MILNE’S HIGH SCHOOL JUNE 2018 NEWSLETTER A community where the individual matters and expectations are high As we end another successful session, it gives me great pleasure to report that there continues to be great progress at Milne’s High School. This has been a very busy term with highlights including trips, activity days, the senior phase leavers’ ceremony, inductions, Baxter’s challenge, sports day, music performances and many more opportunities for our young people to achieve. Our annual Awards Ceremony, held last week, was a fantastic occasion for the school, being held in the Fochabers Public Institute, was a real bonus. In terms of improvements made this session, we set about developing a more explicit staff leadership programme and this is having a great impact on building capacity. We have continued to build on existing business links and introduced new opportunities which have resulted in a wide range of exciting projects to help develop the young workforce which is a local and national priority. We have also benefited from the Pupil Equity Fund to employ Mr MacLeod as an additional DHT to develop a strategy to bring together many existing ventures such as Rights Respecting Schools, Growth Mindset and nurture training. This has already had an impact on making the school more inclusive. We have observed many improvements to learning and teaching with all departments evidencing the impact of more consistent learning conversations and regular tracking which is not only providing pupils with regular feedback and interventions to ensure attainment but has also developed confidence of staff in reporting on levels across the school. A recent visit by the local authority yielded that we have many strengths including the way that wellbeing is naturally embedded throughout our school community. Furthermore, they particularly noted the calm, welcoming and positive relationships between students and staff; the collaborative nature of all our staff team and how the parent council continues to be a strong supporter of the school as co-drivers of policy change and helping to create the School Improvement Plan. Re-organising the Student Voice Ambassadors has resulted in pupils reporting that they have a greater say in decision making and on the whole feel that their views are taken into account. We have a very ambitious improvement plan for next session as we constantly strive to offer the best experience for our young people. Subject departments will continue implementing changes to maximise the opportunities for student success. The attainment of our top 20% of students remains our biggest priority and this will continue to be a focus of our action plans. We are revisiting our vision, values and purpose with the aim of streamlining this in conjunction with the Moray Council three year improvement plan. Parents can contribute to the discussion on what the vision should be by visiting https:// www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/36QBBYV. We aim to continue to develop the capacity of staff to support and offer quality advice for our young people. Our evaluations this session have highlighted that clarity is needed on the school’s response to bullying and that level 6 literacy and numeracy require a greater focus. Our Parent Council and Maths department have begun a task aimed at helping parents and their children learn together and will continue to try to engage more parents out with the parent council. So once again, we have a busy improvement agenda and we look forward to meeting all the challenges that this will bring. The School Improvement Plan and Standards and Quality Report will be available in the new term by request at the school office or direct from our website. We are fortunate to have a dedicated and hardworking senior leadership team continue to receive high praise for their hard work, commitment and dedication to the school but the new term will start without Contact us: Milne’s High School, West Street, Fochabers, IV32 7DJ one of these valued colleagues as Mrs Janice Simpson leaves at the end of term to take up her position as Head Teacher at Lossiemouth High School. Although we are all very proud of this achievement, many parents, staff and students have expressed sadness that Mrs Simpson is leaving the school community and all point to the significant contribution that she has made to Milne’s High School over the years. On behalf of the school community, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Simpson for her hard work, high standards and support and wish her the very best at Lossiemouth High School. We recognise that we need to report to parents on the difference made by giving their views and as such have summarised the main feedback in the table below. Some of these points were noted last session and we are pleased to note further updates. Parents said that: We did: They would like more Rotated the venue for the parent council to hold meetings in information about the work Lhanbryde Primary School and Mosstodloch Primary school. The of the Parent Council Parent Council also ensured greater use of the Facebook page, greater publicity around events and created a newsletter to keep parents well informed about their work. Greater support was A well-attended session was delivered to parents on Tuesday 9 required to understand the January to explain the tracking system in detail. new S1-3 tracking reports The school’s position on On 14 November 2017, we held an anti-bullying engagement evening bullying requires further for parents to further demonstrate our anti-bullying policy and offer explanation and discussion parents the opportunity to explore this issue. Recent evaluations highlight that this remains a key priority. We should continue to We continue to update our website and use the twitter page to progress towards electronic celebrate success. We have greater use of survey monkey and email communication. all letters home. We are still investigating the use of Facebook for next session. We should continue to We have completely moved to a monthly tracking report rather than provide more regular one report after the Prelims for the Senior Phase. This session, we information about their introduced a termly tracking report to inform parents of their child’s child’s progress progress throughout the Broad General Phase (S1-3). They would like more We have and will continue to add online safety slots into open information about online evenings. safety They were pleased to see Building upon the significant acts of refurbishment last session, we work done to initiate have painted most of the internal corridors. Next session, we are improvements to the fabric prioritising essential and sustainable work to include ensuring the of the building and were access doors are secure and essential maintenance of the roof. keen for this to continue We continue to note that most of our students are appropriately dressed to school with black footwear, a black skirt or trousers and correctly-worn tie. As new items are purchased over the holidays, we ask that parents support our drive to raise standards as uniform will be an area of focus in the new session. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of the school community a great holiday and look forward to welcoming our students back at 8.40 am on Tuesday 14 August 2018. Trish Cameron Head Teacher Contact us: Tel: 01343 820611 Email: [email protected] Staffing News In August, we look forward to welcoming new colleagues to the team: Mrs Christina Young joins the Art department and Mr William Allan begins his teaching career by joining the Geography department as a Newly Qualified Teacher. Mrs Shirley Munn returns as our Librarian on a part time basis and we are delighted to see her return. Mr Adam MacLeod continues as a Depute Head Teacher to cover the vacancy left by Mrs Simpson’s appointment to the position of Head Teacher at Lossiemouth High School. There are some updates as a result of staff moving on to other positions. It is always positive to see colleagues move into promoted positions and earlier this term, Mrs Emily Souness from our Business Studies department was permanently appointed to the position of Principal Teacher of Guidance at Keith Grammar School and Mrs Vicki Jolly was successful in being permanently appointed to the post of Principal Teacher of Guidance at Elgin High School. Ms Jenna Ogg will remain with the Business Studies department and divide her time with Lossiemouth High School and Ms Alena Gardiner will continue as Acting Principal Teacher of Guidance for Spey house. We offer four members of staff our best wishes as they leave us at the end of this term: Mrs Eilidh Caddell is leaving us to relocate to the Highlands, Mrs Vicki Reed from the school office is relocating to North Yorkshire, Ms Naomi Holmes is leaving the Support for Learning department and Mrs Jess Standfast leaves to take up a full time position as teacher of Art at Elgin Academy. At the end of August, we will say farewell to two very valued colleagues – Mrs Sheila Shearer retires after 36 years in the Maths department and Ms Mairi McLennan, Principal Teacher of Music is relocating to Edinburgh. Both will be missed and leave with our very best wishes. We would like to thank all staff who are leaving for their hard work and their contributions to the school community. Parent Council Update The next meeting of our Parent Council will be their AGM and this will be held in room 43 at 7 pm on Monday 3 September 2018.