Balfron Matters

Tuesday 3 May 2022

Weekly communication for staff

Dear colleagues,

Happy Eid al-Fitr to our Muslim colleagues and young people - wishing you all a wonderful celebration.

I hope that everyone had a really enjoyable long weekend. It was great to have the extra day.

The photo in the banner is of our learners at Saturday Supported Study. Thanks for providing that opportunity.

We are delighted to welcome three Ukranian pupils to Balfron High school. Two will join the senior phase on return and one, Nikita Saienko, into S3 shortly. Claire will share relevant information in due course and introduce pupils to teachers in advance of the starting. The Stirling Council EAL team have put this resource together EAL SECONDARY

I have a link to an in-service evaluation below. Please take a few minutes to complete it - your feedback is important in shaping next steps.

As mentioned at the in-service day, I have booked Humanutopia to work with S3 on May 24th. Here is a link to the programme, Who am I. I am hoping this will go some way to address some of the relationship and bullying issues that we have seen this year in that year group. To help maximise the input, I would like all S3 form class leaders and Pupil support colleagues to attend. If you are not in one of these categories but would like to attend, let me know.

Have a great week.

Elaine

This week at Balfron High:

Team meetings
Friday - CfE Social Subjects

This week's exams

Tuesday French (N5 &H)
Wednesday Maths (N5)
Thursday Modern Studies (all)
Friday Maths (H); Apps of Maths (N5)

Notice Boards

Learning, Teaching & Assessment CLPL

Expressive Arts

Pupil Support Notice Board

Science Notice Board

Inservice Day Presentations

I hope that you found the inservice day worthwhile. It was great to have the opportunity to share some details of the amazing work that has gone on around the school. Many thanks to everyone who gave a presenatation or ran a working group. Please share your feedback through this link.

Also on the google form is an opportunity to share key ideas for any aspect of school improvement. I'm keen to hear your views.

April 29 Inservice

PGR Retrieval practice 29 April 2022.pdf

PEF In-service update - Friday 29/04/22

DYW WG April.pptx

Final Subject Networks of the session

The final subject network meetings for this session are planned for Tuesday 10 May 2022 or a date that week if it works better for the network.

I realise that this clashes with our tri-learning plans and will work with you to identify a workable alternative.

These meetings will be online meetings. The meetings could focus on some/all of the following areas:

Review of session 2021/22 in terms of the SQA and Senior Phase.
Plans for the Senior Phase next session. This could include the sharing/development of assessments and prelim exams between schools.
Discussion about BGE courses in terms of setup/content/material being delivered within each school.
Areas of focus for subject network meetings next session. The timetable of meetings next session will be very similar to this session (after school meetings at the end of September/start of October and in May as well as a half day for subject network meetings on an in-service day in February). The dates for these will be confirmed soon.
Any other subject specific areas.

Pupils with alternative to exam leave activties. These pupils should:

sign in at reception
follow the programme

If you are working with or see a pupil on exam leave, please check with them that they have signed in. They should be in unifrom - let's all remind them!

____no prelim leave TT May 22.xlsx

Balfron High Reading School Programme - Magazine Appeal

To help build up a good bank of resources for the 'Reading School' programme, can you please donate any magazines you may have.

We are particularly interested in magazines that have been published in the last year such as:

Sports and Fitness magazines: Four Four Two; Rugby World; Today's Golfer; Match; Cycling Plus; Women's Health

Gaming and Entertainment magazines: Edge; Play; Empire; Total Film

Science and Nature: National Geographic; How it Works; Science Focus; BBC Wildlife; BBC Top Gear

History and News: History Revealed, All About History, The Week

Please bring them up to C2, or let me know and I can collect.

Thank you very much,

Nicola and the Reading Leadership Team

BHS Assembly Programme April - May 2022.docx

From wb 25 April - S1-3 assemblies will run in the theatre.

Celebrating success assemblies will kick off the new term.

CLPL Corner

Professional Reading Group

This upcoming week it's Modelling - an encoding process!

We will discuss chapter 3 next week on Thursday lunchtime - I'll make it in C8 just in case exams are going on around the place.

Here is a link to the Modelling discussion board. You can start to populate as you read if you want to (it is anonymous)

You can also listen to the Model Everything 6 min podast from the Cult of Pedagogy, by following the link on the right.

Retrieval Practice

Given the success of Pam's presentation and the interst generated, I have left the Retreival Practice links from last week available below.

Please do forward other great CLPL finds.

EduTip 12: Model EVERYTHING.Listen to this episode from The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast on Spotify. There are so many things we ask our students to do in school that they would do so much better if we just modeled it for them. While modeling is already probably a strategy you're using to teach some concepts, you probably could be using it a whole lot more, and getting more from your students as a result. You can find full written versions of these tips at cultofpedagogy.com/edutips. ------------------- Thanks to Stash101 for sponsoring this episode. -------------------

Retrieval Practice Summary

This week's short podcast (9 min 20 secs) on retrieval practice is a great summary.

We are looking forward to sharing some research on the in-service day that will kick off our whole school approach to promoting challenge through the science of learning.

If you'd prefer to watch a short video outlining the key principles of the science of learning, click on the Youtube video below.

Exam Preparation: Retrieval PracticeListen to this episode from Psychology in the Classroom on Spotify. Retrieval practice is quite simple the act of retrieving information from memory and research has shown that the process of retrieving information aids information retention more strongly than simply reading information through. The challenge is getting students to do retrieval practice more than looking over notes or watching youtube when they are revising for exams. In this video we consider the research that underpins retrieval practice and ways that you could implement retrieval practice in revision lessons and encourage students to do it in their independent study. If you want to learn more about using retrieval practice and other evidence based learning strategies in your classroom please do visit our Science of Learning Course on this link.

Calendar 2021-22

6 May CfE - Social Subjects

11 May Working Groups - Tri-Learning

13 May S1 Reports completed

CfE - Maths

Calendar 2021-22

16 May Team meetings

20 May CfE - Expressive Arts

24 May S3 Humanutopia (all day)

26 May S4 Induction - Being Successful

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.

Stuart Shaw on shaws@stirling.gov.uk
Contact hr@stirling.gov.uk
Call Ann at PAM on 0800 882 4102

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

Leadership Team Minutes

SLT Minutes 21-22

Staff supervision rota

Reset Pupil G Suite Password

Prelim schedule (Jan 2021)

Collegiate calendar 21-22

2021-22 school holidays

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

Balfron HS Who's Who?

Features of highly effective digital learning