Balfron Matters
23 August 2021
Weekly communication for staff
Dear colleagues,
Week one is now firmly in the bag. Thank you all for making it so successful. It really felt like a a very positive start to the session.
It was great to see young people back, almost all in uniform. It is important that we all remind pupils to wear the uniform. Where a part in missing, please complete an orange slip and the office team will send a text home looking for support. Inevitably there are some young people who are exempt. Form Class Leaders and PTs PS will keep us up to date with that.
Keeping us all safe and well remains a priority. Please push the importance of twice weekly testing with your form class and pupils in general. Tests can be collected from the reception. Reinforce that pupils should not come to school if at all symptomatic. They should book a PCR test and only return if negative.
We had one positive case last week. I have alerted parents and staff with the standard letters.
There will not be a whole staff meeting this week. I have removed it from the collegiate calendar. Amanda shared the dates of Parents' Meetings for the session. We are running with two parents evenings for each year group with the exception of S1. The thinking behind this is that parents nights are a richer experience than writing or reading reports. So there will not be full reports for any year other than S1. We are continuing with S1 Reports and only one parents night for them. The reason for this is that is that parents/carers cannot see all teachers at parents nights. We believe that it is important that parents/carers have an overview of progress from every subject to mark the end of the year.
With thanks and best wishes,
Elaine
School Photographs this week.
School photographs will take place on Wednesday morning for S6, S1 and S4. Apologies in advance for the inevitable inconvenience that this will cause. Amanda will share further detail.
Re-establishing School Culture with clubs - Freshers' Fayre
Fresher Fayre rand smoothly on Friday. Please encourage young people to take part in inter-house and extra-curricular activities. It makes a massive difference to their sense of belonging, develops skills and widens their peer groups.
Staff swimming is available for you:
Tuesday - 7-8am
Wednesday - lunchtime
SQA Exams 2022
As mentioned in an email last week, we will be working towards SQA exams in April 2022.
SQA - Assessment of National Qualifications
'In the event of significant changes to public health conditions at exam time
If changes to public health advice mean that large gatherings of people are no longer permitted in April to June, and exams are cancelled, SQA will ask teachers and lecturers to use their professional judgement of assessment evidence to determine learners' grades.'
We must consider the evidnce that we gather throughout the session. We will now start planning for prelims. We know that we could use a range of evidence this session. I expect that this will be discussed regularly in your team.
Have you completed the mandatory training?
In line with council policy, please prioritise these.
Here are the links:
Child Protection
Public Protection is Everyone’s Responsibility https://stirling.learningpool.com/course/view.php?id=6891
Introduction to Adult Protection https://stirling.learningpool.com/course/view.php?id=6907
Fire
S:\_Shared\_Annual Information 2021-2022\Fire Procedures & PEEP's, read doc called _Fire Safety Procedures August 2021 , then complete
https://stirling.learningpool.com/totara/dashboard/index.php?id=8
ALAMA Tool for COVID Vulnerability
https://alama.shinyapps.io/Covid_Age/
Please confirm with Jennifer that you have completed this.
Data Protection
S:\_Shared\_Annual Information 2021-2022\Data Protection\Mandatory Training Information then
https://stirling.learningpool.com/course/view.php?id=6640
School Priorities 21-22
*Recovery - Rebuilding our school culture
Human Connection is at our very core
Clear expectations and simple routines for young people are paramount
Investment in meaningful CLPL discussion about effective learning for staff
*Wellbeing
*Learning, Teaching & Assessment
*Equity
School Roll
Our school roll break down is on the right. The new S1 are a bigger cohort.
Interesting to see the gender balance -in each cohort.
Have your say for 21-22. If you have not already, please complete the survey. It will help highlight aspects of our provision that you think should be improved next session.
Improvement Plan 2021-22
Rebuilding our school culture at Balfron High
As you would expect, working through the pandemic, our priorities have been safe operations and delivering the curriculum, remotely or in person.
It is fair to say that our collective digital skill level has developed considerably in the last year and while the challenges have been significant, there have been some silver linings that will influence future practice:
use of digital technology to enhance learning & teaching
increased accessibility for for some parents to attend on-line meetings
recordings of lessons and meetings that can be accessed and referred to later
the efficiency of on-line parents' meetings
CLPL Corner
I plan to share some podcasts, links and general ideas to help reflection, debate and learning. Please do share any interesting resources that you find.
Here is a link to a podcast, 'John Hattie - Lessons from the Pandemic'. This is a 53 minute interview with much food for thought. Perhaps one for the journey to school! You can access it through Spotify.
Supervision Rota 21-22
Many thanks to those of you who offered time to help with supervision. It is particularly helpful at the S1-3 interval and lunchtimes.
If you can give some time and have not yet got round to it, let me know. It would be much appreciated and help maintain good order on campus. You will be offered a lunch or snack on the day that you help out.
Calendar 2021-22
25 August School Photographs
wb 30 August Team Meetings
6 September Leadership Team Meeting
7 October S3 Parents' Night
20 October S4 Parents' Night
Useful Links