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 […]
Category Archives: Weekly blog
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 […]
5th March – 18th March: Gaining our Gold Award
Apologies for combining two weekly blogs into one. Apologies too for this being a relatively short blog but one with a fairly significant attachment which I hope you will take time to read through. We have had confirmation from UNICEF UK that we have gained the Gold Rights Respecting Schools Award. Indeed we are only the second […]
26th February -3rd March 2018: Pride and shame
Pride: On Monday night I attended an Aberdeen City Council event to recognise the achievements of pupils from the City who take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme. If Harlaw Academy had only one one pupil taking part I would have been proud of their achievement. But the fact is that Harlaw Academy […]
19th-23rd February 2018: Speaking up for rights
It was really frustrating to have to deal with a couple of instances this week where pupil deliberately set off our fire alarms. We had a spate of this earlier in the session and I hoped we had seen the back of it. It is an extremely dangerous thing to do and also extremely disruptive. […]
12th-16th February 2018: Short week for our pupils
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]