I have used the phrase ‘keeping in touch’ this week for a number of reasons.

1. it is the phrase used to describe an annual meeting which takes place between council officers and school leadership to review progress from last session and agree priorities for this session.
2. we held an S1 curriculum evening and our Parent Council AGM – two great opportunities to keep in touch with parents.
3. our senior prefects took a range of issues from the pupil senate to the school senior leadership team for consideration.
4. I put out a newsletter with information about my initial assemblies and highlighted a development to groupcall that would allow us to keep in touch with parents.

I will not give a detailed account on how each of these items went.  I will say that each threw up issues which are going very well and areas where we can make further improvements.  I will also say that we will not only will we make the necessary improvements but we will also keep ‘keeping in touch’ so you can learn more about the areas where progress is being made and can make further suggestions for areas of improvement.

I am a fan of the idea of ‘growth mindset’ as it encourages us all to see failure as a positive thing which we can learn from.  Young people and big organisations often fear failure or do not admit to their mistakes.  If we adopt a growth mindset we see failure as an opportunity to improve.  At the S1 curriculum evening our Head of Maths, Mr Duncan, made reference to a famous quote by Michael Jordan (below).  We will try to keep in touch with you about pupil progress and we will point out areas where improvements need to be made.  We also encourage you to keep in touch with us and help us to make improvements to the service we provide.