17th – 24th June 2019 – Achievements and information

This week has been another where we have taken time to celebrate the achievements of the incredible youngsters we have here in Harlaw Academy.

  • On Wednesday we had the school summer concert and art show
  • On Thursday we held our wider achievement awards event
  • On Friday it was our annual school sports day
  • Over the weekend we had groups out taking part in Duke of Edinburgh expeditions

Rather than write much I have created 2 slide shows for you to enjoy:

Concert WA DofE

Sports day 2019

Sports awards 2019

I also want to highlight the fact we have a lot of things back up and running and have attached a link to the current clubs we are offering:

Harlaw clubs and actvities

Finally for this post I want to note a couple of important things for our school community:

  • Our new S1 pupils are with us this week.  It will be fantastic having you in your new school for a few days and we hope you will be made to feel welcome and look forward to bringing your new fresh ideas to help us keep improving your school.
  • I have reminded our staff that we will be keeping the pace of learning high right through to 3.05 on Friday 5th July.  I have asked parents not to take youngsters off school for early holidays as we need them in school and working hard if they are to be the best they can be.
  • In August the teachers come back on Monday 19th and that day as well as Tuesday 20th are in-service days for teachers.  We look forward to welcoming the pupils back to classes on Wednesday 21st August.

10th – 14th June: Sports Awards

On Friday of this week we held our annual sports awards.  This was an opportunity to celebrate those who had taken part in sports activities this session.  This slideshow gives you a flavour of some of the event and lets you see who won the various awards Sports Awards June 2019

The event finished with a new award of Sports Personality of the Year.  There were 7 outstanding nominees for this award and their profiles are included here Harlaw Academy Sports Personality of the Year 2019 (2)

In joint second place were Chris Bardas and Jessica Beaton and the winner was Archie Whyte.

It was great to be able to recognise and celebrate the range of talent and high levels of involvement in sport.  Well done to all and thank you for representing your school through sport this session.

3rd-7th June 2019 – Leadership opportunities

At the end of the week applications went live for a number of key pupil leadership opportunities;

The links above takes you to the application for these opportunities and applications are due to be returned this week.  The forms show what the roles involve and how the roles will be filled.  I cannot emphasise the importance of these roles enough.  This year I gave the pupils a budget of £3000 and they combining this with funds the parents have to improve our playgrounds – a priority identified by pupils.  The pupil reps have done work to evaluate the work being done in the school and to highlight improvement priorities for the next 3 years.  They are also leading work to bring about these improvements.

All of this is linked to a broader idea of an ’empowered system’ one in which staff, pupils and parents of a school are more involved in shaping the priorities and taking these forward for themselves.  I hope parents will encourage their youngsters to apply for the positions and take up opportunities to shape and lead school improvement.

 

27th – 31st May: Parents, pupils and participation

Over this session we have done a great deal to increase participation of pupils and parents.  Not only is this the right thing to do but it is also part of what we are required to do.  Indeed over the years ahead there will be increased expectations around how we ’empower’ our staff, pupils and parents.

Participation, engagement and empowerment are grand words which often do not translate into actions.  Surveys over the world and over time indicate that it is often tokenistic and on an agenda set by the school rather than being meaningful and set jointly by those involved.

I hope to briefly illustrate how we are trying to take it forward for our pupils and parents:

  • Pupil Participation:  We have been working with groups of class representatives and using a national resource “How Good is Our Schools; Pupil version”.  This has allowed pupils to look into 5 themes; relationships, community, health, learning and attainment and come up with their ideas on what we are doing well and what we need to improve.  I have also given pupils a budget of £3000 and they are free to us e this on priorities they identify.  I have attached a short presentation the pupils have shared with their classmates which shows some of the things they are now being taking forward.  YLL feedback from reps meeting (May 2019)  These are very real things that will make a real difference in their school and community.

 

  • Parent participation:  Every parent is a member of the Parent Forum and is invited to attend Parent Council meetings.  The Parent Council itself is a smaller group who represent the Parent Forum and are involved in supporting school improvement.  The school keeps in regular contact with the Parent council on a range of issues and the Parent Council are also increasingly working with the pupil representatives to take ideas forward.  In relation to links between the parent council and the school at our meeting last week we had a general discussion about school improvement priorities over the next 3 years and more detailed plans for the next year.  In addition the parent council have been working directly with the pupils to look at how they can jointly fund improvements to the school playgrounds.  These discussions will result in work being carried out over summer to install new equipment, spaces and benches in our playgrounds.  Again these are very real things which have been identified by the parents and pupils and which will be taken forward.

We will keep looking for other ways to extend our engagement to a wider group of pupils and parents as well as into other aspects of our work.

 

20th-24th May 2019 – Seeking your views

In Spring 2016 we held meetings with staff, pupils, parents and others in the community to set out priorities to guide school improvement over a 3-year period.  This exercise produced 9 priorities for transformational change;

  • Relationships and ethos
  • Personal support and inclusion
  • Participation and involvement
  • Opportunities
  • Learning
  • Attainment
  • Achievement
  • Citizenship
  • School leadership and school improvement

 These priorities informed our annual improvement plans and gave a degree of purpose and stability to change over a longer period.  Attached is a brief report of progress in respect of the 9 priorities.

Transformational change 2019 to 2022

Setting 3-year priorities was useful and the attached note also set out draft transformational priorities for August 2019 through to July 2022 under 4 headings:

  • Raising attainment and achievement
  • Improving people
  • Improving learning
  • Improving community

I invite you to offer feedback on the report of progress and on the priorities for 2019-2022.  If you have any comments please get them to me before Monday 17th June.  It is my intention to meet with a small group of pupils, parents and staff to consider any feedback and finalise the report and priorities.  A final version of the report and plans will then be issued prior to the summer holidays.

 

 

SQA Post Results Service 2019

The SQA Post Results service is available to centres after results day on 6 August 2019.

If a centre is concerned by a candidate’s result in a subject, it can request a clerical check and/or a marking review of the candidate’s submissions for that subject.

What is a Clerical Check?

A clerical check is an administrative check that is designed to ensure that:

  • all parts of the candidate’s submission have been marked and
  • the marks given for each answer have been totalled correctly
  • the correct result has been entered on SQA’s software

 

What is a Marking Review?

A marking review is undertaken by examiners and involves the consideration of a

candidate’s materials submitted to SQA for marking to ensure that:

  • all parts of the submission have been marked
  • the marking is in line with the national standard
  • the marks given for each answer have been totalled correctly, and
  • the correct result has been entered on SQA’s software

 

Criteria for Post-results service

In line with SQA guidance Harlaw Academy must ensure that access to the Post-results Service is done in a fair, equitable and consistent manner.

  • Harlaw Academy will only submit a Post-results Service requests where we are of the view that the candidate’s certificated grade is at odds with the assessment evidence gathered during the course, and that it is out of line with the performance of other candidates with similar profiles.
  • The decision on whether to submit a request will take into account all of the candidate’s work during the year and is not based solely on the estimate grade.
  • Post-results service requests will be considered where the candidate’s certificated grade is at least 2 bands lower than predicted based on the totality of assessment evidence for the course.
  • The final decision on whether to submit Post-results service requests will be taken by the Head Teacher in liaison with the SQA Co-ordinator and the relevant Faculty Head.

 

Parents and pupils are advised that Post Results-service requests will not be made for any of the following reasons:-

  • a candidate’s entry to college or university is dependent on a re-grade
  • a candidate’s component marks place their result close to a grade boundary
  • the candidate or their parents offer to pay any costs arising from the request

 

Parents and pupils are also advised that a Clerical Check or Marking Review can lead to a change of grade either up or down.

 Key Dates

 

Post-results Services open 6 August 2019
Priority marking review request deadline (for candidates with a current conditional university/college offer) 16 August 2019
Results of priority marking reviews 26 August 2019
Marking review and clerical check deadline 27 August 2019
Results of clerical checks and marking reviews 27 September 2019

Charges

SQA will charge Harlaw Academy for all Post-results Service requests where the candidate’s grade remains unchanged following the clerical check and/or marking review. These costs are met by the school.

If would like further information on the SQA Post-results service please see the SQA website

https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/79048.html

29th April – 3rd May: Improving things together

We are constantly seeking to improve things at Harlaw Academy.  School improvement is not something I do alone.  Over recent years we have found new ways to involve all staff in this activity as well as parents and pupils.

With that in mind I attach a very simple grid for you to give me any ideas you have to improve the school – see document at Improvement plans 2019 call for ideas.  I have grouped these under the 3 headings we use to focus out work (People, Learning and Community) and also given you a 4th box for anything that does not fit neatly into the other 3.  I am happy to hear either things we need to be doing better or things we are doing well that we need to keep doing.

Towards the end of May I plan to share 4 documents with you.  They are;

  • Standards and Quality report 2018-2019 (draft)
  • School improvement plan 2019-2020 (draft)
  • Financial plan 2019-2020 (draft)
  • School calendar 2019-2020 (draft)

The purpose of sharing them in draft form is to allow you to come back to me with any changes before the documents are launched in their final form at the start of the new school session in August.

At the same time as sharing the documents in this public space there are also formal consultations with our parent council, pupil representatives and staff.  All of which should ensure that the reports, plans, spending and calendar reflect a shared view of how well we are doing and what we need to be doing next.

None of us can get everything we want and my role is to listen to the variety of views expressed and try find a way forward.  This is not always about going with the majority view, sometimes a lone voice can identify an issue which would improve things for us all.  Two years ago the pupils asked for a sign and last year they asked me to replace the water fountains – both things happened and the have made a positive difference.

             

Parents and pupils are now looking to improve the playgrounds over the summer period.  These are just some examples where together we can identify what matters to to people and do something to improve it.

21st-26th April 2019: Highlight of the week

There were a few possible topics to speak about from the week just past:

  • the awards event on Monday
  • the last day of senior classes on Tuesday
  • a newspaper article about our study leave which appeared on Tuesday
  • the start of SQA exams on Thursday
  • P7s visiting for a Technology day

Our awards event was brilliant and I will pull it together in a separate post.  The last day of senior classes went well and all that needs me to say is thank you and best wishes for what lies ahead.  The newspaper article was “so last week” as it had already been mentioned in my previous blog.  The start of the SQA exams although important is something pupils are ready for.  The P7s are also well used to visiting us and they came along and enjoyed working together and learning within our Business, Computing and Technology classes.

I would love to say a lot more but about each of these items but my highlight of the week came when our weekly podcast was posted.  This week it features Moira Garden our fantastic Cook in Charge.  If you are a parent, pupil, colleague or casual visitor to my blog please listen to Moira.  She not only talks about school meals she speaks about her time at the school, her team, her life and her passions.  It is 10 minutes of warmth and wisdom from a true star who has provided meals for pupils at the school for over a quarter of a century.  Even if you have never met Moira you will feel you do after listening to this https://anchor.fm/wisdom-punks/episodes/Moira-cook-in-charge-e3ro76

We are fortunate to have outstanding non teaching staff at Harlaw Academy and I delighted to have the chance to feature this as my personal highlight in a week of highlights.

15th -18th April 2019 – Changes and improvement

Welcome back from the Easter break.  In this blog I want to update you on some of the changes and improvements we are taking forward this term.

Staff:  We are delighted to welcome 3 new teachers to the school – Claire Christie (Social Subjects), Greg Meldrum (English) and Gloria Duguid (supply cover Modern Languages).  

School day:  Prior to Easter we consulted on changes to the school day and as a result we now have a 50 minute lunchtime and finish at 3.05.  Informal feedback from pupils this week has been very positive and we will keep monitoring how it is going between now and summer.

School grounds: The chair of the Parent council met with pupil representatives and myself this week to look at their proposals to redesign our playgrounds over the summer break.  We are very hopeful that this issue, which has been raised by us all for several years, will finally be addressed.  As well as the playgrounds we are having a look at what can be done to improve security on the campus and the safety for pupils in the car park to the front of the building.  I am hopeful of updating you with progress on all of these areas over this term.

SQA exams:  Each year we take a decision on when to start and finish study leave on the basis of the SQA exam calendar.  Some years the exams are underway by the time we commence study leave, other years we are back before the end of the SQA diet.  Last year we felt we could have taken pupils back into classes a bit earlier than we had done.  As a result when discussing our school calendar last spring we proposed that the new timetable stared on 20th May 2019.  This was supported in the consultation and incorporated into the calendar we published in August 2018.  Whilst there are some SQA exams after this date there are several days when we have no pupils sitting exams and on the days where there are exams they involve relatively small numbers of pupils.  Whilst we will always look at individual situations and make arrangements to help (eg pupils who have a number of exams towards the end of the diet) we are keen that the vast majority of pupils can get going with their new courses and maximise their chances of success in the 2020 diet of exams.  If any individuals have concerns about thier own circumstances they should speak to me to see how we can help.

Awards evening:  In recent years we have held our awards event in June after the exams were over.  Often this meant some former S6s were away working or on holiday.  This year we decided to being the event forward to Monday 22nd April and take the chance to celebrate the achievements of our youngsters prior to them undertaking their SQA exams.  I look forward to welcoming our award winners, our S6 pupils, staff and parents to the event and take time to acknowledge the many successes and achievements of our pupils this session.