On Thursday of this week we had a meeting of the Parent Council. At these meetings I normally provide a Head Teacher update and the one I gave this week is attached here: PC Jan 19 The notes cover a range areas including; building/property, staffing, budgets and pupil experiences. At the meeting which was attended by […]
Category Archives: Parent Council
14th – 18th January: Learners, teachers, families and community
We often think of school in terms of the interaction of pupils and teachers within classrooms. If I reflect on the past week it is clear school is about much more than this. I want to start with a diagram of a jigsaw. At the centre are the two pieces – student and teacher. The […]
7th-11th January 2019 – Support and challenge
Welcome back to a new year and a new school term. Next week our seniors sit their prelim exams and this will help add to the picture we are building up about their progress. Back in August I spoke of increased expectations and we have worked hard to keep revisiting this over the session. I […]
3rd – 10th December 2018: Success and reassurance
National success: The highlght of the week was being able to tell people of our success at a National level. We use a system called accelerated reader to promote reading for our pupils. The company behind this Renaissance Learning keep an eye on how well it is being used and as a result we were […]
12th-16th November 2018 – Stay safe
Mid Autumn/Winter brings with it; darker nights, falling leaves, changing weather, frost and snow. These conditions pose an added risk as we go about our daily lives and I am using the blog this week set out 5 simple ideas to help pupils reduce the risks and to stay safe. Set off earlier – the […]
24th to 28th September 2018: Progress and Improvement
Each year I am required to prepare a number of reports. two of the more important ones are the; Standards and Quality report which summarises what we did last sessio harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.uk/…/Harlaw-Academy-Standards-and-Quality-Report-session-2017-to-2018.docx School Improvement Plan which sets out our priorities this session harlawacademy.aberdeen.sch.uk/…/Harlaw-Academy-School-Improvement-Plan-session-2018-to-2019-.docx I am pleased to attach both for your reference. If you have any comments on […]
17th-21st September 2018: Wider opportunities
In a recent blog I mentioned the extra curricular open session we had ran for pupils to help raise awareness of all the opportunities which existed in the school. The subject came up at the recent parent council where we were asked if we could make the list available to parents. It gives me great […]
10th – 14th September: Informing and involving our pupils and parents
This week we had out first Pupil Council and the first Parent Council meeting of the session. I see both groups as being extremely important in school improvement and in this blog wish to say a little about each group and the difference they can make. 10 things to know about our Pupil Council: each […]
20th August – 7th September: Welcome back
The first 3 weeks of the new term have flown past and I shall this first blog of the session to summarise the highlights Staff Changes: In April I was appointed to the role of Convener of General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS) and chair the council of the regulatory body who oversee the 75,000 registered […]
28 May – 1 June 2018: An amazing week at Harlaw Academy
I have had a few weeks off ‘blogging’ and do not want to fill this one to the extent where it is too long a long a read. It has however been a busy time which I will sum up as an amazing week at Harlaw: Exams – this is the last week of SQA […]