This week saw the senior school involved in the first week of their prelim exams. For pupils in S5 and S6 this should now be familiar ground but for our S4s it is the first time they have really faced this intensity of challenge. I really felt for them because they are facing a new […]
Category Archives: Weekly blog
8th – 12th January 2018: Recognising and realising the rights of all young people
Firstly welcome back and best wishes for 2018. I want to start with a curious thing about 2018 as a year – it marks a point when all adults in the world were born last century and all children were born this century. 2018 is also identified as being the year of the young person. It therefore […]
27th November – 1st December 2017: Value and support our staff
As you may know I serve on the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS). This is the professional body who oversee the professional standards of the teaching profession in Scotland. GTCS play an active role in initial teacher education, in the registration of teachers, in their on-going professional learning and in setting the framework to monitor […]
20th – 26th November 2017: There is a lot going on @ Harlaw_Academy
I am going to say very little by way of introduction to this blog – other than to note it is share information about some of the activities taking place in the school. Beyond that I will let the actions (extracts from our weekly bulletin) speak for themselves: BIOLOGY DROP IN – Tuesday’s session is open […]
13th – 17th November: What do you think?
Last week I wrote a blog about ’empowering pupils and parents’. It was a very well timed article because this week we have been asked for our views on two very significant sets of proposals which have possible implications for our work and our plans. They are: TOM – which relates to the way Aberdeen City Council will […]
6th – 9th November 2017: Empowering pupils and parents
This week we have tried to improve two very important aspects of the school – our work with pupils and parents. I want us to go well beyond just consulting pupils and informing parents – I want to empower both groups to make a meaningful contribution to school improvement and to play an active role […]
25th – 29th September 2017 – Respect for community
Last week I published the second of 3 blogs looking at the day to day work of Harlaw Academy which is based around 3 simple behaviour statements: – Respect for People – Respect for Learning – Respect for Community This week my blog will look in more depth at “respect for community’ Under the statement […]
18th – 22nd September 2017 – Respect for Learning
Last week I published the first of 3 blogs looking at the day to day work of Harlaw Academy which is based around 3 simple behaviour statements: – Respect for People – Respect for Learning – Respect for Community This week my blog will look in more depth at “respect for learning’ Under the statement […]
4th – 8th September 2017: Wider life of the school
On Friday I met with the officer bearers of the parent council and part of what we discussed was the wider life of the school. Linked to this was a discussion of how we let parents know what is happening in the school. In this blog I shall say a little bit about each of […]
28th August-1st September 2017: Settling in
If last week was about ‘getting started’ this week was very much about ‘settling in’. In that respect I want to start this blog with a massive thank you to parents and pupils for their response to our requests to get to school; dressed in school uniform, on time and ready to work. The number […]