{"id":748,"date":"2015-09-13T08:25:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T08:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.uk\/?p=748"},"modified":"2015-09-13T08:25:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T08:25:28","slug":"harlaw-academy-weekly-blog-7-10th-september-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/2015\/09\/13\/harlaw-academy-weekly-blog-7-10th-september-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Harlaw Academy weekly blog: 7-10th September 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

The theme of assemblies this week has been community <\/strong>and during the week we had two events aimed at involving the wider community in the life of the school.<\/p>\n

The first of the community events\u00a0was a curriculum evening aimed at helping parents to gain a clearer insight into the new National qualifications.\u00a0 There were\u00a0presentations from Mr Duncan (Faculty Head of Mathematics), Mrs Rigby (Faculty Head of English) and Mrs Urquhart (Faculty Head of Science) aimed at describing the courses from\u00a0the point of view of teachers.\u00a0 This was followed by a presentation from\u00a0a parent, Mr Cromar, who described both the demands\u00a0made on his daughter and the supports which were available.\u00a0 The final presentations came from 2 senior pupils, Holly Haigh and Sabir Rahman.\u00a0 They\u00a0spoke about the need to work at a pace from the start of the new courses, to work to a high standard (to avoid re-assessments) and to take advantage of the supports available.\u00a0 Mrs Lawrence concluded the presentations by letting parents see some of the support resources – these can be accessed\u00a0through the school website.\u00a0 Although the turn out was less than we had hoped for, around 30 parents attended, those who were there indicated that they had found it very helpful to hear directly from those with direct experience of the new courses.\u00a0 I have attached two of the presentations from the evening for those who want to find out a bit more – each has references to other useful resources for pupils and parents.<\/p>\n

NQs in English<\/a><\/p>\n

NQs in Mathematics<\/a><\/p>\n

The second community event took place on Saturday when Harlaw took part in Doors Open day for the second year.\u00a0 Over 100 visitors took the opportunity to see around the historic Archibald Simpson building.\u00a0 In addition to guided tours, there were displays of work, memorabilia from the past and refreshments\/shortbread to enjoy.\u00a0 Some visitors were simply curious to see round the place, others were past pupils and some were families of primary age pupils wishing to get more idea of what the secondary school was like.\u00a0 I wish to pay tribute to the 20 senior pupils who gave up time on a Saturday to act as guides for the visitors.\u00a0 I think everyone enjoyed the event and it helped build a greater sense of the role of this school in its community over a long period of time.<\/p>\n

There are also some aspects where\u00a0we need to do a\u00a0bit better – and aspects which have been raised by the community\u00a0include:<\/p>\n