Headteacher Update 27 - Monday 21st June 2021

 

Dear Parent/Carers,

 

As we approach the Summer break I wanted to give a whole school update.  I appreciate there is a lot of information and hopefully the headings below will enable you to select what information is relevant for you and your child.

 

Last day of term

Our terms ends on Friday 25 June at 12 noon for all pupils.  There will be one break at 10.30am until 11am for all pupils. This will be a dress down day. Pupils can make a small donation to charity at the door if they wish to.

 

Return to school after summer

Monday 16^th August – School In-service day – staff only

Tuesday 17^th August – school in-service day – staff only

Wednesday 18 August All pupils return to school. Please note that it will be a staggered return for pupils to support transition of our new S1 pupils who have yet to visit the school due to Covid restrictions.

• S1 Pupils – start at 8.30am
• S2 and S3 pupils start at 10.35am
• S4-6 pupils  start at 11.25 am

 

New timetable

Unfortunately, we were unable to start our new timetable before summer due to technical issues in our timetabling system. As a result, will start our new Timetable on 18 August, reverting to a 7-period day (subject to change if covid infection rates are high).

 

School Day from 18 August

		S1-3	S4-6
Registration		8.30-8.40	Registration	8.30-8.40
Period 1		8.40-9.30	Period 1	8.40-9.30
Period 2		9.30-10.20	Period 2	9.30-10.20
Break		10.20 - 10.35	Period 3	10.20-11.10
Period 3			Break	11.10-11.25
Period 4		11.25-12.15
Period 5		12.15-13.05
Lunch		13.05 – 13.50
Period 6		13.50-14.40
Period 7		14.40-15.30

 

 

School Dress Code

Our new school dress code will go live from 18 August. Parents can purchase items from the school on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 August or additionally purchase online. A link will be sent out separately. Asda, Sainsburys and Marks and Spencer’s also sell items suitable for school.

 

Our previous communication outlined the following requirements to adhere to our dress code :

 

1. Dress code should include at least one item that identifies a pupil to the school. This would be a school shirt and tie (ties are provided to all students in S1 and again in S4) or a school branded hoodie, jumper or polo shirt.

 

2. Hoodies can be worn if they are plain black (no branding) or school branded. No other hoodies will be accepted.

 

3. Plain Black jeans –these are suitable for school. No ripped jeans will be permitted.

 

4. Plain Black Leggings – will be allowed if they are of an appropriate thickness.

 

5. Black shoes – whilst encouraged it was felt that the cost can sometime be an issue. The school would look to take a view that black shoes/trainers are strongly encouraged but not compulsory.

 

6. Designer logos – no designer logo clothing will be permitted. This includes clothing with small branding e.g. Nike, Fred Perry, Stone Island etc. Please do not send your child to school with any branded clothing.

 

7. Plain black Tracksuits/jogging bottoms – will be allowed. These should not be branded.

 

8. Polo Shirts – school branded polo shirt will be available as an alternative to shirt/tie.

 

9. Senior school S5/6 – blazers will not be compulsory except for prefects. Pupils in S5/6 can choose to wear a blazer and all prefects will be given a prefect badge to wear along with their blazer.

 

Infection Control Procedures

Upon their return to school we want our young people to continue to have a sense of responsibility for the safety of their school community. Further information regarding revised infection control procedures will follow during the summer.

 

Please be reminded that no one should attend school if they have any COVID symptoms. They should immediately self-isolate and book a test via a test centre or the NHS website

 

Alternative Certification Model

The school will be sending home provisional results to all students on Wednesday this week. This will also include information about the appeals system. An SQA certificate will follow on August 10.

 

Staffing

We are pleased to welcome the following new staff to our school next session:

 

Mrs Lynsey-Stewart Young – Depute Head Teacher – start date to be confirmed

Mrs Cathy Adam – Curriculum Leader for Enhanced Support Base - start date to be confirmed

Miss Jenna Pinkney – PE probation teacher – start 16 August

Miss Gabrielle Jondet – Home Economics probation teacher -starts 16 August

Mr Liam Blain   - Drama probationer teacher - starts 16 August

 

At the time of writing we are still in the process of recruiting for the following posts

 

Temporary teacher of French/Spanish

Teacher of Support for Learning

PSO for Enhanced Support Base

PSA for Wellbeing Base

PSA for Enhanced Support Base

 

We will be saying farewell to Ms Heron in PE, Mr Hanlon in Music, Miss Duffield in Drama, Ms Mclaren in HE, Ms Henderson in the Wellbeing Base, Mr McLaren in Support for Learning and Ms Day in PE. We wish all our colleagues the very best of luck as they move on from Gracemount.

 

Awards

Our award winners will be recognised again this year in a sway and this will be made available to all our pupils and families later this week. I want to congratulate every award winner. Our pupils have shown great determination and resilience through this session and every award is very much deserved.

 

To all our community, thank you again for all you are doing to support the school. Please have a safe and enjoyable summer break.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Ross Hunter

Head Teacher

Headteacher Update 26 - Wednesday 2nd September 2020

 

1 September 2020 

Dear Parent / Carer,

 

Parental involvement and engagement in our school

I wanted to write to all our parents and carers to let you know how we can support you in being involved and engaged in the life of Gracemount High School.

Every single young person and their family matters to us and as a parent/carer, feeling involved and part of the school is very important. You can be involved in school in several ways and I’ve outlined how below.

Parent Council

All parents/carers are automatically members of our parent council and you can attend any meeting. The dates for this session are below. Meetings are normally held in school and start at 6.30pm. They are finished by 8.30pm.

• 7 September
• 3 October
• 20 January
• 29 March
• 6 June

For now, meetings will take place online via Microsoft Teams. If you wish to join the meeting, please email the admin inbox admin@gracemount.edin.sch.uk with your email address and you will receive an invite to the meeting on 7 September.

Contact Details

One way to ensure that you remain involved with the school is to ensure that your contact details, and those of emergency contacts are up to date. If you are unsure, please contact the school office.

Class Charts

This allows us to reward positive behaviours and track behaviours that may be causing some concern. By downloading the app or by going on-line you can stay up to-date with your child’s progress. Log-in details have been sent by the school but if you need help to log on please contact the school office.

Attending Meetings

For now, almost all meetings with parents will be on-line. Your support in being present at any meeting for young people is always very helpful. It is imperative that your voice, and that of your young person, is heard as this supports the plans we make for our young people.

Family learning programmes

Although paused for now, we hope to re-establish opportunities for parents to come to the school and learn about different aspects of school life. More details will follow this session.

Social Media

We are very active on social media and our school Facebook page is a great way to keep informed. Please remember, we are not responding to queries through this page. All queries must be directed towards the school office via telephone or through emailing admin@gracemount.edin.sch.uk

Parental Surveys

At times throughout the session, we will survey young people and parents/carers on their views. If you are sent a link to a survey, please complete this. This supports the work we do and helps us to ensure your views are heard.

School Website

Our school website is a great landing place to find out more about the school. You can access key documents and policies through and find out more about us. You’ll find us at http://gracemounthighschool.co.uk/index.php

Keeping in touch

We want to assure you all that at any time you can contact the school. Our job is to support our young people and our families, and we pride ourselves in doing this to the best of our ability. We may often reach out to you through email, phone and text and where required. Responding to our messages and contacting the school is a great way to keep involved.

Thank you for all you are doing and for your continued support at this most challenging of times for us all.

If any parent/carer wishes to discuss any matter please contact me via admin@gracemount.edin.sch.uk.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Hunter

Head Teacher

Headteacher Update 25 - Wednesday 15th January 2020

January 2020

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

A very Happy New Year to all. Please see below for a few important updates.

Embedding our School Values – what we stand for

Our school values 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

If you have not done so already, please access the class charts app. This enables you to track the behaviour of your young person in school. Details were sent home to all parents careers however if you need these again please contact the school. We will be contacting those that haven’t signed up to encourage them to do so. Our over and above behaviours give 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

Careers Event and Options Launch – 9 January

We had another successful day/evening and thank you all parents/carers that came along. We hope you found the evening informative and that it will support you and your young person in making the right choices for next session. Please note the deadline dates below:

S2 Pupils – return course choice sheet by 30 January

S3/4/5 Pupils - return course choice sheet by 16 January

 

Staffing
Mrs Whyte will be going on Maternity leave very soon. As I informed you in December, Ms Carly Murray will take up post to cover this leave.

From 20 January, Ms Gordon (DHT) will be leaving on a temporary secondment to take up a similar post at Queensferry High School. As a result, Mr Whale has been appointed to replace Ms Gordon, Mrs Ellis (Skye House) Pupil Support Leader will replace Mr Whale as Senior Development officer and Mr Doak (former Pupil Support Leader for Tiree) will return to take over for Mrs Ellis. These changes will be in place until the summer break.

Key dates

·         20 January – S1 reports issued

·         28 January – S3 Parents Evening

·         27 January – Parent Council

·         3 February - Senior reports issued

·         7 February – last day of term

·         17 February (week beginning) – letters will be issued if S4/5/6 pupils are being recommend for a 

        change of level or move to freestanding units.

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.

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 New Year and we all look forward to working hard to get the very best for our pupils.

Kind Regards and best wishes

Ross Hunter

Head Teacher