Balfron Matters
The Sandy Holroyd Inter House Cup won by Campsie House
The Sandy Holroyd Inter House Cup won by Campsie House
Monday 23 September 2024
Weekly communication for staff
Building Futures Together
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for your contribution to another positive, successful and impactful week. #buildingfuturestogether
In particular, thanks and well done to Claire who planned and delivered an excellent Outstanding Awards Ceremony. It was fantastic to have Professor Neil McDonnell, Professor of Philosophy and XR (all types of virtual and augmented reality) at the University of Glasgow, join us as a keynote speaker. He was insightful, thought-provoking and humorous. We are delighted that this partnership promises to bring the use of technology to Balfron - watch this space!
Our musicians were fantastic as always, providing lovely interludes throughout. Some pictures are included below. Well done to everyone. Our medalists this year:
Senior Dux: Jamie McColl
Senior Proxime Accessit: Patrick Gallagher & Robyn Youens
Junior Dux: Laurie Mohaupt
Junior Proxime Accessit: Ailie Mailer
We had considerable positive feedback and thanks from young people and their families.
Our focus on mental health and suicide awareness took priority last week. Massive thanks and well done to Neil Macquarrie for leading the plans and delivery of our first Sandy Holroyd Inter House Rugby competition. Thanks to everyone who supported this. It was great to have Libby and Jen from local charity Back Onside, delivering an input to our S5 and S6 pupils. Where appropriate, please do reinforce the key takeaways for this:
It's alright not be be alright
Look our for your friends - if you suspect they are struggling, keep asking, even if they say they are OK.
Back Onside have committed to supporting us throughout the year. Drop-in sessions for pupils start next week (3/10 in the Brew Box). As they are a local charity, we will be supporting them with some fundraising whenever possible.
Please note that there is a session at school at 7pm on Wednesday evening. Parents and staff are invited to the Strathendrick Suite. Booking is required.
Pupil Participation is one of our school improvement priorities. it has been great to see the Pupil Council get underway. It has helped us:
gather views regarding the phone policy review
identify toilets that require repair & alert Bellrock
recognise that signage around the school would be helpful for (Bellrock looking into this)
collect information regarding travel on buses.
The Head Prefects are currently planning for our first Pupil Parliament of the session - Friday 27 September.
FCLs: Please identify one member of your form class to attend the Pupil Parliament and feedback to the class. Please confirm your rep here.
This week's plan
We have a busy week ahead. It is the final part of our S1 transition this week with our House groups participating in team building activities at Auchengillan. Claire will lead an assembly on Monday clarifying plans and expectations. Should they ask, S1 are allowed to go to the village after their team building day. That said, please join me in encouraging them to stay on campus to participate in the many co-curricular and Inter House activities.
Some S5/6 pupils will be out of class attending MVP (mentors in violence prevention) training on Wednesday and Thursday morning. MVP fits neatly with our ESAS (Equally safe at school) programme. As you know, this is an important peer education programme that provides young people with the language and framework to explore and challenge the attitudes, beliefs and cultural norms that underpin gender-based violence, bullying and other forms of abuse. Thanks to Mrs Smith for organising this.
As part of our Preparing for Inspection series, I am running a CLPL session on QI 2.3, Learning, Teaching & Assessment on Thursday after school. While this has been planned with PTs and middle leaders in mind, every one is welcome. I will be sharing my notes from the last HMIs Associate Assessor training attended. The session will start at 3.45 in Rachel's room.
Improvement Matters
Finally, you will be aware that Insight updated last week. You can access this year's data under the benchmarking tab - Local Benchmarking Measures.
Overall, attainment is positive. However, we are committed to improvement and doing our best for all of our young people and redressing the imbalance that contributes to the equity gap. With that in mind, in summary, areas for inprovement:
all care experienced learners
current S5 ASN pupils (lowest 20%)
all current S6 ASN - as S5 this cohort fell significantly below our virtual comparator
Please ensure you know the learners in your classes that sit behind these statistics. I know you will want to connect with and plan for them.
Thank you all for your support, hard work and professionalism. Have a great week.
Elaine
This week at Balfron High:
Mon: S1 Assembly - Auchengillan prep
Tues: S1 Endrick House - Auchengillan
School day Parents Info Meeting
Wed: S1 Campsie House - Auchengillan
MVP Training
Working Groups #4
Back Onside - Suicide prevention
session for parents/ adults, 7pm
Thurs: S1 Lomond House - Auchengillan
MVP Training
Preparing for Inspection, QI 2.3
Fri:
Notice Boards
Click the hot chocolate to nominate someone for a Thankful Thursday hot drink
Pics below include:
The 2024 Awards Ceremony
S3 pupils at Future Assets event at JP Morgan
Growing produce in our polytunnel
Paired Reading at Drymen Primary School
Our rugby squads play Wallace HS
Sports Leaders undertake training session with Scottish Handball
Baristas learn coffee art
The Sandy Holroyd Inter-House Cup
The United Rugby Championship Cup (massive thanks to Glasgow Warriors)
Please take photos and share with me directly or through Twitter (with pupils' permission). Let's recognise and celebrate all the good stuff. We will also share in the Parent Noticeboard. #wearebalfron #buildingfuturestogether
From Barista to School Dux! All in a week for Jamie
Inhouse CLPL 24-25
active learners - active thinkers
Relaxed and sociable, its a great way to meet up with staff form across the school, supporting mental wellbeing and developing our pedagogy in a fun and informal way. It's designed to be collaborative, and aims to have a 'take away and use' resource in each session.
Bring your lunch & hot drinks - sweet treats are provided!
Coming Up This Week:
Thursday Lunch, C8:
Pairs Puzzles
a competitive puzzle completed in pairs that requires learners to both ask the questions as well as retrieve the answers.
No down time with this one!
Hit the link:
All resources from Lunch n Learn for Active Learning will be posted in this google classroom.
For access to all the templates, use the code to join: 6a7mbjk
Sharing our Resources
Feedback from our festival was super positive, it was clear we all enjoyed sharing and learning from one another
Please share useful resources here
Accessing our digital resources
Professional Reading Library - Strathendrick Suite
More Digital CLPL
always available through the links below:
Education Scotland:
Professional learning modules
to work through at your own pace.on Scotland: Professional Learng Modules
Powering up our seniors for successful studying
Quick links for form and class resourcing
National supported study, free offer to all learners.
Teachers Guide to the BHS Study Planner - 3 min watch
BHS senior study planner
e-sgoil weekly online supported study timetable
Increased consistency in Learning & Teaching
Improved Wellbeing & Inclusion of all young people
Increased offer in Curriculum
Increased Attainment & Achievement
Increased influence of Pupil Voice on Improvement