To
all Parents and Carers,
Head
Teacher Update – June 2015
Vision,
Values and Aims - Vision 2020
Since
I took up post in November 2014 one of my main aims has been to establish:
- 1A school vision statement.
- 2A set of core values for the school.
- 3A clear set our core priorities.
On
Monday 5 January all school staff, teaching and non-teaching, met to consider
these points and work has continued since then. Parents/carers, pupils and
partners of the school have all been consulted and on the 23 April 2015 over 800
votes were cast to decide our preferred vision statement and our values.
I
am delighted to say that these are now in place and will formally be launched
within the school community over the coming months.
Vision
Statement
“At Gracemount High School EVERYONE is committed to
working together to achieve excellence.
We embrace our young people as the heart of our community and through
our culture of care, hard work and high expectations for learning, ALL our
young people will have the confidence, resilience and skills to embrace the
opportunities and challenges of life and experience success”.
GRACEMOUNT
HIGH SCHOOL- OUR VALUES – AMBITION
Aspiration
– We strive to be the best we can be in all that we do. We understand that both
hard work and effort are key to our success.
Mutual
respect – We are polite, courteous and caring. We treat all people with dignity
and respect.
Being
valued – We care about ourselves and each other. We understand that everyone
matters.
Instilling
resilience – We persevere when faced with challenge. We know that when we make
mistakes we are encouraged to learn from them.
Tolerance
and fairness – We promote equality, celebrate diversity and value our
differences. We ensure that everyone is treated equally.
Individual
responsibility – We take responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions. We
are accountable for the choices we make.
Optimism
– We maintain a positive attitude to learning and life. We see challenges as
opportunities and we are confident about the future.
No
barriers to successful learning – We support each other and ask for help when
we need it. We take responsibility for our learning in order to achieve
success.
Staffing
Update – accurate at the time of writing but subject to change
As
is usual at the end of an academic session, there are a number of staffing
changes. Below is a summary of expected changes.
Mrs
Kelly (Maths) and Ms Taylor (Business) will be both be starting maternity leave
at the end of term. It is clearly a very exciting time for them and their
families and we wish them well as they get ready to welcome new additions into
their family.
Mrs
Clark, who has been working on a part-time basis in Support for Learning is
also expecting a baby over the summer and we wish her and her family all the
very best. As a result Mr Maclaughland (Social Subjects) will join our support
team on a part-time basis until October.
Mr
Stobie (Maths) continues his career break for another year. I am therefore delighted
to say that Mr Rafferty, who is currently a probationer teacher at Gracemount, will
be staying on for another year. We have
yet to appoint maternity cover for Mrs Kelly.
Miss Taylor in Business Education will be leaving for a year on maternity leave and her replacement will hopefully be appointed next week.
Mr
Patterson, Curriculum Leader for English, is retiring at the end of this
session. Mr Patterson has been at Gracemount High School for over 30 years and
will be missed by all of us. It will undoubtedly be an emotional farewell. Mr
Patterson’s post is currently being advertised and we plan to have appointed a
candidate in time for the start of the August term.
Mrs
France (Physics), another long standing member of staff is also retiring. We
wish Mrs France all the very best for this new phase in her life. As a result Mr Cunningham has joined us from
Boroughmuir HS and took up post on Monday 8 June.
Mr
Goodfellow (Social Subjects) has been on secondment to Portobello for the past
year. I am delighted to say that he has secured a permanent promotion at Portobello
and regrettably will not be returning in the new session. We are delighted that Ms McMillan will be
able to continue in post for another year as she has made such a positive
contribution to the school in her short time in post.
Ms
Dickie, Support for Learning Leader, has been on a career break and during that
time has successfully secured a post in Outreach Teaching Services. We wish her
all the very best in her new job. As a result Ms Kennedy will continue in post
until a full time permanent replacement is appointed.
Ms
McKenzie (Art) will be finishing her probation year at the end of term. We wish
her well in securing a full time post over the coming months. Ms Finch will be
joining us as a probationer teacher in the Art Department in August.
Mr
McKenzie (Biology) will be temporarily leaving us in August to take up a two
year contract in a school in Egypt. This is clearly a very exciting opportunity
for Mr McKenzie although he will be very much missed at Gracemount. I am
however very pleased to say that Ms Thomson, who has been covering Mr Knight’s
secondment, has been appointed into Mr McKenzie’s post. Mr Knight (Biology)
will re-join us in August after a brief spell at Portobello.
Amongst
our non-teaching staff, Mrs Jones and Ms Henderson will both be leaving the PSA
team. We wish them well in the future. Ms Kouppa is to join us very soon and we
hope to make another appointment in the near future. We are also appointing a
new member of the PSA team who will be working as a behaviour support officer
in the school. This is a specific role designed to support pupils and staff and
an appointment is imminent. I look forward to announcing the successful
candidate shortly.
Mr
Macdonald (English) continues to be absent for health reasons. We hope he will
return very soon but in the meantime contingency arrangements have been put in
place for August should he be unable to return after the summer. If you have
any concerns, please contact your son’s/daughters Pupil Support Leader in the
first instance.
A Whole
School Focus on Behaviour
Gracemount
High school is a school where the significant majority of pupils are well
behaved, respectful and keen to learn. All staff feel it is vital to ensure
that these pupils’ efforts are recognised and that positive behaviour is valued
and promoted throughout our community. Our positive ethos group has been working
very hard to evaluate our current behaviour system and look at ways in which we
can recognise and reward positive behaviour as well as deal with behaviour
concerns in a more restorative and solution focused manner. Throughout the
process we have been engaging with staff, parents/carers and pupils to gather
their thoughts and suggestions on the way forward. Work on this is ongoing but
I am delighted to say we are almost there and a new behaviour policy will be
launched in August 2015. Details of this will be communicated to all families
in August and the website will also updated with the detail.
Dress
Code
Gracemount
High School continues to pride itself on having exemplary high standards and
part of this relates to our dress code. We have a very clear dress code and
this has not changed for a considerable length of time. Our Parent Council
continue to support our stance on this and feel very strongly that this should
be actively promoted which we continue to do.
Recently
a number of young people have not been adhering to the dress code, particularly
in regard to the footwear which they choose to wear to school. We have a clear
system in school to deal with this and if a pupil reaches 5 occasions where
they have not adhered to the dress code, their Depute Head Teacher will contact
home to seek support. Whilst we understand that issues may arise which prevent
a student from adhering to the dress code, a note from home to make the school
aware is always appreciated.
Please note that ripped
or torn black jeans are not accepted as part of our dress code and we seek your
support with this issue.
Attendance
and Punctuality
In
developing skills for life, work and learning there is a renewed focus on
attending school and being punctual. We expect all pupils to have a minimum of
95% attendance unless there are very specific reasons to prevent this. If there
are genuine reasons for this, the school will work very closely with you to
support your family.
We
also believe that it is not acceptable to be late and poor punctuality in
school can become a habit and follow a young person into their working lives.
We wish to make it clear that school starts at 8.30. There is a warning bell at
8.27 and students should be in the building by 8.30am. In August we will be
taking a firm line on both attendance and punctuality and we are seeking your
support to ensure that all our students understand the importance of being on
time and arrive at school punctually.
SQA Exams
Senior
students have recently completed their National Qualification exams and we all
anxiously await the results. The SQA process brings together a culmination of
one year’s hard work and we know that where pupils work hard and try their best,
good examination results are achieved. We wish all our students the very best
and will be on hand to support all students once the results are published.
Mr
Hutchison, Depute Head Teacher for the Senior School, will be in contact
regarding dates when pupils and parents/carers can meet with him to discuss
option choices in light of examination results.
As you will be aware, this
year’s SQA examination results will be issued on Tuesday 4 August. These
results will arrive by first class post or by text or e-mail if the student has
registered for this service through “My SQA”.
There is no longer an appeals
process. In its place, SQA has introduced two new services.
The Exceptional Circumstances
Consideration Service
has been operating throughout the examination period. Students who were unable to sit an exam, for
very good reason, such as a family bereavement or serious illness, or whose
performance may have been badly affected by similar circumstances, will have
been put forward for Exceptional Circumstances Consideration. In such cases, the school will have forwarded
alternative evidence - a sample of the students’ work - to support their
request for a qualification to be awarded.
The award granted, however, may not be the same as that estimated by the
school.
A
marking review is where an SQA senior examiner will review the marks awarded to
each question to ensure that the original marking was in line with national
standards: the work will not be re-marked. The decision to ask for a marking
review rests solely with the school, and no alternative evidence will be sent
to the SQA. The only evidence checked is
the candidate’s 2015 examination script.
As
a result of a clerical check and/or marking review, the candidate’s grade may
stay the same or be amended up or
down. This process is significantly
different in that the only evidence checked is the candidate’s 2015 examination
script. The school will not be able to
submit to the SQA alternative evidence like course work or Prelim examination
evidence to support their request for a review.
Decisions about the grade awarded will be made solely on the candidate’s
performance in the SQA examination.
The
SQA has recognised that this new Service is a marked departure from previous
practice and so have put in place extra checks in respect of the quality of
each marker’s assessment and the accuracy of total marks awarded. This has been done to ensure that final
results are as accurate as possible.
Meaningful
May
A number of pupils participated in a range of activities set up by
Gracemount High School and Liberton High School. One particular success was
raising a grand total of £121 for the Jamie Skinner Foundation on the Sponsored
Walk. Well done to all involved.
Education
Scotland - Learning through Technology Award
Gracemount
continues to develop its reputation as a leading school in Scotland where it
comes to learning through technology. In May we were delighted to issue all our
S2 pupils with their own iPad as we progress with our 1:1 policy. Part of this
is continue to provide our teachers with the very best training and
professional development so that the learning and teaching that takes place in
the classroom is second to none. As a result of our efforts we were recognised
by Education Scotland and short listed for a Learning Through technologies
Award. Unfortunately we did not win the award, however the school did receive
£200 pounds which will be reinvested in continuing to develop technology across
the curriculum.
Appointment
of Head Boy/Girl
After a very competitive application process
which included a written application form, a presentation and interview I am
delighted to say that the following students have now been appointed:
Head Boy – Paul Reilly
Head Girl – Kirsty Farmer
Depute Head Boy – Mohammed Tariq
Depute Head Girl – Katy Hastie
All the candidates interviewed to a very high
standard and the decision to appoint was very difficult for the interview
panel. Congratulations to our 4
successful candidates.
What lies
ahead?
Our
new timetable started on Monday 1 June and all students moved into the next
stage of their secondary education. Should you have any queries regarding
course choice, please contact your son’s/daughters Support for Pupil Leader in
the first instance.
Our
Sports Award evening took place on Thursday 11 June and information can be
found on our website.
Our
Annual Primary 7 3 day visit takes place on Tuesday 16 to Thursday 18 June. We
are very much looking forward to welcoming our new P7 intake and Mrs Sinclair
is putting together the final touches to ensure a very positive experience for
all P7 pupils. If you have any last minute questions, please contact Mrs
Sinclair in the first instance.
Our
Annual Celebration Evening will take place on Wednesday 24 June at 7pm. The school will finish at 3pm that day to
enable staff involved to prepare for the event.
You
should also note that the school closes at 12 noon on Friday 26 June. There will
be a dress down day and the Charities Committee will announce the charity which
will benefit from the money raised. All students wishing to dress down should
bring £1 to school that day.
The
new session begins on Monday 17 August.
Final
thoughts
I
have thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent at Gracemount High School since
taking up post in November 2014. It is my view that Gracemount High School is a
very good school and I was delighted when the local authority team visited the
school in January and confirmed in their follow through report that we
“continue to provide a very good standard of education”. This is a reflection
of the quality of both teaching and non-teaching staff at the school who give
their all every day. I am very fortunate to lead such a talented group of
professionals.
There
are a number of challenges ahead as we work together to continue to ensure we
deliver the highest standard of education possible. Without question the most
enjoyable part of my job has been getting to know the young people and listen
to their views of the school. They have strong opinions and most feel very
proud to be part of our community. I very much look forward to continuing to
build on the school’s successes as we work towards our Vison of Excellence for
2020.
Finally,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of the Gracemount
High School community; pupils, staff and parents/carers as well as our school
partners. You support, effort, hard work and commitment means a huge amount and
when we come together there is no doubt that we change lives for the better.
I
hope you all have a very enjoyable, safe, and well deserved summer break.
Kind
regards
Ross Hunter
Head Teacher 