Balfron Matters

20 September 2021

Weekly communication for staff

Dear colleagues,

Thanks for your input in another busy and productive week. A special thanks to everyone who has helped with cover at this challenging time.

We have five CO2 monitors and are diligently working our way round every room in the school for a full day check. We hope to have the school complete by the October holiday.

We recognise that not having study leave last session, there was absolutely no time to work through the usual curricular development that we would usually work on. With that in mind we are buying in cover to support development time for each team. Those teams with one subject will be allocated a day. Those with more than one will be allocated two days. I know this is a small amount and not equivalent to the time lost, but none the less a contribution that I hope will help. PTs are liasing with Amanda to identify dates.

The SNC met to finalise the calender last week. I have added some notes on the spreadsheet that might help explain reasons for decision making. The S3 parents meeting on 7 October has been added in recognition that we did not have any parents meetings for S2 pupils. This group of parents have not had face to face feedback since November 2019 when those young people were in S1. We will of course review the calendar and your feeback is always welcome.

Have a great week and thanks in advance for your hard work.

Elaine


This week at Balfron High School:


  • Working Groups on Wednesday


  • S1 Team building days

Tues- CampsieWed - EndrickThurs - Lomond


3 Pastoral Project Lead Posts to Support Recovery

October 21-June 22

I am delighted to share that an email will be sent to all staff this week inviting collegaues to apply for one of three new temporary posts.

We recognise that wellbeing has been adversely affected in many ways in the last 18 months and that this is inevitably having an impact on some learners' ability to reconnect and engage positively and confidently with school.

One post will be associated with each House. The successful candidates will work closely with the House Team and wider Pastoral Team.

There will be an uplift of £3000 to salary and 6 additional periods of time to support the project for each post.

The email will have the job description and application form attached. We would hope to have these posts up and running after the October break.

COVID - what if....?

  • someone in my household is symptomatic?

They should book a PCR. Everyone in the household should isolate pending the result. If the result is positive you must isolate until you confirm a negative PCR result for yourself. When confirmed negative, you can return to life and work so long as you have been double vaccinated. If you have not been vaccinated, you need to isolate for 10 days.

Note it is different for young people and children under 18 years old. They do not need to be isolate, if negative, if not vaccinated.


Suspected or confirmed COVID case

S2 Tracking Reminder

The link is here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1HjTrDWXMPr6TkWxMirDPCvHbBDhGyU_1

There is a sheet for each teacher. You must remember to

· Find and ‘Unhide’ your sheet – only your sheet!

· Complete the relevant data – as agreed within your subject team

· Hide your sheet again – otherwise it is harder for others to find their sheet


How to Enter Data for the Tracking Report on Google Drive


1. At the top left of this screen, click on the "View" menu, and select "Hidden Sheets".

2. Move right into the list, then scroll down the list to find your name

3. Click on your name - your sheet will appear.

4. On your own sheet only, edit columns H to L

5. Do not add any extra rows. A blank row marks the end of the data in that sheet, so leads to missing reports.

6. Ensure you have agreed with your Team/PT the evidence piece/pieces you are going to use

7. Do not use percentages or formulae for column J. All of these columns must stay formatted as text.

8. Be concise and focussed. Use the examples on this page to guide you.

9. It is in Google Drive, so will autosave if you go nice and slow.

10. Last of all, remember to right-click on your sheet name and select "HIDE"

11. Check you that your sheet has been hidden!

12. Check again - I think I still see your name! Right-click on your name and select "HIDE"

13. Close the sheet down if you are finished using it. Just close the tab with the x


Improvement Groups

We will use staff meeting time to support improvement group activities as follows:

  • Wednesday 22 September: 3.45-4.45pm

  • Thursday 13 January: 3.45-4.45pm

  • Monday 7th March: 3.45-4.45pm

All teaching staff should contribute to at least one working group. Where possible every team should be represented in improvement groups in order that communication is strong and all curricular contexts are considered. Some working groups will be short life, others core and will drive research based improvements.


Improvement Groups 2021-22 are:

Learning, Teaching & Assessment Digital Literacy Equity STEM

Behaviour /Relationships (SLWG) Health & Wellbeing LGBT Charter DYW

Please confirm your working group here

S6 Sign Out Procedures

S6 pupils can sign in and out if they have study periods.

Please reinforce that they must sign-out and back in at the reception for safety reasons.

CLPL Corner - Motivation

This week's suggested podcast is Motivation: what is it and how do we 'do it'? This is one of a series of podcasts, each 20 minutes long. This is the first of a series called the motivated classroom. Here is the link

There are a range of episodes. This one is 11 zero-prep strategies for an engaged classroom

Liam Printer, a secondary school modern languages teacher, talks about the research and strategies that boost motivation.


Key features of intrinsic motivation - autonomy, motivation & relatedness

If we can boost intrinsic motivation, we increase achievement and wellbeing. So how do we do it? We know it declines as learners move through school.


Thanks to Dr Burns for sharing the blogs links below. They discuss motivation and growth mindset.


Learners: https://www.nbpts.org/top-5-strategies-for-motivating-students/


Teachers: https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/developing-growth-mindset-teachers-and-staff

Thinking about motivation

These Impact Wales sketchnotes summarise some of the theory. You can follow @ImpactWales on Twitter

Professional Discussion Group - Thursday lunchtime, Strathendrick


James McEnaney says there are '4 ways to transform Scottish Education' if we want to have a world class education system.

  • Do you agree with him?

  • If you could choose 4 things to change, what would they be?

We'll provide biscuits, in return, please can you read the Tes article:

https://www.tes.com/news/4-things-we-can-do-transform-scottish-education-schools-scotland-exams



**Bring your own hot drink/lunch and please bring your PHONE​​​**

Balfron Lesson.pdf
LTA Policy 2017.docx

Calendar 2021-22

22 September Improvement/Working Groups

S1 Team Building Days

wb 27 September Team Meetings

S2 Tracking complete

S1 Form Class Leader interviews (online)

wb 4 October S4/5/6 Tracking (first unit)

S1 Form Class Leader interviews (online)

7 October S3 Parents' Meeting

18 October Return to school

20 October S4 Parents' Night


Calendar 2021-22

wb 26 October Team Meetings

28 October Leadership Team Meeting (all PTs)

wb 8 November Team Meetings

1 November S5/6 Parents Meeting

16 November S1 Parents' Meeting

wb 22 November Team Meetings

2 December Leadership Team Meeting (all PTs)

8 December S2 Parents' Meeting

wb 13 December Team Meetings

wb 20 December S4/5/6 Tracking (2nd unit)

21 December School closes for holiday

Useful Links

Collegiate calendar 21-22


2021-22 school holidays


S:\_Shared\_Weekly Info\Staff Cover\2021-2022

Balfron HS Who's Who?



Supervision Rota 21-22
Reducing+Risks+in+Schools+guidance+-+version+6.1+-+September+2021.pdf
Extra-Curricular Programme 2021-22
Extra Curricular Poster Times.docx

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.


Classroom Observation 2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment.doc

Quality Assurance 2021-22

Open Doors Dates

I will be joined by a PT for Open Doors this session as follows:


5 October Expressive Arts with L McAllister

19 October English with G MacKay

28 October Science with N Macquarrie

1 November Social Subjects with S Boyle

9 November Health with M Skinner

19 November Maths with M Young

25 November Mod Languages with A Barrie

29 November Technologies with D Gormal