{"id":884,"date":"2016-01-24T21:59:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-24T21:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.uk\/?p=884"},"modified":"2016-01-24T21:59:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-24T21:59:29","slug":"18th-22-january-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/2016\/01\/24\/18th-22-january-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"18th &#8211; 22 January 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week saw senior pupils start their prelim exams.\u00a0 These exams serve several purposes;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>they give pupils practice for the main exams in May<\/li>\n<li>they give us all a clearer idea of how pupils are doing in their course<\/li>\n<li>they better inform decisions for levels of study for next session<\/li>\n<li>they provide us with evidence in the event that a pupil is unable to sit their final exams<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I know pupils and staff work hard for the prelim exams and hopefully this hard work will be reflected in the marks.\u00a0 If not there is time to do something about putting things right by the final exams.<\/p>\n<p>I had hoped to be in a position to appoint a Modern Studies and a Physics teacher this week.\u00a0 On the plus side we had a high level of interest in the Modern Studies post and were able to make an appointment at interviews this week.\u00a0 Unfortunately we had only one applicant for the Physics vacancy and we could not proceed as the person did not fully meet the requirements for teaching in Scotland.\u00a0 I shall be re-advertising this post and in the meantime we have covered classes with a combination of Science, Technology and Maths staff with relevant qualifications.\u00a0 For certificate Physics classes there is access to SCHOLAR an on-line resources from Heriot Watt University and also some &#8216;drop in&#8217; support sessions.\u00a0\u00a0I am also\u00a0in discussion with the General Teaching Council Scotland to\u00a0see if we can find flexible routes into teaching.\u00a0\u00a0I am sure there are a lot of very well qualified people who, given a downturn in the local economy,\u00a0could be attracted to teaching\u00a0if there was a way in which they could &#8216;earn whilst they learn&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few weeks we have a set of\u00a0meetings with parents either to discuss progress with individual teachers or to outline course options and\u00a0career opportunities.\u00a0 These are really important events\u00a0which are generally very\u00a0well attended.\u00a0 I know many parents and youngsters will be concerned for the future.\u00a0 What I would say it that is remarkable how quickly things can change.\u00a0 It is just over 3 years since I took up post\u00a0and in January 2013\u00a0our outlook was\u00a0optimistic.\u00a0\u00a0Wood Group Kenny had just moved into new offices\u00a0in our area, GDF Suez\u00a0and Enquest were putting up new offices and more was planned for Union Street.\u00a0 The oil price was over $50 and the future looked pretty bright.\u00a0 We are now in a new reality but one in which talented people\u00a0can still come to the fore &#8211; whether that talent is in a trade, a skill or an academic area.\u00a0\u00a0We have to be resilient, determined and optimistic and\u00a0we need to instil resilience, determination and optimism in our young people.\u00a0 In their future\u00a0we will have a western peripheral route, superfast broadband, cruise liners will be able to dock\u00a0in Aberdeen, there will be a new exhibition centre, city centre redevelopment and much more.\u00a0 The\u00a0jobs people\u00a0do might be different\u00a0from the jobs we have seen in the past but people with skill, ambition and drive will continue to thrive.\u00a0\u00a0We need to work together to help young people recognise and to work hard to ensure they can take advantage of\u00a0these future opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week saw senior pupils start their prelim exams.\u00a0 These exams serve several purposes; they give pupils practice for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parents","category-weekly-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harlawacademy.org\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}