Balfron Matters
10 January 2022
Weekly communication for staff
Dear colleagues,
I hope that you are all safe and well after the adverse weather that Friday morning brought. Massive thanks to everyone to made it into school and helped supervise and support Neil and Claire with organisation. Thanks to everyone for providing remote learning for our pupils in school and at home.
New Isolation Rules
Thanks for your patience and vigilance in working through the new isolation guidelines that started on Thursday. It can be a bit confusing given changes and updates. For staff the key things to note are:
Changes refer to new positive cases that have been diagnosed from midnight on 5th January 2022.
Positive cases (from LFD) are advised to isolate for 10 days. A PCR is no longer required if you are not symptomatic - just begin isolation.
However, if you test negative on day 6 and day 7 LFD tests (taken at least 24 hours apart), you may leave isolation if you have no fever after the day 7 test.
A PCR should still be booked if you do have symptoms and isolate until outcome of test is confirmed.
Close contacts who are fully vaccinated (3 doses), can take daily LFD tests for 7 days instead of isolation - provided they are negative and without symptoms can return to work
Those close contacts who have not been vaccinated or are partially vaccinated should book a PCR, and even if negative, isolate for 10 days.
I very much appreciate your input in school constantly reinforcing expectations with young people - the reminders to wear face coverings properly, to sanitise and to keep their distance. I will not be able to tannoy during prelims so do please keep reinforcing this.
Please note that regular cleaning and fogging programme continues in the background thanks to our Bellrock colleagues.
Have a great week.
Elaine
This week at Balfron High School:
Prelims start
Thursday - Whole staff meeting
Whole Staff Meeting - 13 January
There is a whole staff meeting scheduled for Thursday at 3.45pm. This meeting will be held online through Google Meet. Here is the link: meet.google.com/ixi-dskm-sgu
The purpose is to give an operational update and general catch-up. If you have a question or query that you would like us to address at the meeting please drop me an email in advance.
The draft agenda so far:
Covid mitigations
Prelim update
Staffing and cover
Recovery activities update
AOCB
School Day Changes
To allow us to run split lunches, we amended the school day to accommodate this. Lunches have been split with S1-3 having lunch first every day except Tuesday. If you give time to do a duty, please continue with you avaithe
Aileen Crawford, Careers Adviser
Mobile: 07900030901
Aileen.crawford@sds.co.uk
Careers Appointments for S3 Pupils
As part of the School Partnership agreement with SDS and Balfron High I will be arranging to speak to all S3 pupils on an individual basis regarding their subject choices. I intend to start this on Tuesday 11th January.
Appointments will be at 15-minute intervals and are planned to be in the Careers Room above the Library (next to Strathendrick suite).
Appointment slips will be issued via the Form Class leaders - I will pass these on to the relevant FCLs in advance.
I will keep a note of any pupils that are absent and will follow them up.
I realise that you may have assessments with some classes during this time so please let me know if you cannot release a pupil and I will arrange another date/time for them.
FCLs, when handing out appointment slips, get pupils to check dates and times to identify any difficulties with assessments or similar.
Thank you for your support.
Aileen
CLPL Corner
Another interesting podcast (left) that discusses these interesting questions and issues.
What is more important - pedagogy or curriculum?
Do our activities support learning or just keep pupils busy?
How do we promote long term learning?
Learning as the residue of thought....
The importance of understanding working memory, long term memory and cognitive science
Are textbooks important?
In addition to the issues above, this has made me reflect on how we might better give eachother feedback from lesson observations. I'd be very interested in your thoughts.
At a time when curriculum for excellence is under scrutiny following the OECD Report of 2021, this is an interesting reflection. Click on the link below left.
Alternatively, read the blog by Tom Sherrington, in Teacherhead. An informative overview of of the link between curriculum and pedagogy, below right.
Still worth a look from EEF:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/send
Calendar 2021-22
5 January School re-opens
10 January Prelims start
13 January Whole Staff Meeting (online)
wb 17 January Team Meetings
21 January S1 Tracking due
24 January S3 Parents' Meeting
wb 31 January Team meetings
Calendar 2021-22
4 February S4 Tracking due
10 February S4 Parents Meeting
11 February S5/6 Tracking due
14 February In-service Day
15 February In-service Day
16 February Holiday
21 February Return to school
Useful Links
S:\_Shared\_Weekly Info\Staff Cover\2021-2022
Quality Assurance 2021-22 - Classroom Visits
Term 1 Classroom Observations
Our observation pro forma is based on the HGIOS QI, 2.3
Features of highly effective practice are on page 2 along with challenge questions.
Quality Assurance 2021-22
Open Doors Dates
I will be joined by a PT for Open Doors this session as follows:
7 October Expressive Arts L McAllister
19 October English G MacKay
28 October Science N Macquarrie
9 November Health M Skinner
25 November Mod Languages A Barrie
29 November Technologies D Gormal
tba Maths M Young
6 December Social Subjects S Boyle