Welcome back to the HT blog for the first time in quite a while!
It has been a great start to term and pupils have settled back into school life well. A big welcome to our new S1 group, almost 160 of them, the biggest year group we have had in the school for a number of years. I have been receiving very positive reports about our new year group who are settling in comfortably.
Guideline at the moment allow us to start planning events that we could not do in the past. So far, staff have approached me about a field trip for Travel & Tourism, a Social Subjects trip to Bannockburn for S2 and others. There are no plans for overseas trips this session as things are still a bit precarious.
As you know there are still measures in place in the school as a result of Covid, including double periods, masks, etc… It is important that we all try our best to do our own bit to avoid transmission of the virus as much as possible. There have been cases in the school since our return and therefore we need to continue to be cautious when we can, as it could have an impact on us being able to run activities such as the ones mentioned above.
We have already had the NHS in the school for immunisations for our new S4 cohort and some of our S5. All school pupils (Primary and Secondary) are also being offered the flu vaccine this year and consent forms were issued. The date for these to take place has now been confirmed as Tuesday 16th November and will be in the form of a nasal spray.
Our Friday afternoon activities started last Friday and were a great success. Pupils who are interested in an activity should contact Mr McGurk in the PE department. Thanks to Active Schools and our Senior pupils who helped to run activities.
The way things are at the moment there are no activities in the school calendar that can take place that would involve inviting parents into school. The guidelines also state that we should avoid havening assemblies. Our Awards Ceremony therefore cannot take place again. Like last year, we will have awards via a presentation in classes and then pupils collecting certificates/awards to ensure that they are recognised as they normally would be. Information will also come out to Parents to replace the information evening that would normally take place for those pupils applying to University through UCAS.
