Pupils enjoyed the mid term break with having Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off. Staff on the other hand were able to get a well deserved break on the Monday but were hard at work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Parents, and possibly pupils, may wonder what staff actually do during in-service days and the purpose of […]
Author Archives: David Innes
5th – 9th February 2018: Refreshing our vision
In spring 2015 we undertook a fairly significant review of our vision, values and behaviour statements. Prior to this there had not been a review for many years and even then I think the statements had largely been undertaken by senior staff at the school and passed on to pupils to follow. Certainly none of […]
29th January – 2nd February: Technology, dignity and good manners
Two items caught my eye this week: An item by Gillian Martin (MSP) drawing attention to the issue of youngsters sending inappropriate images on social media. A feature on Sky News about youngsters becoming lazier, more demanding and more rude as a result of ‘Siri’ and ‘Alexa’ type applications They were particularly interesting because Tuesday […]
22nd – 26th January: Note for our parents
This week we had a really good meeting of our Parent Council and I want to thank the senior pupils, parents and local councillors who attend these meetings. It really does help to share ideas and shape the thinking of how we keep the school moving forward. This is a fairly brief blog sharing some […]
15th-19th January 2018: No short cuts to success
This week saw the senior school involved in the first week of their prelim exams. For pupils in S5 and S6 this should now be familiar ground but for our S4s it is the first time they have really faced this intensity of challenge. I really felt for them because they are facing a new […]
8th – 12th January 2018: Recognising and realising the rights of all young people
Firstly welcome back and best wishes for 2018. I want to start with a curious thing about 2018 as a year – it marks a point when all adults in the world were born last century and all children were born this century. 2018 is also identified as being the year of the young person. It therefore […]
27th November – 1st December 2017: Value and support our staff
As you may know I serve on the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS). This is the professional body who oversee the professional standards of the teaching profession in Scotland. GTCS play an active role in initial teacher education, in the registration of teachers, in their on-going professional learning and in setting the framework to monitor […]
20th – 26th November 2017: There is a lot going on @ Harlaw_Academy
I am going to say very little by way of introduction to this blog – other than to note it is share information about some of the activities taking place in the school. Beyond that I will let the actions (extracts from our weekly bulletin) speak for themselves: BIOLOGY DROP IN – Tuesday’s session is open […]
13th – 17th November: What do you think?
Last week I wrote a blog about ’empowering pupils and parents’. It was a very well timed article because this week we have been asked for our views on two very significant sets of proposals which have possible implications for our work and our plans. They are: TOM – which relates to the way Aberdeen City Council will […]
6th – 9th November 2017: Empowering pupils and parents
This week we have tried to improve two very important aspects of the school – our work with pupils and parents. I want us to go well beyond just consulting pupils and informing parents – I want to empower both groups to make a meaningful contribution to school improvement and to play an active role […]