Balfron Matters 

Dear colleagues,

I hope you have had great weekend and enjoyed the sunshine.  We are into our final week of study leave.  As always, the time seems to have passed very quickly.  Having said that, we have been able to prioritise some important work - Inclusive Language & Equally Safe at school CLPL, Tri-learning, Open Doors, PTPS Professional learning Day, many surveys and focus groups.  

We have a clear mandate for moving the school forward next session.  The themes coming from the self-evaluation (data, views & observations) and from looking outwards are:

1. Learning & Teaching - We will continue to develop and share collective expertise in line with our Balfron High School Toolkit and the HGIOS Quality Indicator 2.3

2. Wellbeing & Inclusion - Focus on continued improvements in Equity, Equalities - Ethical Conduct (Equally Safe At School, Anti-Racism, LGBT+); Tracking of Wellbeing; Review of Pupil Support Structure; Increase approaches to nurture; improved rates of attendance. These relate to themes in  Quality Indicator 3.1 

3. Curriculum - Focus on review of S3 curriculum overall; offer and attainment of our Lowest 20%, pathways for all; develop a fair offer in line with our school values; review of The Careers Education Standard; review of curricular input to support Inclusion & Equality. Ensure curriculum reflects and promotes the UN Sustainable Development Goals These themes relate to Quality Indicator 2.2 

4. Attainment & Achievement - rigorous use of Insight Data to focus improvement across the school; review patterns in attainment by characteristic (ASN,EAL, Ethnicity, FSM, Sex, SIMD), review and update system to track and use data on achievement Quality Indicator 3.2 

5. Pupil Voice - Launch Pupil Parliament; develop core pupil voice surveys for all teachers to use and adapt, increase evidence base of improvements influenced by self-evaluation.  Quality Indicator 1.1

Massive thanks to Heather and Pam who delivered well received and helpful sessions to S3 pupils on Study Skills on Thursday.  This was followed up in the evening with a very well attended parent/carer session.  The feedback from young people and parents has been highly positive. Ensuring that our young people understand the science of learning and why we structure learning in the way we do, has a significant impact on their own attainment.

We have a Leadership Team Meeting on Wednesday.  Following feedback and discussions on our tracking and monitoring system, the main focus of the meeting will be assessment, led by Phil.

Thank you to everyone who has been helping with supervision, particularly those who have joined me on trips to the village and Donaldson Park.  I am pleased to say that we have seen only positive interactions.  Increasing our profile has both decreased the number of complaints and had a positive impact on our profile in the community.

Thanks for your hard work and professionalism. 

Have a great week.

Elaine