Welcome to the latest blog.  It is good to see things starting to get back to a wee bit of normality recently and pupils getting involved in more active activities in classes as well as getting out of school for trips.

School Captains

After applications, group activities and interviews, we are delighted to have appointed our school and house captains for the year.  After our first meeting  with all the captains, we are very optimistic about the impact they will have on taking school forward along with their peers, who are equally enthusiastic about getting involved.

School captains are Clare, Amanda, Cavan and Mark.  House captains pictures will follow in the next blog.

Staffing

Mr McQuillan has reduced his working hours and is now working three days a week (Tue/Wed/Thu).  Congratulations to Mrs Maguire (PT Support for Learning) who is now acting DHT for Mon/Fri and will be acting DHT for Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) for the other 3 days.

As a result of Mrs Maguire taking up the post of acting DHT a vacancy arose for an acting PT SfL and Mrs McGorry has been successful in interview for this job – congratulations!

The Scottish Government has provided funding for staffing for Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) and we have appointed two temporary Principal Teachers (DYW) as a result.  Congratulations to Mr Smith and Ms Bell who have been successful for these posts.

Future Fridays

Mr McGurk has been working hard to increase the offers on a Friday afternoon and we are delighted with the number of pupils who are coming along to get involved. Currently the activities we have running includes:

• Girls and Boys Football
• Rugby
• Duke of Edinburgh
• Gymnastics
• Girls Fitness Programme
• Film Club
• Bothwellpark Volunteers
• E-Sports/Gaming Club

   

If pupils, have not been involved yet, it’s worth considering coming along.  Just see Mr McGurk in the PE department.

Clubs

There are also a number of clubs taking place outwith the Friday afternoon and it has been great to see such high numbers down in the PE department at lunchtime. There has also been an excellent response to the re-established Chess Club on Wednesday at lunchtime.

Buddies

S1 pupils have their S6 buddies who they can speak to about any issues that they may be having and generally just to help them settle in.  There was an opportunity for them to have a formal meeting recently and it was lovely to see them getting on so well and having a good blether!

Parents’ Evenings

We are still unable to have parents in the building for Parents’ Evenings due to restrictions.  We are in the process of investigating online meetings and hope to have something in place for an S1 Parents reporting evening in November.

 

Caritas Commissioning Service

It was lovely to join pupils from school across Motherwell diocese for the Caritas Commissioning Service  as the pupils embark on their journey. This has been such a great award that gets pupils involved in service, at home and in school and parishes.

 

RRS twilight & pupil voice

Having been awarded the Silver Rights Respecting Schools Award we are now working towards achieving the Gold award.  This is being led by Mrs Woolley in the Social Subjects department along with a group of staff and pupils. The pupils led a presentation and activity with staff at an after school meeting recently.  The work was recently recognised in the Scottish Parliament in a motion put forward by MSY Claire Adamson (https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/votes-and-motions/votes-and-motions-search/S6M-01425)

Mental Health Ambassadors

Part of the school improvement plan this year has a focus on mental health and therefore we were delighted that over 40 of our senior pupils were trained this week as mental health ambassadors in the school.  We have no doubt that they will have a positive impact as they are coming with great ideas of how we can all be supporting each other in this area.

Travel & Tourism Fieldtrip

The Travel & Tourism class had an great tour during their fieldtrip to Edinburgh, as part of their course. Pupils received an excellent question and answering session on job roles in the tourism industry, the positive and negative impacts of tourism and customer service.

SQA

The plan at the moment is for SQA Exams to take place as normal next year and the exam timetable for this has now been published and can be found at: https://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/nq-2022-exam-timetable.pdf

School finishes for the October week on Friday 8th.  We return on Monday 18th October.  I hope everyone has a fantastic break.