Head Teacher Blog
Dear Parent/Carer,
It has been a busy first week back following our mid term break, but it’s been great to see our young people back in to the swing of school life and routines again.
We are looking forward to our school photographs being done on Thursday 28 October. A ‘save the date’ text has previously been sent to parents to allow for a bit of prior warning and it’s encouraging to be able to have this return to our school calendar now that restrictions have been eased.
This term also allows us to focus on parents’ evenings for some of our year groups, and the dates for those year groups for this term are listed below. As previously intimated, parents’ evenings this year are not yet currently able to take place face to face and are being facilitated as online video consultations. Full instructions will be sent to parents two weeks in advance of the evening taking place to allow for appointment times to be made through the online booking system. In addition we will share ‘How To’ guides and ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ to help make the process as simple and straightforward as possible. This is the first time staff will ever have used this format too so it’s a learning curve and journey for all of us together!
I am delighted to share with this week’s blog the information detailing Greenfaulds focus on Climate Change and COP26. Mrs Meikle, on behalf of the Eco Committee, has outlined the events already planned for this week and can be found here.
Have a good weekend
Best wishes
Linda Park
Head Teacher
Climate Change & COP26
To mark the huge occasion of COP26 being held in Glasgow, our GHS Eco Committee have been busy organising and coordinating a Climate Emergency Action Week which will begin on November 1st to coincide with the first main day of the conference in Glasgow. Almost all departments will be spending some of the week investigating the issue of Climate Change with various year groups – including the causes and consequences of climate change as well as ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint to help combat climate change. To keep up to date with the activities please follow @GHSEcoCommittee on Twitter!
There will also be a range of initiatives and competitions to raise awareness of climate change and ways to take action. These include :
Pledge Points (card below) where pupils, staff and their families can sign up to small changes to their daily habits that will help reduce personal and household carbon footprint. Points are awarded on a sliding scale based on ease of implementation and impact. Sign up will be through a QR code (which will be uploaded to the Eco Committee Twitter account) linked to an MS Form. There will be a house competition for the house with the highest total. It is hoped that families can discuss the pledges they’d like to sign up to for the week and perhaps even form new lifelong habits that can help to reduce climate change!
Cycle/walk to school initiative. Since one of the biggest contributors to our carbon footprint is travel, we will be encouraging cycling/walking to school for those who can. PE’s Sports Leader pupil Darcie Burnett will be hosting a STEPS competition for the week where pupils will be able to log their daily steps (evidence required from device) when walking to school. Pupils should look out for the QR code posters / on the screens to enter. PE will also host a Strava competition for the longest distance / collective distance cycled to school for those who choose to cycle. Staff are encouraged to participate too!
Carpool Karaoke – For those who can’t walk/cycle/get a bus and must be dropped off/bring the car to school (staff included) we would like to encourage car sharing for the week. Arrange with other friends who get dropped off to share the journey / take turns driving. This will not only reduce carbon footprint but also save petrol money! To make this a little more fun, we give the option to record a carpool karaoke song to be posted on Twitter. See last year’s staff efforts uploaded on Twitter – comedy gold!
Photography Competition – theme ‘Changing Climate’ – interpret how you will. Voucher prize available.
Meatless Monday – another significant contributor to carbon footprint is our diet and since animals produce huge quantities of methane gas, reducing our meat intake can help reduce climate change. The canteen will be meat free on Monday 1st November (but there will be many many delicious alternatives on offer!)
Marvellous Meatless Meals – Abbie Strang from our Eco Committee has been busy preparing a meatless recipe book of tried and tested recipes submitted by staff and pupils. This will be available for free download from our Eco Twitter and we hope it can be used to support families going meat free for a few evenings or even the full week!
Marvellous Meatless Meals – Love food photography? Why not Tweet us a photo @GHSEcoCommittee of you’re your meatless meals to show off your culinary expertise and inspire others to go meat free!
Mask Challenge – Here at GHS our pupils go through 2 full boxes of single use masks per day which is both expensive and wasteful. We’d like to challenge our pupils to come to school all week with washable cloth masks instead of single use masks. A quick survey will take place every day period 2 and results collated to reveal a year group winner of the initiative.
Remote Clothes Swap – The fashion industry is the 2nd biggest polluter on the planet! Our fast consumption drives this industry and our throw away culture adds to the issue of climate change. We’d like to encourage pupils to consider shopping more sustainably and reduce the amount of clothes that they throw away/add to landfill by considering vintage and second hand fashion (both buying and selling/swapping) on the app Vinted. Pupils can set up a Vinted account for free, contact Mrs Meikle in FO43 to provide their account details and these will be shared with other interested students. You can sell/swap anything on Vinted and this will hopefully provide a convenient local market for your unwanted goods as well as an opportunity to get some bargains/free swaps!
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
| School Photographs | Thursday 28 October |
| S4 Parents’ Evening (virtual) | Tuesday 9 November |
| In-Service Day (school closed to pupils) | Monday 15 November |
| S5/6 Parents’ Evening (virtual) | Thursday 18 November |
| S1 Parents’ Evening (virtual) | Tuesday 30 November |
***WEEK BEGINNING 25 OCTOBER IS WEEK B ON THE TIMETABLE***
