Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer
Happy New Year!
I hope that the first blog of 2026 finds you well. If you are anything like me, you will still remember the turn of the Millenium and as a boy who still remembers writing an essay in English imagining what life would be like in 2001, I find it mind-blowing that I now live in 2026 (and still no flying cars or hoverboards!). I hope you had a good festive period and if you, like me, made some resolutions in January, I hope you are managing to stick to them, although it transpires that moving from eating all the cake to no cake is harder than anticipated!
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 many 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.
SCQF Award
On Tuesday of this week, I received confirmation that Greenfaulds has been recognised by the SCQF Body for the huge amount of work that has been undertaken in recent years to diversify and improve our curriculum. The implementation of new courses including Criminology, Journalism, Leadership, Refereeing, Barista and Health and Beauty alongside the range of courses at College from Level 4 to HNC and Foundation Apprenticeships means that S5 and S6 pupils in Greenfaulds are now offered over 100 different courses. These courses help to cater for the range of interests that our pupils have as well as providing opportunities for learning directly about career paths.
The Silver Award recognises our collective hard work to get it right for pupils within the school and is a testament to the work of staff, our pupil SCQF Ambassadors and families for their support and engagement in this process. Whilst there is always more work to be done, its lovely to see our value of being progressive being recognised nationally.
Year Group Assemblies
On Wednesday morning, families should have received the following communication but if your email inbox is anything like mine, I know that sometimes we can miss emails. Over the course of Monday and Tuesday we held year group assemblies with all pupils. When we do this, I always like to share the contents with families to help you support any discussions taking place at school. The theme of the assembly was rooted in ensuring that we aim for success at the end of the school year and use the opportunity of January to set goals/habits/targets for the remainder of the academic year. A PDF of the presentation is here: January Assemblies.pdf
Course Choice – Upcoming
One of the key messages to pupils at assemblies this week was that in the next 10 days, pupils will begin making decisions about their subjects for next year. This can be a tricky time for pupils and families. Over the next few weeks we will be in touch with families with a number of pieces of information, but if you would like to start the discussions at home, our Course Choice section of the website (S2 pupils, S3 pupils, Senior Pupils) is an excellent ‘one stop shop’ of resources and conversation prompts. Whilst some of the information is in the process of being updated, the details contained in the different sections are still very relevant.
Inclement Weather
Whilst we have not had the difficulties that our friends in the Northeast of the country have had, the conditions since we returned to school have been very cold and icy. As such, our janitorial staff have been working exceptionally hard to ensure that there are safe walking paths in and out of the building. However, our car parking area has been particularly treacherous. If you are parking to come into the school in the next few days, please be very careful.
I also received the following communication from the authority this week in relation to young people playing on frozen ponds, rivers and lakes.
STAY OFF THE ICE
Despite recent, irresponsible, media reports showing skaters on a loch in Glasgow, frozen lochs, ponds, and rivers – such as Strathclyde Loch, Monklands Canal and Drumpellier Loch – are NOT safe.
Ice can look solid, but it is unpredictable and can break without warning, putting lives at serious risk.
Every year, people – and pets – fall through thin ice, leading to tragic and preventable incidents.
If you see someone in trouble, do NOT go onto the ice. Call 999 immediately and ask for the Fire and Rescue Service.
Ski Trip
As you may remember, we had to call off our planned ski trip in December due to the plane developing a fault. Thanks to the hard work of Mr Adler and Ms Jones, the trip is due to take place this upcoming week with pupils leaving this weekend. Whilst the forecast is very, very cold, the conditions appear to be in our favour. We wish all pupils and staff an amazing week. I’m certainly not jealous of a week in Italy in January!!
End of Year Trips
In June of last year, we ran two very popular trips to reward pupils with high merits and high attendance. One was to Alton Towers and the other one was to Blair Drummond Safari Park. Ms McCaig has notified pupils that our intention is to run the trips again this year. Alton Towers will be open to pupils in S1 and S2, whilst the trip to Alton Towers will be open to pupils in S3-S6. Whilst I’m sure most families will be aware of this from their son/daughter, I’m also aware that information does not always flow as efficiently home all the time. As such the permission letters are available here:
Pupil Successes
One of the things which continues to amaze me is the wealth of talent within our school. Mr Neil came to see me this week to highlight two more pupils who are competing for Scotland. As such I was delighted to award, Megan Pollock in S1 and Sarah Dickie in S3 with a Gold School Tie (which signifies pupils who are competing/performing at a National Level) for their representation in the Scottish Under -14 Water Polo Team. An amazing achievement given that they both only recently started playing and competing. I also took the opportunity to present Rosie Kerr in S4 with her Gold Tie for becoming a Gold Medal Winner at the 2025 British Nationals for Tae-Kwon-Do. Simply incredible stuff!!
Parent Council Reminder
The Parent Council is a hugely helpful and informative body for me as Head Teacher and for the wider school. If you would like to attend any or all of the sessions this year the dates are as follows:
Monday 26th of January
Monday 23rd of February
Monday 30th of March
Monday 27th of April
Monday 18th of June (in person and always a bring a dish night for a catch up and some lovely food).
If you would like to find out more, please contact me at the school.
Evening Study Support 2025-26
Registration for this year’s evening webinars is now live. Study Support | e-Sgoil
Study support is for Senior Phase learners (S4-S6) who are working towards National Qualifications.
This year’s programme offers 55 weekly webinars covering 29 subjects across N4 to Advanced Higher levels.
PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU WILL NEED TO BE LOGGED INTO GLOW TO ACCESS THE REGISTRATION FORM.
If you do not know your Glow username and password, please speak to a member of staffwho will be able to provide you with these.
Webinars will start week beginning 27th October 2025 and will run through to the SQA exams. Timetable is below:
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
Free School Meals
A reminder to all families, if your family normally receives Free School Meals please remember to reapply for continuation of this service as it does not automatically continue each year. Families need to apply annually. There have been a few incidences since we returned of pupils not having money on their cards. We did of course ensure that they received lunch but please do ensure that you have reapplied for Free School Meals. Please apply here: Free School Meals and Clothing Grant Application | North Lanarkshire Council
EMA 2025-26 session
The new EMA form is now live on the NLC website for the new session 2025/2026 starting in August. Any students who got EMA last years has to reapply this year.
To apply you must meet the following criteria
| Gross Taxable income | No. of dependent children in household | Award |
| Up to £24,421 | 1 | £30 |
| Up to £26,884 | 2+ | £30 |
Please note – dependent children are all those up to the age of 16 and those over the age of 16 and up to age 25 if they are in full time Further or Higher Education (proof required).
Once students have their form completed and a letter confirming they are getting EMA they should bring their EMA contract to Mr Adler who will then discuss attendance requirements with the students, but to get EMA students must have excellent attendance and be on time to school.
Dates for your diary
Sunday 11th January: Ski Trip Leaves
Wednesday 14th January: Flu Immunisations Girls into Physics Trip
Friday 16th January: S4-6 Tracking Reports Issued Future Fridays restarts
Moran Taing
Jamie
Jamie Vaughn-Sharp
Head Teacher
