Head Teacher's Letters

February 2005 - Newsletter

We are now at one of the most critical times of the year for many of our pupils: S2 pupils make their course choice for S3 fairly soon; S3 pupils are preparing for examinations; S4 are completing coursework for submission to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and S5/6 commenced their preliminary examinations last Wednesday and will be sitting National Assessment Bank tests for the different units in their course throughout the term.

All S1-S4 parents and guardians should also have received a letter from the school relating to discipline and organisation. School staff feel that some pupils’ behaviour and adherence to school rules and procedures has slipped and we want to remind all pupils of what is expected of them when they come to school.

Staffing

Mrs Mackie has been appointed to the Senior Management Team as Depute Head Teacher following her success at interview. Previously PT Chemistry, she has been Acting Head of Grange House since Mr Robertson retired. Mrs Capon has joined the Chemistry Department, Mr Horton has joined the Art and Design department to replace Mrs Brooks on maternity leave, and Mr Siday will join the Mathematics department later this year. Two auxiliary staff, Mrs Harkess and Mrs Kilby, have also been appointed.

School Board

4 parents have been co-opted to the School Board – Malcolm Schaffer, Ruth Hollands, Ken Ruickbie, and Ruth Loggie – they are very welcome and we look forward to seeing them at our meetings.

Litter in the school and the community is a concern of the School Board and the topic was extensively discussed at a recent meeting. Members have made various suggestions on how the situation can be improved: Mr MacKinnon and the 2 pupil members of the School Board have therefore been in contact with local fast food outlets to see how litter bins can be deployed to reduce litter at lunchtimes. They have had a positive response from all the shops. More litter bins are to be provided in the roads leading back to the school. The school will keep emphasising to pupils their responsibility not to leave litter in the community.

PPP

We recently took back a number of refurbished classrooms and offices on B Floor, including a new suite of Guidance rooms, Learning Support rooms and various classrooms, notably in Modern Languages. On A Floor, we have a new ICT room, RME room and new reprographics office.

Various building works commenced during the February holiday as we are in a new phase where the Music Department and RE room is being extensively reconfigured. Work also started on rooms on C Floor and in the Small Dining Hall. We have also restored part of the front playground back to pupil use. The bulk of the major refurbishment should be completed by the end of April.

Examinations

The S5/6 Preliminary Examinations have been relocated to one of the gymnasiums rather than have examinations possibly disrupted by noise from the building work in the adjacent Music Department as indicated in the previous paragraph.

The builders are on a very tight schedule to complete work in the Music area. In order to give them an uninterrupted run at the refurbishment, we have decided to delay the S3 examinations until after the Easter holiday. (Principal Teachers of departments generally preferred to delay the examinations until then so that pupils could experience sitting examinations in the Assembly Hall rather than classrooms.) An examination programme will be issued to all S3 pupils before the Easter holiday.

This means that the Assembly Hall will be ready for use for the SQA examinations in May absolutely clear of any neighbouring building work .

S1 Parental Questionnaire

At the S1 Parents’ Evening earlier this session, Mr MacKinnon and the prefects were busy asking parents to fill in a questionnaire. My thanks to the 145 parents who did so between appointments or at the end of the evening.

Generally, the vast majority of parents appeared very satisfied with most aspects of the school and felt that their child had settled in well. 31 parents did say that they would like more regular information from the school – I suspect that in some cases my monthly newsletters are staying in bags! Each newsletter is also now placed on the school website – www.mgsonline.org - in the Infozone section, Head Teacher letters.

The concept of the questionnaire seemed to be well received by parents and I think it is an exercise that we would like to repeat on other evenings.

Parents’ Events

We have also run two events this term which may be of interest to parents. Mrs Mackie arranged for the Tree of Knowledge organisation to work with our S4 pupils at the start of this month and they also ran a parental workshop in the evening, focusing on how pupils learn and how we can help them to learn better with increased motivation.

Mrs Graham also arranged for the East Lothian Drugs Awareness Team to run an interactive parental workshop to increase parental awareness of the issues surrounding drugs. It is our intention to run this workshop every two years as it clearly is an issue which worries many parents.

Pupil Events

My last newsletter spoke about the arrangements for 21^st January when we intended to raise funds for the Tsunami Appeal – we did in fact raise £3000 and I would like to thank and congratulate everyone who organised, participated and contributed.

There will be a fundraising concert on the final day of term, Wednesday 23^rd March 2005, in the afternoon.

Cashless Catering

The school will be moving to a cashless catering system some time next term. Parents will be issued with more detailed information about this nearer the time. Pupils and staff who wish to purchase food or drink in the school will have to obtain a Smartcard with their photograph on it – no cash will be taken at tills or vending machines.

John Dickie ICT Award

My congratulations to Mr McIntosh in the Modern Languages Department: he is one of only 4 teachers in Scotland to receive this award from Learning and Teaching Scotland to support his project on Assessing the Impact of ICT in Modern Languages.

Yours sincerely

R I Summers

Head Teacher

Download a copy in MS Word: feb05v2.doc

Behaviour and Organisation

 

Dear Parent/ Guardian

Striving for Excellence, Caring for All

Many of you will recognise our school motto – it emphasises our determination to help our pupils achieve all they are capable of and our determination to value all our pupils.

On the in-service day on 10^th February, we spent time as a staff talking about how we feel a number of pupils are letting themselves down through repeated low-level indiscipline and disorganisation. I am reading through the S2 reports at present and I can see how this low-level disruption is affecting pupil progress.

This letter summarises the points made at a series of special assemblies for S1-S4 pupils today where I set out our expectations for pupils at school – it covers the fundamental points about behaviour, organisation and respect for others so that all pupils at the school thrive.

Can I please ask you to continue reading through to the end of this letter overleaf, then sign it and have your child return the tear-off slip to their register teacher on Tuesday?

Attendance – our attendance rate as a school is below the national average and we feel too many pupils have more days off than they need to. Absenteeism is no preparation for working life as an adult. Please ensure your child comes to school unless they are seriously unwell. An absence note should be provided on the day they return to school. Our unexplained category of absence is too high because notes are not being supplied.

 Latecoming – pupils should be in school by the warning bells at 8.40 and 1.25. If a pupil misses registration, they must sign in on the latecoming sheets in the front foyer – we need to know who is in the school if there is a fire. Guidance staff will set detention for pupils who are persistently late.   

Organisation – we expect all pupils to carry a bag and their pupil planner to school every day and to bring writing materials. We expect all pupils to be carrying jotters to do homework as required. We expect all pupils to bring PE kit to school on the day concerned, change for PE and then change back into school uniform.

Arriving in class – having moved promptly between classes, pupils should sit down and get organised for the start of the lesson by taking off their outdoor jacket, placing planner, jotter, books and writing materials on the desk. Pupils do not eat in class, do not chew gum and can only drink water.

Behaviour in class – pupils should listen to the instructions given by the teacher and stay focussed on the work to be done. If the work is difficult, do not give up, but try their hardest to do it before asking for help – be prepared to wait quietly if the teacher is busy helping other pupils. Pupils should always try their best in every class.

Sanctions for misbehaviour – there is a code of conduct in every room reminding pupils of what will happen if they misbehave – from verbal warning, to moving seat, to being sent outside, to punishment exercise or detention and finally being sent to the assignment room. Being sent to the assignment room is very serious because it means they have persistently refused to behave and have disrupted the education of their classmates. We are going to take a hard line with misbehaving pupils who further misbehave by not doing punishment exercises or who do not appear for detention. We are about to introduce a centralised detention system after school to deal with such defaulters.

All parents will recall these expectations from their own schooldays and realise effective teaching and learning can only take place in the correct conditions. By stating our expectations so explicitly, we hope more pupils will realise how to help themselves learn.

Finally, I would wish to stress that the school attempts to promote positive behaviour at all times by verbal praise in the classroom and written praise in jotters. Positive referrals are issued by staff throughout the year and we have merit award ceremonies every June.

Yours sincerely,

R I Summers

Head Teacher

________________________________________________________________________

Tear off slip to be returned to register teacher on Tuesday 22^nd February 2005

I have received the Head Teacher’s letter about the school’s expectations of pupils.

Pupil’s name ___________________________  Class ____________

Parent/ guardian signature ____________________________________

Download disciplinev2.doc