forward to the Spring Concert on Wednesday evening.  Dropping into the rehearsals last week gave a flavour of some impactful and powerful performances!  Thanks to Stephen McIntyre, for leading the rehearsals and delivery of the concert and the music team and tutors for giving their time and expertise to support and encourage our young musicians.  Staff are very welcome to come along - it would be great to see you there to support the team and our young people.

Thanks to Debs, the Maths Team and Higher maths students to coordinated and delivered World Pi Day activities on Thursday afternoon.  There was a super buzz in the maths area with S1 pupils working hard together to solve Pi related puzzles.  Pupils clearly really enjoyed themselves!

Science week at Balfron did not disappoint. Thanks to the science team for organising the Bodyworks visit from the Science Centre, gory dissections, guest speakers and a wide range of activities relating to biology, chemistry and physics.  The activities caught the imagination and interest of our young people as you can see from the video below the photos.

It was great to see and hear about the work of the pedagogy working groups on Wednesday.   I got round all but one group and I felt really upbeat having seen the enthusiasm and joined interesting discussion.  The pedagogy Festival on the May inservice day promises to be a really rich and worthwhile sharing event.  Thanks to Michelle and the Working Group Leads who have put so much thought, planning and energy into this worthwhile model for our professional learning. 

Remember you are invited to Lunch and Learn on Friday lunchtimes in C8.  The focus is on promoting active engagement and the feedback from those who attend has been fantastic!

The Leadership Team will meet on Monday after school.  Key items on the agenda:

1. Monitoring & Tracking Quality Assurance and Review

2. Leavers Morning and Graduation '24 (18/4/24)

3. Timetable change plans

4. School day change plans

5. Study leave & S2 Ardeche trip plans

6. 2024-25 Staffing & interview plans

7. Inservice day (May) planning

Thanks again for your professionalism and hard work. The co-curricular activities have been fabulous.  Have a great week.

Elaine