Dear colleagues,

On Friday morning, it seemed like Christmas had arrived overnight at Balfron High.  Massive thanks to Grace, Amanda and the seniors who stayed behind on Thursday to put the decorations and the Christmas tree up.  The atrium looks fabulous and set the scene wonderfully for the final day of the Christmas door decoration competition.  It was a really nice thought to have our Bellrock colleagues judge the competition.  Congratulations to Home Areas who and individuals have won House points as follows:

Home Areas: Individual Doors:

1st: Lomond 2 B1 (Endrick 2)

2nd: Campsie 1 B8 (Campsie 2)

3rd: Lomond 1 Flexible Learning

Thanks to Amna and Mark for their work in organising another successful Christmas Fair.  I had positive feedback from all of the outside vendors about our young people and school in general.

Most teams link with partners throughout the year.  If there is someone that you link with on behalf of Balfron High that you would like to be included in our Christmas card list, please add their details to the list by Wednesday.

We were delighted to present Libby and Jen of Back Onside with a cheque for £815.  Thanks to everyone for supporting the fundraising efforts and to Neil for taking the lead, making the range of events happen.  There is no doubt that we have successfully raised awareness of male mental health and wellbeing this year and strengthened our relationship with Back Onside who will continue to support our young people. It is important to remember that behind the scenes Karin continues to support individuals.  Please do encourage our young people to access all of the available supports as needed.

It is great to be part of a whole school team and you can dive into the Christmas spirit in the following ways:

• Staff Secret Santa (sign up on by Monday 9th)

• Staff Christmas Song (sign up and come to the drama studio on 13th)

• Help supervise the Christmas dances

• Come along to the Christmas Concert on Wednesday 18th December, 7pm

Your help with these is much appreciated.

Meanwhile, we are all preparing for senior phase prelims. Phil will run two assemblies on Monday morning to reinforce the expectations and organisation.  To support study, the Head Prefects are running pop-up revision support in the atrium at lunchtimes.  Please highlight this to your S4-6 pupils. Further details provided by Michelle below.

At the Leadership Team meeting I shared our Standards and Quality Report 23-24, along with our updated Whole School Quality Assurance calendar.  My focus in the new year will be ensuring that we are collecting evidence with the rigour required to ensure improvement and prepare well for inspection when it comes.  Questions and feedback on these are welcome.

Following feedback from staff via PTs, we will switch the focus of the Working Group meeting scheduled on the Thursday 9th January to a whole staff meeting.  This will give us an opportunity for discussion in cross-curricular groups on:

• mobile phone policy update

• relationships policy & managing behaviour

• interventions for pupils using Read, Write, Chrome

Well done and thank you to everyone involved in shaping the pupil led assemblies this term.  I have been struck by the level of research and quality of presentation in each.  

We are now on the countdown.... just two weeks to go!

Have a great week.  Thanks in advance for your contribution.  #buildingfuturestogether

Elaine