Greenfaulds High School | Provider of Mainstream & Gaelic Education For North Lanarkshire

Head Teacher Blog

Dear Parent/Carer

I hope you have had a good week.

At a Head Teachers Conference I attended on Wednesday, a colleague (who shall remain nameless) said to me – “only 5 more Monday’s to go, Jamie!” Whilst the normal human reaction should have been one of excitement about an upcoming holiday, I was genuinely shocked at how much there is to do as a school and how little time there is. I’m always amazed at the pace at which school’s work at, but the timeframe did leave me a little unsettled.

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.

STEM Award Winners keep winning!

You may remember from the blog a couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to share the great news that seven successful pupils had been awarded their Bronze Industrial Cadets Award ran by the Engineering Development Trust. They had to create a 15-page report and gave a 10-minute presentation on their chosen project “My School is an Island”, where they had to create a functional and sustainable school on a tropical island. This week, they returned with another award which is amazing! At the awards ceremony, which was held on Tuesday, the group were also awarded the trophy for displaying the best teamwork in our region. A massive congratulations to the following pupils – James Orr, Natasha Purdie, Neve Goodsir, Isla Speedie, Alyssa Campbell, and Lucas Moore. A big thank you also to Mrs Brown and Mrs Rowe for their support and guidance to our stem winners!

School Show Update

We were delighted to welcome back former GHS pupils (Josh McSharry, Nathan Lamb, Sam Ritchie, Ramsay Williamson & Mark Morrow) this week who are currently in their final year of their BA Sound Production at Cumbernauld Campus of New College Lanarkshire.

They worked closely with our talented cast for this year’s school show to record a special recording of them singing one of the shows’ biggest numbers! We hope the cast had a wonderful time during the recording process and we wish our former GHS pupils the best of luck in their end of year exams/assignments.’

Just a reminder that tickets are now on sale for GHS’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. Show nights are the 9th, 10^th and 11^th of June with a 7.15pm show start time. The kids have been working really hard and it promises to be a fantastic evening! Tickets are £5 and can be purchased from Ms Duncan or Mr Sharpe in Music.

Inter House English Results

The English Department ran their annual Interhouse Quiz on all things books last Friday.

The pupils were amazing and had so much fun. The winning team were Lomond who were consistently good in every round – a huge congratulations to them.

Mr Gardiner will be very pleased!

Gaelic Family Learning Week

I was contacted this week by the Community Learning and Development Team about the following opportunity for families with pupils studying Gaelic:

We’re pleased to announce that Seachdain nan Teaghlach (Family Learning Week) will be returning to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in the Isle of Skye 06–10 July 2026.

This is a week-long event which offers families with children in Gaelic-medium education the opportunity to develop their language skills together in an all-Gaelic environment and to mix with families from a similar background from different parts of the country. Parents will have the opportunity to attend Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s language courses throughout the week, while their children take part in a wide range of Gaelic-medium activities, bringing families together in the evenings for a mix of family-friendly Gaelic-medium social events. The link for more information is here:

https://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/family-week-2026/?lang=en

Senior Pupil Opportunity

A reminder to families of pupils of our soon to be S5 and S6, that I wrote to you all this week regarding an amazing opportunity for our newest group of Senior Pupils.

Last August a small group of senior pupils spent a week at the Outward Bound centre in Loch Eil in Fort William.

They returned, both suntanned, motivated and enthused by their experience. Not only that but the course that they followed over the week gained them a Level 6 Teams and Leaders Qualification (equivalent to a Higher).

The Teams & Leaders Award builds on personal development of the young people and develops their understanding of how high-performance teams work, how they develop, and how they can be fostered using basic Business and Psychological modelling to explain team and team member behaviours. Over the week, the course will aim to:

Improve confidence and apply understanding of your reactions and feel increased control
Develop skills in setting and achieving personal goals.
Increase self-awareness and personal responsibility.
Increase awareness of other people and utilise this to develop self and others
Improve ability to work with other people, and foster high performance team development
Increase concern for and awareness of the natural environment and the leave no trace principles
Develop an action plan.
Design and implement your own learning
Identify your values and act on them
Understand how effective teams work in reality

Mr MacLeod who led the trip last year is keen to run the course again this year and to offer it to a slightly larger group of pupils. The trip runs from August 10-15 (Monday to Friday). If your son/daughter would like to be considered for this course, could you please complete this initial interest form by a week on Friday (Loch Eil: Teams and Leaders (Level 6) Course – Fill in form) and I will then link with Mr MacLeod regarding next steps for interested families and pupils.

May is National Walking Month

As the weather is supposedly improving (the hail stones on Wednesday didn’t get the memo!) School communities across Scotland are being encouraged to take a step towards feeling happier, healthier and ready to learn. As many of you know, I’m a keen cyclist and a whole hearted advocate for active travel.

This month-long campaign is highlighting how walking and wheeling can be a part of everyday life. Helping people feel good, keep active and connect with where they live.

They’ve created a short resource with simple ideas to help encourage more walking and wheeling in school, from getting to and from school to getting in some lunchtime steps: Walking-Schools-NWM-one-pager.pdf.

P7 Art Work

This week the Art Department hosted P7s from Condorrat Primary and Westfield Primary, and the pupils did drawing & painting and ceramics activities. It was great to meet them all and we are looking forward to seeing them again for the P7 transition days in June.

Graduate Apprenticeship Opportunity

Whilst almost all our School Leavers have already secured their first step beyond school, the following opportunity may be of interest to some of our budding Accountants from Laura Gruber

Apprenticeship Liaison Manager of the Global Accounting Centre

We’re excited to be recruiting for our 2026 Accounting Graduate Apprenticeship at our Global Accounting Centre in Glasgow. I’d really appreciate your support in sharing this with any students considering a career in accounting.

This is a fantastic opportunity for school leavers, offering:

✅ An Honours degree in Accountancy & Finance (RGU)
✅ A Chartered Accountant qualification (ICAS)
✅ Five years of hands-on experience in a global finance team
✅ A guaranteed full-time role on successful completion
✅ A strong support network and wider GA student community

🎯 Entry requirements: Minimum BBBB Highers (including English & Maths)
📅 Apply by: 9 June | Interviews: 16–19 June (flexibility available where needed)

Current student insight: A Day in the Life of a Current Gallagher GA Student

Link to apply: Graduate Apprentice – Chartered Accounting

BMX Success Continues

As you know, there are a number of pupils and now ex-pupils who compete at a very high level in BMX. Last weekend, I was given a short update on the progress of Cooper in S4 and Tillie (last year’s S6) at the latest BMX National Series in Knightswood in Glasgow.

Cooper did brilliantly and managed a 2nd on his cruiser and 5th on his 20” bike on Saturday. On Sunday Cooper finished 2nd again on his cruiser and 7th on his 20” bike so close to getting that 1st place! I know from speaking with him this week he was really pleased with this result. Tillie also raced and managed 10th place on both days. Good luck to both of them at the next round in Gossport in a few weeks.

Access to the school

As part of a review on building security, we have now moved to the main doors at the front and rear of the building being locked during class time. This is to ensure that only people can access our school via the visitor entrance and sign in at reception. If your young person is running late for any reason can you remind them of this and that they need to come in through the guest entrance. Thank you.

Qualifications Scotland Exams – Good luck to all of our pupils!

The exams are now over half way. Pupils are reminded to arrive in plenty of time to check seats – at least 15 minutes before the start time. Pupils must be in school uniform when accessing the school for an exam or for any other reason eg study sessions, to visit teachers etc.

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 18^th of May at 6.30pm (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.

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

https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/services/neurodevelopmental-service-for-children-and-young-people

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.

Child Protection and Safeguarding

If you have concerns of a child protection or safeguarding nature, we would encourage you to use the following information.

Condorrat Summer Fayre

I really do value the help and support I receive from my Primary Colleagues across the Greenfaulds Cluster and as such it’s lovely to repay the favour with a shameless plug for the Condorrat Summer Fayre taking place tomorrow (Saturday).