Balfron Matters 


Monday 14 August 2023

 Weekly communication for staff 

Dear colleagues,

Welcome back! I hope that you have had a wonderful summer and have managed to recharge the batteries. A special welcome to all of our new staff - we are delighted to have you at Balfron High School.

The SQA results were positive on the whole.  Taking a look at breadth and depth:

The learning from this lies in ensuring that young people are coursed as appropriately as possible to provide the best chance of success. Now that results are in, it is important to ensure that this is reviewed.   

Individual teachers and teams will be keen to analyse last year's results to identify areas that can be improved.  The Results Machine has been updated and is a fantastic resource to quickly analyse last year's attainment.  It also provides a 3 year overview that is helpful. Please ensure that individual teachers and teams review all of the tabs under 'Comparisons'.  Action for everyone:

I am afraid that I am going to be out of school for a while.  A ruptured achilies at the end of the holiday is keeping me off my feet. I have an appointment on Tuesday 22nd that will help inform planning for school, acting opportunities and cover.   The SLT will be a person down for the first two weeks, so please give them your full support and understanding. Tracey Patrick has been assigned to support the school so you may see her in the building.

I will be completing the SIP.  We have a new format that will allow the whole school and each team to have their plan on one spreadsheet.  This will be ready by Monday 21 August and I request that team plans are put onto this format by 22 September. That allows for input over 3 team meetings.  

Enjoy the BBQ on Monday afternoon.  It will be great to have everyone together again.  I am sorry to be missing that and the buzz and excitement of a new term. I wish you all a great start to session.

Elaine

This week at Balfron High:


Mon: Inset 1

Staff BBQ


Tues: Inset 2


Wed: Zanzibar Launch Evening, 6.30pm

S1 Assembly


Thurs: S5/6 Assembly

S3 Assembly


Fri: S4 Assembly

Inservice Day Programme: 14-15 August 2023

Inset Aug 23

Inservice Day Slides

Inset 1 Meeting 14/8/23
Pupils with ASN 2023/24
Copy of safeguardingchildprotectionpresentation202324
dde93c5b-4cf8-462f-9a9e-28b0cac0b43c.MP4

Our Priorities for improvement 2023-24




New for session 23/24

Learning & Teaching Working Groups 

As highlighted by Michelle at the in service day, all teaching staff will have the opportunity to sign up for a working group of their choice.  The working groups are all focussed around learning & teaching - you may recognise the headings as from Quality Indicator 2.3.  We have eleven Working Group Lead teachers who will lead their groups to plan, develop and evaluate their professional learning within an area of their interest. 


We will celebrate our learning in a Pedagogy Festival, at April In service 2024.


The groups and their leads are as follows:

Climate for Learning - Routines and Relationships for inclusive, productive learning environments - Connor H, Andrew L & Shari L

Digital Technology - Exploring technologies to enhance learning experiences - Dougie S & Cari M

Lesson Structure - What we do and how we keep can doing it even better - Pam G & Fiona F

Meeting Learners Needs - Exploring the practices that make our lessons more accessible - Nicola D & Oonagh M

Formative Assessment - Developing our feedback loops and increasing challenge - Andrew B & Alistair B


Assemblies - August-October 2023

BHS Assembly Programme Aug-Oct 23

Last week of term at Balfron

When people outside your walls know what you are doing, it gives value to those inside

Photos from the last week of term and summer include: 

CLPL Corner

Vocabulary


Many thanks to Nicola who has created a quick read on The Frayer Model for this week's insert.


The Frayer's model is a graphic organiser that helps pupils learn and organise vocabulary across the school. It can be used in any subject. 


It helps them target specific vocabulary and apply their knowledge by giving examples, non-examples (antonyms), characteristics and symbols or illustrations.


 This is helpful for any word in any subject, but it can be particularly helpful when used to highlight when the same word (for example, 'factor') is used in different ways in different subjects. 


Nicola Douglas

 CLPL opportunities


Leadership courses for session 23/24 

Sign up now!


There are a number of fully funder professional learning programmes available from Education Scotland for next session.  Applications are now open.  Of particular interest, I wanted to highlight the Educator Leadership Programme (ELP):



For aspiring middle leaders, applications are open to the Aspiring to Middle Leadership course.


For Middle Leaders, applications are currently open for Middle Leaders Leading Change – Education Scotland (Rona Grant) has written about the programme here and for even more inspiration; have a look at her brilliant February Blog post: Middle Leadership Glue (education.gov.scot).


Digital CLPL  


 always available through the links below

External CLPL

BHS Professional Learning Notice board. 

Search. Click. Book

Powering up our seniors for successful studying

Teacher's Guide to the BHS Study Planner.webm

Teachers Guide to the BHS Study Planner - 3 min watch

Weekly Study Planner 2022

BHS senior study planner

e-sgoil weekly online supported study timetable

One portal to hold all information

ERP MyPortal.pdf

Health & Wellbeing - Counselling for staff

Did you know counselling is available through Stirling Council?


Employee Counselling is available through our Occupational Health provider, People Asset Management (PAM)

There are a few ways employees can request Counselling. 

If you want some more information about counselling, what to expect or looking for self-help resources then please pop in and see Karin Figliolini or drop her an email.

Useful Links