Headteacher Update 24 - Wednesday 18th December 2019

Our School Vision Statement – A Statement of our Intent

“Gracemount High School creates a Responsible, Respectful and Safe community that values learning, success and confidence.”

Dear Parent/Carer

As we are approaching the festive break I wanted to get in touch and update you on how the school has been progressing this session.

Embedding our School Values – what we stand for

Our school values are becoming more and more imbedded as each day passes. Almost all our pupils are now fully aware of our focus on Responsible, Respectful and Safe. It is my ambition that every pupil knows and understands our values and that we can see these values come to life in our school. They link directly to our school rules and are a fundamental part of what it means to be part of Gracemount High School.

1.       Responsible - We are responsible for coming to school ready to learn, participate and contribute to the success of our school.

2.       Respectful - We respect ourselves, our environment and the rights of others.

3.       Safe - We all work to ensure our school community is safe and understand that everyone matters.

Our values are helping our school focus on what behaviours we expect to see from all our young people and staff and your support in reinforcing these really matters.

Class Charts – Recognising Positive Behaviours

We are now 7 weeks in to using Class Charts and I hope you’ve managed to sign up to this via the Class Charts App? If not, please do contact the school and we can help. Class charts allows you to track the behaviour of your young person in school. It gives our pupils something more than the bare minimum to achieve. It also gives our staff a structured way to recognise positive behaviours. Over and above behaviours can be awarded by any member of staff at any point across the school. Our focus is on the following:

1.       Achievement – where a pupil succeeds with effort, skill or courage.

2.       Resilience – where a pupil demonstrates grit and determination in class to succeed.

3.       Contribution – where a pupil plays their part in bringing about a positive outcome for themselves or others.

We also focus on recording pupils who:

1.       Are late to class

2.       Receive a Low level on-call

3.       Receive a high level on-call

Since our launch on 28 October we have awarded the following:

Award Type	Number of awards issued by staff
Registration on time	4875
Achievement	1576
Contribution	1210
Resilience	281
Late to class	244
Low Level On Calls	273
High Level On Calls	143

Careers Event and Options Launch– 9 January

We very much hope you can join us at our annual careers event and options launch on 9 January. We have several employers, colleges and universities attending during the day to speak to our young people and advise them about their next steps. Parents and carers are very much encouraged to attend.

We have worked hard on our options form to try and provide a relevant and meaningful curriculum for our pupils and we are very excited about the options we are hoping to deliver from S3 through to S6. We look forward to seeing you there.

Formal Assessments
At the time of writing our senior pupils are just completing their formal assessments. These assessments form part of the evidence we gather to finalise our recommendations for presenting pupils for the final exam. Teachers are working hard to assess these and provide relevant and meaningful feedback. We will be in touch in due course about any changes to recommended levels.

As our pupils’ progress towards the examinations/assessments in May it is imperative that they remain focussed and determined to do their best. As a parent/carer, what can make a real difference is simply taking an interest, asking them about their results and talking to them about school. Of course, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school.

Staffing
Since I last wrote to you I am delighted to announce we have appointed the following staff:
Ms Gillian Davis – Curriculum Leader of Science
Mr Richard Murray – Curriculum Leader of Maths
Ms Carly Murray – Drama (maternity cover).

Both Ms Davis and Mr Murray have settled in extremely well and I’m delighted to have them on our team. Ms Murray will take up post in mid to late January and we look forward to welcoming her to the school. We are also in the process of recruiting in the following areas and will update you in due course:

1.       Mathematics

2.       Pupil Support Assistant

Important Dates

·         7 January – Inset day

·         8 January – Inset day

·         9 January – pupil return from school holidays

·         9 January – Career event and options evening

·         20 January – S1 reports issued

·         28 January – S3 Parents Evening

·         29 January – Parent Council

·         3 February - Senior reports issued

·         7 February – last day of term

Mobile Phone Policy

All S1 parents have been made aware that S1 pupils are not permitted to use their phone in school and should not bring this to school with them. Should they do so, then it should remain in their bag at all times. Teachers have reported that classrooms have been very settled and our S1 pupils have been very respectful when asked to ensure their phones are not used in lessons. So far, this policy has been very well received and I would like to thank the parents/carers who are supporting us with this implementation.

All other pupils in S2-6 are reminded that phones can only be used in class with the explicit permission of the teacher. Despite the best efforts of our staff this is an on-going area of concern and our approach to the use of phones in schools is being reviewed this session. Our focus is on ensuring a positive and focussed learning environment and the misuse of phones can significantly compromise this. Parents are requested not to directly call or message their child during the class times. Should they require to make contact then this should be done out with class times or via the school office.

Stay Informed

Last session we launched our Facebook page. This is a great way to keep in touch with all that is happening in our school, so we’d encourage you to follow us on Facebook if you can. Our school website http://www.gracemounthighschool.co.uk/ is also a great way to keep informed.

We have so much to be proud of and to celebrate. Our young people continue to amaze and inspire us all and I am very proud of our school. If you haven’t already, then keep in touch through our social media and you’ll see how amazing our young people are.

I look forward to continuing our progress and working alongside you all. Should you have any queries please contact the school office on 0131 664 7440 or email GRA-Admin Account Admin@Gracemount.edin.sch.uk

In the meantime, can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy, safe and peaceful festive period.

Kind Regards and best wishes

Ross Hunter

Head Teacher

Headteacher Update 23 - Thursday 3rd October 2019

October 19

Dear Parent/Carer

We are now well settled into the new school term and now is a good opportunity to update you on the schools work so far this session.

School Vision – A Statement of our Intent

“Gracemount High School creates a Responsible, Respectful and Safe community that values learning, success and confidence.”

Developing our vision for our school was a key part of our work last session. I’ve stressed to all staff that it’s our responsibility to bring this to life. It is more than just a sentence or two, it defines our purpose and what we work towards achieving every day. We will do this to be very best of our ability.

School Values – what we stand for

Our school values are what we want to promote in every person who is part of our school community. It is my ambition that every pupil knows and understands our values and that we are able to see these values come to life in our school. They link directly to our school rules and are a fundamental part of what is means to be part of Gracemount High School.

1.    Responsible - We are responsible for coming to school ready to learn, participate and contribute to the success of our school.

2.    Respectful - We respect ourselves, our environment and the rights of others.

      

      Safe - We all work to ensure our school community is safe and understand that everyone matters.

We take the behaviour of pupils very seriously in and out of school. There are a minority who continue to cause concern in the following areas and these are not areas we can address without the full support of our parents and carers.

1.    Community concerns – at times groups of pupils can congregate outside of the school and this can cause fear and alarm for residents. Ellen’s Glen is an area of concern and we ask that parents encourage their children not to attend this area.

2.    Use of social media is a 21^st century reality for us all. Unfortunately, if used irresponsibly, it can be damaging and is linked to bullying behaviour and the increase of mental issues for our young people. We encourage all members of our community, and especially our young people, to use this responsibly. Should we have concerns then we will be in contact with home and in the most extreme cases we will prevent young people from bringing their phones to school.

3.    Looking after our community is a key part of being a successful school. Regrettably we often get complaints about litter in the community, especially at Gilmerton shops and near Tesco. It is damaging to the environment and the school’s reputation. We may have to take steps to prevent access to these areas for certain individuals if concerns continue. We want all our young people to respect their school, their community and their environment and not dropping litter is an important part of this.

School Priorities

Our School Improvement Plan is available on our website along with our Standards and Quality report from last session. Our focus is very much on the national priorities as outlined below:

1.       Improving attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy.

2.       Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children.

3.       Improvement in children’s health and wellbeing (focus on supporting mental health).

4.       Improvement in employability skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all.

I am in the process of completing the school’s annual attainment report and this will be available to view in due course via our school website.

Staffing
Our new staff have settled into the school very well. Last week we welcomed Gillian Styles, our Pupil Support Officer, who will work as part of our Support for Learning Team and be involved in supporting the emotional wellbeing and development of our pupils.
We are currently recruiting a Curriculum Leader in Maths and Science. We are interviewing next week.

Important Dates

·         4 October – Senior tracking issued

·         4 October – Gracemount High School and Gracemount Primary School fund raising event. Held at Gilmerton Miners Club. Please save the date if you can. Tickets can be purchased from the school office.

·         14 October – October Holidays begin

·         21 and 22 October – School In-service days

·         24 October – P7 Open Evening

·         23 October – pupils return

Mobile Phone Policy

All S1 parents have been made aware that S1 pupils are not permitted to use their phone in school and should not bring this to school with them. Should they do so, then it should remain in their bag at all times. Teachers have reported that classrooms have been very settled and our S1 pupils have been very respectful when asked to ensure their phones are not used in lessons. So far, this policy has been very well received and I would like to thank the parents/carers who are supporting us with this implementation.

All other pupils in S2-6 are reminded that phones can only be used in class with the explicit permission of the teacher. Despite the best efforts of our staff this is an on-going area of concern and our approach to the use of phones in school will be reviewed this session. Our focus is on ensuring a positive and focussed learning environment and the misuse of phones can significantly compromise this. Parents are requested not to directly call or message their child during the class times. Should they require to make contact then this should be done out with class times or via the school office.

Access to school toilets

We will be changing when pupils can access the school toilets and I will be sending a separate communication with regards to this matter. All pupils who have a toilet card will continue to have access to a toilet throughout the school day.

Sponsored Walk

A huge thank you to all that took part and supported their young person to participate. It was a great day. All sponsor money should be handed into the school office and every penny raised will go directly to our young people via our opportunities fund which is used to support equity of access to education for all.

Stay Informed

Last session we launched our Facebook page. This is a great way to keep in touch with all that is happening in our school, so we’d encourage you to follow us on Facebook if you can. Our school website http://www.gracemounthighschool.co.uk/ is also a great way to keep informed.

We have so much to be proud of and to celebrate. Our young people continue to amaze and inspire us all and I’ve never been prouder of our school. If you haven’t already, then keep in touch through our social media and you’ll see how amazing our young people are.

I look forward to continuing our progress and working alongside you all. Should you have any queries please contact the school office on 0131 664 7440 or email GRA-Admin Account Admin@Gracemount.edin.sch.uk

Kind Regards

Ross Hunter

Head Teacher