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:

1. It's alright not be be alright

2. 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