Author Archives: David Innes

11th – 15th January 2016

The week started with a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting.  The PTA are a really enthusiastic group who seek to arrange events to help parents to meet each other and meet staff.  These events are also intended to raise funds which can be put towards activities which will benefit pupils.  the group met in the learning […]

6th – 8th January 2016

2016 has started in a pretty grey and wet fashion.  We will all know people who have been affected by flooding and will all be hoping things improve as the year unfolds. In this blog I am keen to highlight a couple of themes, the first being ‘improvements’.  Many people start the year with an […]

14th – 18th December 2015

I made reference to the fire in the blog last week and in this one I can provide a little more detail of what has taken place this week.  There are things I cannot say as the matter is subject to an on-going police investigation. In terms of the investigation I can confirm that the […]

7 – 11 December 2015

I had planned to develop on the theme of last week by speaking about meetings our pupils had with Angela Scott, Chief Executive of Aberdeen City Council, this week.  I was then going to speak a little about how much we had enjoyed welcoming S2 parents to meet their teachers during the week.  I was […]

30 November – 4 December 2015

I was delighted to learn that Ferryhill Primary School had gained level 1 of the Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA).  RRSA has been developed by UNICEF UK to recognise work done by schools to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC): UNCRC guide for children At Harlaw Academy we are working on becoming a […]

23rd – 29th November 2015

Assemblies – the school chaplains deliver periodic assemblies and this week they were exploring the idea of ‘passion’.  Some time ago when we had been looking at the theme we had planned to speak of the need to work hard at things you are passionate about.  However with recent events around the world we adapted […]

16th – 20th November 2015

In-service day: Parents and pupils possibly wonder what staff do on in-service days.  On Monday we brought together all of the staff from the Academy and its 4 associated Primary schools.  We spent time together looking at feedback from some surveys into Health and discussing how we could support staff, pupils and families who have concerns over […]

9th – 13th November

Developing our Young Workforce (DYW): You may have seen in the local newspaper a focus on recruiting apprentices.  This is part of a bigger piece of work, sometimes referred to as DYW, aimed at ensuring that all our school leavers are work ready and can leave for positive and sustained destinations.  It is a National […]