Former teacher of English, now turned author Martin Stewart, visited some of our second year pupils today in the library. He gave us an insight into how he became an author and talked about his two novels entitled ‘Riverkeep’ and ‘The Sacrifice Box’. Hopefully some of the pupils will have been enthused enough to put pen to paper and begin writing themselves. His books can be found in the school library.    

  Support for Learning have requested that staff support Dyslexia Awareness Week by: • Wearing the dyslexia ribbon. • Attending the coffee morning on Friday. • Reading the issued booklet with gives information and advice on dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties. • Accessing Dyslexia Scotland website where they will find a variety of resources as well as free Online Dyslexia Modules, offering a great CPD opportunity. • Referring to the strategies advised by Dyslexia Scotland for 13-17 year olds. See link below: https://unwrapped.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/info-and-support/strategies-for-1317-years • If they have a desire to do anything with their class they will find additional activities at the bottom of the PHSE Lesson. Various video clips are also accessible on the server under staff share/public/dyslexia.

Support for Learning have planned a variety of activities for pupils, which will take place during PHSE, to raise awareness of Dyslexia: S1/2 Dyslexia Scotland – Children’s Presentation (Attached to email) Video Clip – ‘See dyslexia differently’ (Use link below) https://unwrapped.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/create-and-share/videos/see-dyslexia-differently Dyslexia is known as a ‘hidden disability’. ‘Hidden dyslexia’ colouring activity is attached to the email, print the number required for your class and ensure you have colouring pens/pencil at the ready. The worksheet can also be download from: https://unwrapped.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/create-and-share/images/hidden-dyslexia-colouring-in-postcard   S3/4 Dyslexia Presentation with Music (Attached to email) General Dyslexia Quiz (Attached to email). Answers also attached. Dyslexia Unwrapped (13-17 years) – ‘What are your rights about getting support at school’ https://unwrapped.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/info-and-support/what-are-your-rights-about-getting-support-at-school Video Clip – ‘Judged’ which can be accessed via

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https://www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/sites/default/files/library/Smart_with_dates.pdf https://www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/sites/default/files/library/DyslexiaUnwrapped_A4.pdf  

My Account will be unavailable from 7pm tonight (Thursday, 25th October 2018) until 6am tomorrow (Friday, 26th October 2018) which means that parents/carers will not be able to log into iPay Impact and pay for school meals or other school expenses during that time.

Over the course of the last two academic weeks we have made three appointments that you will need to be aware of as your young person is in Arran House. Mr MacPherson has been appointed as the Acting Depute Head Teacher for Arran House. To cover Mr MacPherson’s secondment we have made the following two appointments: Mrs Mullen will be Acting PT Pupil Support for 2A1, 3A1, 4A1, 5A1 and 6A1 pupils Miss Mackie will be Acting PT Pupil Support for 1A1 As always the first point of contact with the school in all matters should be through our young peoples’ PT Pupil Support followed by the Head of House who at this time is Mr MacPherson. Kind regards, Mr McGilp

The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day was ‘changes’ and we celebrated by having a poetry competition for our 1st year pupils’. We had three categories this year, a standard poem, an acrostic poem and a French language poem. All the poems are displayed in the library and the winning poems will be sent off to the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. Well done girls!

Due to unforeseen circumstances the EMA payment due to be paid to students this Friday 26th October 2018 has been delayed. The payments due will not be paid into students bank accounts until Monday 29th October 2018.  

Basics Food Bank, the Pupil Council and myself wish to express a very sincere thank you, thank you, thank you to all the staff and pupils who contributed to this week’s collection. The Pupil Council were exceptionally busy this morning, organising almost 2000 items of food. Wow! Nearly 2000! This will go such a long way in helping local families. The House competition was unbelievably close, neck and neck between Arran and Skye. Skye just managed to overtake at the very end, winning by only 2 more tins of food. Well done to all three houses! It was an absolutely AMAZING effort put in by our fabulous Coltness pupils