This has very much been a week where we are involved in transitions.\u00a0 On Thursday our P7s were through to Harlaw for a social subjects morning and on Friday Miss Douglas and I went round the 4 local Primaries meeting the P7s in their schools.\u00a0\u00a0As this was going on\u00a0our senior pupils were completing their last week of classes before starting study leave.<\/p>\n
P7s<\/strong>:\u00a0 This is the time of year where\u00a0we are stepping up the work to welcome a\u00a0new generation of youngsters to the school.\u00a0\u00a0This year we (and Mrs Rennie in particular) have\u00a0worked with our 4 local Primaries to\u00a0help ease the transition from Primary to Secondary.\u00a0 As well as the usual\u00a0links we have added\u00a06 half day visits – one for almost all of the main curricular areas.\u00a0 This week\u00a0was the opportunity for Social Subjects to put on something special for the pupils.\u00a0 I will not do a spoiler for the future by saying too much here – but it was really engaging and active.\u00a0 If you are the parent of a P7 pupil please\u00a0ask them about their visit and\u00a0try to help them with the follow up task they have been set.\u00a0 Miss Douglas and I visited the 4 local Primary Schools the next day and the pupils were still enthusing about their visit.\u00a0 The purpose of\u00a0my visit to the Primaries was to chat to the P7s about Harlaw and to answer any questions they might have.\u00a0 Our programme is now the most developed of any school I have ever worked in and I hope it will help\u00a0the pupils to settle in quickly and reach their full potential during their time with us.<\/p>\n Seniors<\/strong>:\u00a0 This year we\u00a0spent a lot of time working with seniors and their parents to emphasise the need to maintain focus through to their exams.\u00a0 Too often\u00a0folk can get carried away with the idea of leaving – so much so that they let themselves down towards the end of their courses.\u00a0 On more than one occasion we used the analogy of the runner who dips for the line too early and falls flat on their face.\u00a0\u00a0Whilst there was the odd isolated incident I have a great deal of pride in the mature and responsible attitude shown by the seniors this year.\u00a0\u00a0I see in them a determination to do well in their exams and I hope that this is reflected in the grades they achieve.\u00a0 We have two events planned one to recognise the academic achievements of our pupils and the other to recognise their wider achievements.\u00a0 These events will give us an opportunity to say\u00a0farewell and best wishes\u00a0to all those who are moving on from Harlaw in summer 2017.<\/p>\n Our main awards event is a bit unusual in that it is planned and ran by the senior prefects.\u00a0 I met with them on\u00a0Wednesday to discuss ideas and although I made more than one contribution they were able to tell me why my ideas would not work and their ideas were better.\u00a0 They took their ideas to the Parent Council meeting on Thursday evening and received the support of the parents and myself.\u00a0\u00a0The other big task the senior prefects have to perform is to help pick their successors.\u00a0 Application forms went out last week and\u00a0we plan to hold the interviews towards the end of the exam period.\u00a0 In reflecting with the senior prefects on the reasons for moving from head boy and head girl posts to those of senior prefect posts it became clear that we could also be challenged under equalities legislation on the basis of some of the other\u00a0‘protected characteristics’.\u00a0\u00a0In the light of the pupil views and in consultation with the Parent Council\u00a0we have\u00a0made\u00a0further\u00a0alterations to our processes – this hopefully is a clear demonstration that pupil voice leads to change here at Harlaw and that\u00a0equalities is something which we practice\u00a0as well as\u00a0teach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This has very much been a week where we are involved in transitions.\u00a0 On Thursday our P7s were through to 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