On Monday we had a session for senior pupils called ‘Safe Drive’.  Every school, including Harlaw Academy, has had pupils who have been killed or injured in road traffic incidents involving young drivers. ‘Safe Drive’ is a hard hitting, high impact event aimed at trying to reduce the danger.

As the week went on we also had pupils taking part in Basketball (boys and girls) and football matches.  In a previous blog and in my October newsletter I provided information on the extensive range of opportunities for pupils.  It is great to see large numbers of pupils taking up these opportunities.

In order to better ensure that we link pupils to opportunities and continue to gain recognition for the time pupils spend on extra curricular activities etc we have created a new promoted post of Principal Teacher of Wider Achievement.  After an extensive process we undertook interviews this week and I am delighted to report that Mr Whyte, one of our present staff, has been appointed to this new post.  He will take up his duties in January but I hope it really will offer ‘added value’ for pupils who are taking advantage of the opportunities on offer.

We also held interviews for vacancies we had in the English Department.  Several schools in the City are short of English teachers and I was not hopeful of filling our two posts.  I was therefore delighted to secure two teachers one who will start in November and a second who will join us in January.  I cannot stress enough the key part pupils play in ensuring we can recruit good staff to Harlaw Academy.  If the school has a good reputation we will attract staff and a significant part of that reputation comes down to ‘are the pupils positive, hard working and well behaved’.  I ask all parents to reinforce this message at home as I will always want to attract good staff to the school.