Balfron Matters

Monday 9 May 2022

Weekly communication for staff

Dear colleagues,

Tri-Learning/Networks

As mentioned in last week's BM, we have a clash with network meetings and tri-learning this week. Both are super important, so:

This week after school as per your network, will be those meetings
Tri-learning will now run on Wednesday 1^st June at 3.45pm instead of team meetings.

As the seniors are still on study leave until the 6^th June, Teams can catch up in the school day for their meeting that week. I hope that brings the most straightforward solution.

Ukranian Pupils

The first of three Ukranian young people join us this week. Nikita Saienko will join 3L1 on Monday morning. Currently, he is staying in Drymen with his Mum and younger brother, hosted by Mr & Mrs Gaskell. Nikita’s spoken English is reasonably good, however he is worrying about his language skills and understandably is very nervous about coming to our school. Clair Miller will be supporting our Ukrainian families for the duration of their stay with us. Currently, Nikita has three non-contacts on his timetable and so he will go to Flexible Learning during this time supported by Lynne’s Team.

Dougie has shared a reminder of the very simple Google translate tool, either to aid conversations, or to translate resources. Here is an overview in less than 5 mins:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cCz1PnTRq_4SU8TDdQUzZ091AqyamNmb/view

Thanks to everyone for their ideas and suggestions for how we can best support Nikita.

Digital Learning

The digital learning team have created a digital skills review to help with future planning and support for digital learning and teaching. In addition to the review, they have created corresponding short training videos for each section which can be accessed on the SPEC site https://spec.stirlingschools.net/digital-learning-hub/training

It would be most helpful to the digital team if you completed the survey: https://forms.gle/tsrtvFoYPhSNTejbA

Have a great week.

Elaine

This week at Balfron High:

Network meetings
Tuesday - Parent Council AGM, 7pm
Friday - CfE -Maths

This week's exams

Monday - Music (all levels)
Tuesday - Design & manufacture (all)
Wednesday - English (H)
Thursday - English (N5 & H)
Friday - Physics (all levels)

Notice Boards

Learning, Teaching & Assessment CLPL

Expressive Arts

Pupil Support Notice Board

Science Notice Board

Some Highlights from the last week

Alt to exam leave Programme

Curling at The Peak

Alt to exam leave Programme

Curling at The Peak

Balfron 10K winners

Connor Bell & Valencia wright

Weightlifting Club

Eco Club

Girls Rugby

U14 Girls

Duke of Edinburgh Award

Practice Expedition

Saturday Supported Study

Higher Human Biology students

Balfron High Reading School

Led by Nicola Douglas, we are embarking on the first stages of becoming an accredited Reading School.

Reading Schools is an accreditation programme for schools that are committed to building a culture of reading for their learners and communities. It is brought to you by Scottish Book Trust.

Here's how it works: https://www.readingschools.scot/how-it-works

The link between reading and achievement is huge. It is fantastic to be part of this programme.

CLPL Corner

Two programmes (no cost) offered by Educator Scotland

Supporting Teacher Leadership

Teachers across Scotland are being invited to take part in Education Scotland’s Supporting Teacher Leadership (STL) programme to develop their coaching skills.

The programme is aimed at education professionals who have an opportunity or a remit to support colleagues with enquiry into an area of their choosing. It is a learning opportunity for any teacher, of any length of service, allowing them to practise coaching others in a safe environment to help develop skills and confidence and embed practitioner enquiry in their schools.

Laura McGregor, a teacher at Banff Primary School in Aberdeenshire who recently completed the Supporting Teacher Leadership programme said:

“The programme consisted of three online seminars and a couple of drop-in sessions. I really enjoyed meeting people from all over Scotland, virtually. There was a mix of primary and secondary staff and it was really encouraging to feel so supported by people I had never met. Each participant had a different reason for joining the programme; my plan was to take forward my coaching role as an impact coach for our school Visible Learning programme.

“My favourite part of the programme was having a practice coaching session with my designated coaching partner. Coaching is not about fixing it for others, it’s about allowing them to focus on how to work through a situation themselves. My coaching partner was brilliant; I’m primary, she is a secondary head of faculty, but we were able to help each other regardless.

“The Supporting Teacher Leadership programme boosted my confidence. I thought that being a coach was to give advice to people and I didn’t feel qualified enough, but it isn’t that at all. If I could use three words to sum up the Supporting Teacher Leadership programme, they would be ‘informative, supportive, practical.”

Applications for the Supporting Teacher Leadership programme open 27 May and close 10 June.

Educator Leadership

Here are the details: https://professionallearning.education.gov.scot/learn/programmes/educator-leadership-programme/

Educator Leadership ProgrammeGrowing from the success of the Teacher Leadership programme, the new Educator Leadership programme is designed to offer participants more flexibility and opportunities to collaborate and share practice across sectors, while keeping the learner experience at the centre through our focus on practitioner enquiry.

Behaviour

Our positive behaviour and relationships policy is being reviewed and updated. I thought it useful to focus on managing behaviour this week. This is an interesting podcast (link on right).

Bill Rogers is a behaviour specialist, who published the best-selling book 'Classroom Behaviour'. In this video, he speaks exclusively with TES to offer advice on verbal cues, setting the right tone, and that very important first lesson.

This is an 11 minute video that gives advise on behaviour management - worth a watch!

There are also links on www.tipsforteachers.co.uk to video clips of each of the 5 tips suggested.

This is an interesting article from The Guardian. Paul Dix offers his top 10 tips for managing behaviour: https://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2010/feb/09/pupil-behaviour-management-tips

This is a link to youtube video, Edufuturists 123,Transforming Behaviour with Paul Dix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ST76-J2WY The discussion starts at around 11 minutes.

Tom BennettListen to this episode from Tips for Teachers on Spotify. Behaviour adviser and researchEd founder Tom Bennett joins us on the Tips for Teacher podcast to share his 5 tips: 1. Use the school behaviour policy (02:56) 2. Teach students what to do when they are stuck (08:27) 3. Teach students how to behave in a supply or cover lesson (15:05) 4. Teach students how to have the right equipment (20:23) 5. Students need to know you are in charge of the classroom (27:48) Access the show notes and audio transcription of the episode, plus a load more audio and video tips here: tipsforteachers.co.uk

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

Calendar 2021-22

wb 9 May Network meetings

13 May S1 Reports completed

CfE - Maths

16 May Team meetings

Calendar 2021-22

20 May CfE - Expressive Arts

24 May S3 Humanutopia (all day)

26 May S4 Induction - Being Successful

1 June Tri-learning meeting

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.

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