{"id":1762,"date":"2017-04-02T21:14:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T21:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.uk\/?p=1762"},"modified":"2017-04-02T21:14:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-02T21:14:52","slug":"27th-31st-march-end-of-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/2017\/04\/02\/27th-31st-march-end-of-term\/","title":{"rendered":"27th-31st March: End of term"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a very busy term and I know the teachers and pupils will be looking forward to a well deserved Easter break. \u00a0Please remember we will not be back on Easter Monday and we return on Tuesday 18th April.<\/strong> \u00a0Many of our non-teaching staff will be working over the Easter break getting things in order for when the teachers and pupils return.<\/p>\n

There is a perception that things ease off in the summer term. \u00a0Nothing could be further from the truth – particularly this year. \u00a0At the end of last week new National benchmarks were published and staff are expected to begin using these in planning their S1-S3 courses. \u00a0In addition, the SQA published significant changes to National 5 courses to come into effect next session. \u00a0New advice came out on the very last day of term and staff will return in April needing to adapt their National 5 courses (next year we are anticipating changes to Higher and the year after to Advance Higher). \u00a0Given that the new courses start in June it will be an extremely busy return for teachers throughout Scotland.<\/p>\n

On the last day of term I was also made aware of an article which was appearing in the local press which made reference to Harlaw Academy. I will not go into the detail of the article itself but the reference to the school was in connection with our decision last year to replace the gender based role of Head Boy and Head Girl with a role of Senior Prefect. \u00a0We took the decision because those on the selection panel were of a view that it was difficult to justify selecting someone for a role purely on the basis of their gender (eg if only one boy or one girl applied for the post they would get it regardless of how good their application or interview was). \u00a0We took the view that it was better to appoint the best people regardless of their gender. \u00a0The pupils tell their story, better than I can, in a short video they made for the school website which you can view here:<\/p>\n