We work very hard to try and help youngsters and families through times of transition in their schooling.\u00a0three significant ‘transitions’ in relation to secondary school are;<\/p>\n
In this note I want to say a brief word about the work we do to support the ‘transition’.<\/p>\n
Primary\/Secondary<\/strong>: \u00a0This session we have significantly developed our work in this area.\u00a0 We now have\u00a0half day visits for almost all curricular areas and will also have a 3-day visit\u00a0nearer the\u00a0summer\u00a0where P7s will follow their secondary timetable.\u00a0 In addition, we have a number of secondary staff visiting the Primary schools to meet the pupils and find out more about them and the\u00a0work they are doing in P7.\u00a0 We invite parents of P7s into a meeting around the time of the 3-day visit and I\u00a0am currently\u00a0working\u00a0with the Primary Head Teachers to identify the\u00a0best way of \u00a0meeting parents of P6\/P7s in their local Primary Schools.\u00a0 I want to make the transition for our P7s and their parents as enjoyable and reassuring as possible.\u00a0 I want to ensure you\u00a0feel a strong connection to Harlaw Academy and\u00a0are part of its future success.<\/p>\n Subject choice:<\/strong>\u00a0 Throughout this term we do a lot of work around subject choice.\u00a0 We are presently speaking with S2 pupils about ‘broad pathways’ they can select to study\u00a0in S3.\u00a0 Alongside this\u00a0S2 parents will have received\u00a0an updated interim report, many parents attended an information evening on the choice process and choice information is on the school website.\u00a0 The process around the senior phase\u00a0choice (for pupils in S3-S5) is also underway.\u00a0 There have been extensive discussions between schools to ensure that there is a wide offer available for pupils.\u00a0 Whilst many pupils like to continue to study courses in Harlaw it is increasingly the case that youngsters can blend their study at Harlaw with courses in other schools, colleges or with other providers.\u00a0 This requires a lot of co-ordination and planning\u00a0by schools prior to the offer being available to pupils.\u00a0\u00a0We\u00a0are now at the stage of\u00a0finalising\u00a0choice booklets and documentation for the website, a parent information is planned for 7th February and updated interim reports will be issued soon.\u00a0 Preparing for the offer\u00a0is a very big job as is sorting through the choices once\u00a0they come in.\u00a0 We are extremely fortunate to have a very good group of\u00a0staff who work on this complex task and I am grateful to all, particularly our Depute Head Teacher Mrs Lawrence, for ensuring that almost all pupils get\u00a0into the courses they require.\u00a0\u00a0In response to questions which arose from parents in the past we have done a lot of work to\u00a0heighten the awareness of youngsters and parents\u00a0around job opportunities and skills for work (see below for further details)<\/p>\n 3 Post school destinations:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0We have always tried to help every pupil into a positive\u00a0post school destination.\u00a0 Whilst many go on to Further\/Higher education there are some who go directly into the jobs market, some who go into other training and some who start their own business.\u00a0\u00a0There are still a few who need a bit longer to get themselves sorted and leave us with no clear idea of what they want to do next.\u00a0 We\u00a0are taking steps to ensure we\u00a0do all we can to give young people from Harlaw the best chance of success when they leave school.\u00a0 Back in September 2016 we held a business engagement event for parents\/pupils at which we signed a strategic partnership with Aberdeen City Council aimed at helping Harlaw youngsters into work.\u00a0 This partnership has seen our pupils being involved in\u00a0site visits to Marischal Square and in the consultation on Union Terrace Gardens.\u00a0 In January it\u00a0led to one of our youngsters starting on an apprenticeship\u00a0with building services.\u00a0 It will see\u00a0the Council and other key business partners\u00a0having an involvement in our parent information events and it will lead to some pupils having business mentors to help them prepare for interviews (for jobs and\/or places at university).\u00a0 Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) is a priority for Harlaw and a\u00a0priority for the country as a whole.\u00a0 We are determined\u00a0not to allow\u00a0any downturn in the energy sector to\u00a0impact on our pupils.\u00a0 We need to help them to develop their skills and alongside this position the school to be ready to take advantage of future opportunities or indeed to encourage our pupils to play an\u00a0 active part in creating a successful future for our City.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We work very hard to try and help youngsters and families through times of transition in their schooling.\u00a0three significant ‘transitions’ in relation to secondary school are; the move from Primary to secondary the times of subject choice during secondary school the move from school to a range of post school destinations In this note I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parents","category-uncategorised","category-weekly-blog","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.harlawacademy.org\/option1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}