As we head towards the Christmas holidays we will try to strike a balance between keeping the focus on the work and acknowledging some of the key ideas around this time of year.
On the work front we are very aware of the need to prepare senior pupils for prelim exams in January. Therefore pupils and staff know they will be working hard in class up to the end of next week. The same is true for pupils in S1-S3 where we are trying to impress on them the importance of working hard to ensure they are working at at level 4 or above by the time they are finishing S3. Parents are urged to support us by ensuring they do not take pupils off outwith the school holiday period and they get pupils in school, every day, ready for work.
We will have some activities linked to the festive season and these have been grouped around the theme of “Christmas Kindness”. We recognise that many of our children come from Christian families and that this is a very special time of year for them. We also recognise that many of our children come from families of other faith backgrounds and from a no faith background and who do not have the same relationship with some aspects of the celebration of Christmas. We also serve a very diverse pupil population which includes people from affluent households and people who are living in poverty. We have some youngsters who thrive on the excitement of the festive season and we have others who become incredibly stressed by excitement and changes to routines. We need to ensure that whet we do is accessible to all and which includes everyone.
With all of this in mind we have come up with an overarching theme of “Christmas Kindness” – where we try to do things which are accessible, inclusive and promote kindness – to our community, to our classmates and to ourselves. The theme started on Friday and will continue through next week with some of the highlights being listed below:
- On-going: Collections of items for the Incharth food appeal for Tillydrone Flat
- Friday 14th : Christmas jumper/festive colours day in aid of Save the Children (this raised over £560 for the charity)
- During the week – Christmas movies some lunchtime in the Hall
- Tuesday 18th December – Christmas concert
- Wednesday 19th December – S1 LEOs fundraiser
- Wednesday 19th December – Turkey lunches in the canteen
- Wednesday 19th December – Albyn HT assembly (form time)
- Thursday 20th December – Carden/Holburn HT assembly (form time)
- Friday 21st December – Waverly/Victoria HT assembly (form time)