June 2024 Head Teacher Update - Key Information 21 June 2024

Headteacher Key Information Update

I wanted to share with families some key information, as we head towards the end of the academic session, that I hope will be helpful in preparing for August. This will be my final update for the session so I'd like to say a HUGE thank you for all your support and feedback.

Staffing Update

Retirements

We have a few staff retiring at the end of term. I'd like to thank them, on behalf of the whole Balwearie community, for their dedication, passion and commitment to our young people.

• Kate McGladdery, PT Drama, 5 years at Balwearie HS
• Jane Henry, Teacher of Chemistry, 6 years at Balwearie HS
• Clare Lynch - (early retirement, ill health) Teacher of English, 12 years at Balwearie HS
• Gail Doig - Teacher of DAS, 27 years at Balwearie HS
• Margaret Johnstone - (ill health) Support Services Co-ordinator, 7 years at Balwearie HS
• Jackie Killin - Pupil Support Assistant, 21 years at Balwearie HS
• Lesley Brand - Pupil Support Assistant, 24 years at Balwearie HS
• Jane Gear - Pupil Support Assistant, 25 years at Balwearie HS
• Yvonne Ferguson - PT2 Guidance (Piteadie) - starting phased retirement, reducing to 3 days per week
• Pete Finnegan - PT English - starting phased retirement and stepping down from PT post. Moving to 4 days per week.

Some staff are leaving to take up new posts elsewhere. We wish them all the very best.

• Kirsteen Wright (PSA) Pupil Support
• Linsey Gassner (PE)
• Zoe Robertson (PT, Pupil Support)

We also have some new staff joining us from August:

• Mr Norman - Business Education (maternity cover for Mrs Blackburn Mon/Tue)
• Mr Dow - Business Education (maternity cover Mrs Blackburn Wed-Fri)
• Ms Foster - remaining with us from current session, supporting in Health & Wellbeing and Pupil Support
• Ms Ferguson - History NQT
• Ms Burns - Drama NQT
• Mr Brown - Modern Studies taking on part-time PT2 Guidance post (2 days per week)
• Ms Forbes - Admin
• Finally, Lynne Kerr (Skills Development Scotland) will be finishing at Balwearie and is being relocated to another school. Lynne has been with us for 7 years and we'll miss her greatly. We will be joined by Ben Lowrie and Gemma Cargill from August in her place.

Mission Statement

We have been working hard over the last few months to consult with staff and learners about the purpose of education at Balwearie High School. This was followed by our consultation with all staff on our School Mission Statement - who we are and how it feels to be part of our Balwearie community. Our mission statement is:

Together, we value innovation, inclusion and diversity. ​

Within our learning community, we feel safe, nurtured and respected. ​

We enjoy rich and varied learning opportunities that ensure we are well-prepared for an ever-changing future. ​

In the new session, we will engage with learners to share our new mission statement which they have been instrumental in contributing to through discussions and consultation around our purpose. We'd welcome any feedback from parents/carers via the MS Form at the end of this update.

School Improvement Priorities 2024/25

Our self-evaluation work with staff, learners and parents/carers is now complete and we have been finalising our key priorities for session 2024-25 and beyond. These take account of the PupilWise and ParentWise feedback, our Wellbeing Survey feedback and staff self-evaluation of our progress and next steps. We'll focus on 3 key areas;

Curriculum and Pathways:

• reviewing our S1-3 curriculum and our interdisciplinary learning approaches
• linking with industry partners to support our curriculum review in each faculty

Learning, Teaching and Assessment:

• ensuring our lesson starters are engaging and plan for learning opportunities
• ensuring our lesson plenaries are evaluative and capture learner feedback

Wellbeing and Inclusion:

• embedding our refreshed Promoting Positive Relationships Policy and staged interventions
• removing barriers for all learners in the classroom environment
• using the language of wellbeing

School Uniform

We have updated our school uniform expectations to reflect our approaches to inclusion and equity and to ensure all learners can be ready to learn and feel comfortable doing so. Thanks for your support so far in reminding your child(ren) to wear uniform, it's already having an impact.

Our updated school uniform information is now available on our website. This details what is acceptable as part of our school dress code. We have reiterated this message during year group assemblies prior to the holidays. Please continue to support us in our request for all learners to arrive in school, ready to learn, which includes wearing school uniform.

Hooded tops should be removed in classes if worn to school and we ask that no 'heavily branded' tops/trousers etc are worn as part of uniform.

You can order one of our quarter-zip tops by following the link below, which can be kept on in classes for learners who prefer this option. Black non-hooded tops that make our school tie visible can also be kept on in classes.

Mobile Phones

A reminder that our policy on the use of mobile phones remains unchanged - in essence, if pupils bring phones to school, they should be switched off and put away in bags during and between lesson times unless the teacher explicitly says they can be used to support learning. As we hear more in due course from the Scottish Government we will review our approach in line with the recommendations published. We will also look outwards to other schools to identify what they have found to be best practice in managing and supporting learners around this issue. We are hopeful that we will soon, as a Local Authority, move to a 1 to 1 device for all learners which will also require a review of our policy and approaches. I will keep families updated in due course with any changes and will invite feedback at that time on your views.

Parent/Carer Information Evening - consultation update

You may recall that we recently consulted on our approach to parent/carer information evenings. The results (below) show parents/carers are in favour of retaining online meetings. Staff agreed, seeing the benefit of online meetings with a majority of 80% in favour of keeping this approach. Therefore, for next session, we will continue with online information evenings for parents/carers. However, we are committed to reviewing the other opportunities to engage with families in school as your feedback told us this was important to you, as it is to us. Thank you to those who took a few minutes to share your views.

Modular Accommodation

As you'll know, we are excited to be gaining some modular accommodation during the next session. David Trowell (Business Manager) and I continue to work closely with our colleagues in the buildings department to plan for the logistical challenges that come with this kind of operation! We anticipate that work on our onsite new car park will begin during the summer break and we're communicating with local residents to keep them updated with what will be happening and when so they don't get any surprises when large vehicles pass by! The actual accommodation won't be on site for some time but I'll keep you updated with this as it progresses.

School Buses - August 2024

Please find the routes for school buses from August and the names of the companies that will be operating these services. There are some school bus services that haven't been awarded yet but we are informed that all routes will be covered for the start of the new term.

All entitled pupils will be sent information about their transport arrangements directly to their home address in early August. These pupils will be sent details of the bus service to use and issued with a colour coded travel pass. Pupils who are not entitled to have transport provided can use (by paying a fare or presenting a travel enabled NEC when boarding) any spare seats on buses that are passing but these pupils are not guaranteed a space on a bus and parents/carers may have to make other arrangements.

You'll see there have been changes made to some routes and bus operators so you are advised to check Travel Fife at https://www.travelfife.com/travel-fife/journey-planning from the beginning of August and make sure your child knows which bus to use and where to get on. Timetable information will also be available on Travel Fife for all school bus services at this time.

Please remember, all school transport is arranged centrally and does not involve the school.

New S5 or New S6 Pupils- Recoursing following SQA Results

Following SQA results, some learners in our new S5 or S6 may wish to discuss changing courses with their Guidance Teacher. We will only consider changing courses for learners if they have changed their plans for their post-school destination or if they need to consider resitting any subjects that they need for entry to their preferred destination beyond school. More information will be shared with learners and families next week about how this process will work. We will be asking learners to complete a short MS Form to indicate their request and allow the Guidance Teachers to have a look ahead of arranging any meetings with individuals.

Community Updates

I met with Ewan Heeles, our new Community Use Development Use Officer. He is keen to build strong relationships with our school to provide even more opportunities for our young people and families.

Unfortunately, we have had concerns from some of our neighbours regarding a very small number of young people throwing stones towards cars/houses when they are out and about in the community. I'm grateful for your ongoing support in reiterating messages at home about expectations within our community.

Celebrating Success

Curriculum

I'm delighted to share that, thanks to the hard work of our SCQF Ambassadors, staff and partners, we have achieved our Bronze SCQF Award. This recognises the positive changes and developments we've made in our curriculum to support learners and broaden our curriculum offer. You can find out more about SCQF here.

Spotlight on Basketball! The senior squad won 20-12 against Queen Anne HS in the final of the Fife Schools Senior Boys Basketball tournament. Thirteen teams were involved in the tournament so the players deserve great credit. The squad also reached the final of the senior league and narrowly lost out to Queen Anne HS. Throughout the year the players have trained twice a week and shown an excellent level of commitment. Thanks to Gavin Hugh from Fife Steel Basketball Club who has been committed to developing the players. The foundation of Gavin's coaching has been based on the Balwearie values and as a collective group they have all been a credit to the school. A very successful year!

There has, as usual, been so much going on to celebrate! Since my last update, some of the things we've enjoyed are;

• S1 transition days and our parent/carer event
• Sports day
• Highland Show visit
• Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions
• DAS residential
• Music events
• Drama trip
• English trip
• Peer Mediation Training
• MVP Training
• Entrepreneurial successes
• Pupil Leaders' breakfast
• DYW focus week activities
• S6 Prom
• Greenpower F24 Fife Regional success

And more still to come before the end of term with our awards events during the last week of term. Here's a snapshot of some of what we've been up to over and above our time spent learning in classrooms! It's testament to the Balwearie staff and students and, of course, with the unwavering support of parents/carers, that all these things are possible - thank you.