Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you have had a good week.
A full week is now completed, and for many of our young people I’m sure they have come home this afternoon tired after a busy full week of classes. Last week, I tried to include some helpful information for families to help support the return to work and I have kept these items at the end of the blog again this week.
As always, if you have any questions in relation to the information contained within this blog or any other school matter please do not hesitate to be in touch with the school. Moreover, I’m always delighted to share good news of pupil achievements outside of school as a large number of pupils are participating at an exceptionally high level in a range of activities. If your son/daughter is involved in something please do share this with me.
Results Summary
Now that the dust has settled on the exam results and the pupils have returned, I wanted to share some key messages in relation to the school performance in the exams in August. Whilst the full picture for the school will not be available until September, the performance of pupils in Greenfaulds continues to be a testament to the strong partnership working between pupils, staff and families.
As a school we increased our overall pass rate to 78% of all pupils sitting exams passing, which is an increase from last year. Our S5 saw an increase in 1 Higher, and 3 Highers and our S6 pupils again posted excellent results at Advanced Higher. As a school which places ambition at the forefront of its work, I’m delighted to see the work and dedication pay off again this year for our young people and this helps set them up for either the successful transition beyond school or gives them an excellent foundation upon which to build in school this session.
Appeals
The deadline has now passed for PRIORITY Appeals for University. Any non-priority appeals should be requested asap.
Recoursing
Thanks to the huge amount of work of the PT Team, Mr Adler and Mrs McNaughton we are now in a position where all pupils should have a settled timetable for this session. The mammoth task of ensuring that over 700 young people have the courses that they need and wish to study is no easy undertaking. From next week all pupils should be settled into their classes and can now focus on getting the very best out of this year.
S6 Assembly
As head of S5/6 this year, I met with S6 pupils on Thursday morning to go over a range of areas and opportunities. My overriding message for them was to ensure that they were taking advantage of the range of leadership and wider achievement opportunities in the final year of school. As I know you will realise, in the competitive world of applications, having a unique experience will always strength applications for life beyond school. A copy of the assembly is available here for you to look through.
Clubs
As a school we try to offer a range of activities for pupils to engage with either through the week or on Friday after lunchtime. Ms Jeffrey has provided all pupils in S1 with the opportunity to find out more about the clubs today (Friday) but I wanted to share the list with families.
Careers Appointments
It does seem slightly ridiculous that in my 2nd HT Blog of the school year, to be talking about leaving school. However, the pathways into careers are often long and required thought and support. As a school we have two incredible careers advisors who offer all pupils the opportunity to book an appointment to talk next steps. They have asked me to share the QR Code with families as well, as they know that families would often benefit from being part of the discussions. To that end, please see a copy of the poster which has been shared with pupils.
School Photographs
School Photographs will take place next Tuesday. Mr Harris is in the process of issuing instructions to pupils in S1, S5 and S6 with all the details. If you have any questions in relation to this, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Loch Eil Leadership
On the first week back, 12 of our Senior Pupils were involved in a residential trip at Loch Eil in Fort William with the Outward Bound Trip. Led brilliantly by Mr MacLeod, the pupils engaged in a range of leadership activities, developing a range of skills that they can apply in and out of school. Pupils all returned on Friday afternoon very tired but having had a great week. Our hope is that over the next few school sessions we widen the opportunity to many more pupils to ensure that they get the chance to have an amazing week of Outward Bound and gain a Level 6 Qualification as well.
Greenfaulds: A Social Enterprise School
In a number of HT Blogs last school session, the work of the Barista Bar and Pupil Groups was highlighted. I was delighted to have all the work done by pupils and their dedicated teachers recognised upon our return to school when we were officially awarded a Social Enterprise School for 2026. Well done all pupils and staff involved!
Uniform
Pupils have returned this week looking fantastic. Thank you so much to all families for your support with this. Just a reminder to families that as discussed at assemblies.
To support families with uniform, as a school we have a wealth of preloved items of school uniform, all of which are free to good homes. Whilst I am passionate about pupils attending in school uniform, I do not want any family finding themselves stretched financially.
Communication Policy
At the start of the school year, many families and pupils have questions and queries in relation the plethora of issues which comes with being a teenager in school. As such, I thought it an opportune time to share the school’s communication policy with all families which was finalised with family consultation last year. A summary of the policy is here.
School Plan for 26-27
I hope that you would agree that the school continues to grow from strength to strength and that this is demonstrated in our increasing attainment, positive destinations and the wider ethos across the school. However, as an Ambitious school, we are never just happy with the status quo. As such and very much in the spirit of a quote I read over the summer ‘already strong, but always reaching’ the plan for the school for this session is:
- to continue to focus on improving attendance for our pupils
- Increase the challenge and expectation of our pupils particularly in S1 and S2
- Implement our curriculum model for next session which will mean S2 pupils make a free choice of seven subjects which they will study over the next two years.
Year Head Changes
Over the summer owing to some staffing changes there has been a reshuffle of year head responsibilities within SLT. As always, we would advise families to contact the PT Pupil Support of their child’s House Group in the first instance and for your information I’ve placed a copy of the PT Pupil Support, PT Curriculum and Year Head Information below.
| Curricular PTs | Pupil Support PTs | |
| K Proctor: Business & ICT | P Adler (0.6) and R Prentice (0.4): Lewis House | |
| M Aitken-McCaig: Design & Make | A Gardiner: Lomond House | |
| G Cameron: English | L Gilchrist (0.8) & S Logan (0.2): Ness House | |
| D MacKay: Gaelic | C Heselwood (0.8) & K MacLeod (0.2): Thistle House | |
| E Moore: Health & Wellbeing | S Neil: Skye House | |
| J Bonar: Mathematics | M Bell: Wallace House | |
| C MacAdams: Modern Languages | ||
| S MacKenzie (0.8) & K Gillespie (0.2) : Performing Arts | E Jones: PT Support for Learning | |
| M Muirhead: Science | R Jeffrey: PT Future Fridays | |
| C Scoular (0.8) & L Meikle (0.2) : Social Subjects | TBC: PT Positive Destinations |
Support for pupils with ASN
As a parent with a child who has an additional support need, I know that information can be particularly helpful to ensure you are supporting your young person in the best possible way. The Support for Learning department work closely with Speech and Language therapy, Occupational Therapy, Hope for Autism and the Neurodevelopmental Team. If your child is on a waiting list to see any of the services, or have been given an identification of an Additional Support need, the following Facebook pages may be useful to you. They share hints and tips, have rolling programmes of local workshops for parents and children on common themes such as Sleep, Anxiety, language processing, sensory difficulties.
NHS Lanarkshire Children and young people, Occupational Therapy
https://www.facebook.com/share/19hopRtsiN/
Speech and language therapy NHS Lanarkshire
https://www.facebook.com/share/1BevUC39FW/
Neurodevelopmental service-CYS NHS
Hope for Autism
https://www.hopeforautism.org.uk
Young Scot Cards
Increasingly, the use of Young Scot Cards for our pupils are very important, both in and out of school. As such, if your son/daughter loses their card it can be problematic. We are able to apply for a replacement card on their behalf. However, we would ask that if you would like the school to do this, that parents/carers need to email Mr Adler nladlerp@northlan.org.uk with the students full name, date of birth, a photo, their address to send the card to and give permission to apply for a card.
Educational Maintenance Allowance
The new EMA form is now live on the NLC website for the new session 2026/2027 starting in August. Any students who got EMA last years has to reapply this year. (The web page has not been updated and says application are currently closed, please ignore this or to go straight to the form click on second link below). Once they the students have their form posted to them, they should bring it to Mr Adler and he will sit down with the students and go through the expectations to get their EMA, about perfect attendance and behaviour. Attendance below 95% will potentially loose EMA. Students are only allowed 5 days absence in 1 academic year and 5 late comings after that if they are absent they will not get paid that week.
To go straight to the form please click on link below.
Education Maintenance Allowance 2026/2027
Child Protection and Safeguarding
If you have concerns of a child protection or safeguarding nature, we would encourage you to use the following information.
Community News
As always, I’m deligthed to use the HT Blog to share information regarding events taking place in the community.
Nuts
In response to a growing number of pupils and staff who have a severe allergy to nuts, we would like to work towards reducing the prevalence of nuts within our school as much as possible. This is to protect both pupils and staff.
We would ask that you are vigilant about packed lunches, sweets etc and ensure that no nuts come on to the school grounds. Please do not send your child into school with any nut-based product for a snack or packed lunch – this includes:
- Nutella based products / chocolate spread
- Cereal bars with nuts
- Some types of biscuit containing nuts
- Condiments, e.g. satay sauce
- Cakes containing nuts
- Some snack pots containing nuts
It is important that you check the labelling of food products before sending your child in to school with them – it is not always apparent that products contain nuts or traces of nuts. We really appreciate your support in this matter.
Dates for your diary
Monday 24th August: Parent Council – 6.30pm
Tuesday 25th August: School Photographs
Monday 31st August: UCAS Assembly Reg and Period 1
Thursday 3rd September: UCAS Family Night (6.30pm)
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Moran Taing
Jamie Vaughn-Sharp
Head Teacher
