Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer
I hope you have had a good week.
This week, I have been blown away by the School Captain Election Process. Over the course of the week a record number of Senior Pupils have been campaigning for the votes of pupils and staff to make them our School Captain. When I spoke with them all on Monday, I complemented them on their ideas and energy which have been inspiring and have brought smiles to the faces of everyone at their inventive electioneering. Whilst I recognise that there can only be 2 School Captains they have all been fantastic. I look forward to Monday when I interview the candidates. Good luck to you all!
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.
S1 Settling In Evening
We are looking forward to welcoming all S1 families on Thursday 17th Sept from 6.00 – 7.00 pm for our annual S1 Settling In Evening. Mrs Adler will share with families key pieces of information regarding clubs, Future Fridays, expectations and answered a range of queries from families. There will also be the opportunity for families to meet with your child’s Pupil Support Teacher to ensure that your child is progressing well. Nights like these are really important to us to help further build the strong family/school connection, however, as always if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to be in touch with the school.
Ahead of this event we would appreciate your feedback on the transition process for your child, as such could you take a few minutes to complete our survey accessed through the link below.
Parental Survey
S1 Parents Settling In Survey Sept 2026 – Fill out form
P7 Information Evening
We would like to invite you to attend our family information evening for P7 pupils transitioning to Greenfaulds HS in August 2027.
This will be the first of many transition activities planned for the year ahead and we are really excited to welcome our next S1 cohort to Greenfaulds and to working alongside families to ensure each child is supported, included and successful in the Greenfaulds community.
We will be holding these evenings for the each of the Primaries in Greenfaulds HS on the following dates, Parents only need to attend one of these dates:
Wed 23rd September 6.00pm -6.45pm – Ravenswood, Woodlands and Westfield Primaries and other primaries out with the Cluster
Thurs 24th September 6.00pm – 6.45pm – Baird, Condorrat, Eastfield and other primaries out with the Cluster
We look forward to seeing you then!
HNC Course Availability
Whilst almost all our young people are now in a position where their timetables are settled. I was contacted this week by NLC with availability in the following HNC Courses at College. This applies to S6 pupils but if your son/daughter is interested could they come and see me on Monday?
- HNC Business Skills – Delivery from Coatbridge Campus
- HNC CADD -Delivery from Motherwell Campus
- HNC Cyber Security – Delivery from Motherwell Campus
- HNC Social Sciences -Delivery from Coatbridge Campus
St Andrew’s Hospice 6km Fun Run
Greenfaulds High School has raised over £26,000 for St Andrew’s Hospice over the years, and we are delighted to continue our support this year.
The annual 6km Fun Run will take place at Strathclyde Park on Sunday 20 September and is open to any S4, S5 or S6 pupil who would like to walk or run while supporting this fantastic cause.
If you would like more information or would like to collect a registration form, please see Mr McRoberts.
We hope to see lots of you there supporting this worthwhile cause!
Art Exhibition – One for your diaries
On the 26th of November the Art Department are hosting their now annual, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher Exhibition. The exhibition will feature work from last year’s National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher pupils folios as well as the work of the F1 in schools teams. The standard of this work is incredibly high and the night will be a great opportunity for families to come along and admire the talent and hard work of last year’s pupils.
Mobile Phone Consultation
Many of you will be aware of the ongoing discussions regarding mobile phone usage in schools across the UK. This week I received an update regarding this. The Scottish Government has launched a public consultation on proposed legislation relating to the restriction of mobile phones in schools.
The consultation is open until 17 November 2026 and seeks the views from a wide range of stakeholders on future approaches to mobile phone use within educational settings.
The Scottish Government has advised that the consultation is open to anyone with an interest in school mobile phone policy and has specifically encouraged participation from education staff, parents and carers, and children and young people.
Further information, including the consultation document and details of how to respond, can be found here:
Consultation on restricting mobile phone use in schools.
I would urge you to take the time to complete this consultation to ensure your views and voice is heard.
UCAS Event
A massive thank you to the families of pupils in s5 and S6 who came along on Thursday evening to hear about the UCAS Process for their child who is considering applying for university to start in the autumn of 2027. Whilst a lot of information is shared with pupils, we are conscious that this information does not always get shared at home. This is particularly important given that leaving school is such a big step, not only for the young person but also the families. Throughout this process if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
BMX National Championships
Last weekend, the British BMX Championships took place and a large number of our pupils were involved.
I was thrilled to hear that Fergus Souter and Euan did really well against tough national competition.
Fergus finished his racing ranking British # 9, which is amazing! He now heads off to the upcoming BMX School Games at Loughborough University next week.
Euan fought hard and reached the 1/8 finals despite a crash during his 3rd moto.
Cooper McCrum is now British number 4 in not only his 20” but also British number 4 on his cruiser! Incredible stuff.
And last but by no means least Brodie and Souter are off to the School Games. They have been selected to represent Scotland
The School Games National Finals is one of the UK’s most prestigious youth multi-sport events, bringing together talented school-age athletes from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, hosted at Loughborough University. The Finals are supported by Sport England, UK Sport, the Home Country Sports Councils and the Youth Sport Trust, and are recognised by British Cycling as an important part of the talent development pathway for aspiring athletes.
An incredible haul not only for last weekend but looking forward to hearing continual good news from all the pupils and ex-pupils.
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.
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.
In the next couple of weeks there is also an opportunity to see this year’s National Mod Winner and Greenfauld’s alumni, Caitlyn Yule in concert. Details below.
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
17th of September: S1 Settling in Evening
18th of September: S4 Tracking Report 1 Issued
I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Moran Taing
Jamie
Jamie Vaughn-Sharp
Head Teacher
