Head Teacher’s Blog w/b 21.02.16

Target Achievement Group Programme

With one step closer to the Easter holidays and the fast approaching SQA examinations we launched our Target Achievement Group Programme spanning S4 to S6. Although the focus in school is on attainment related work for all which includes individual action plans in every subject, this programme provides increased back-up for those pupils who we believe would benefit from a degree of additional time and support. We appreciate that parents will be doing their part at home as we all know that studying outside schools is an integral part of final preparations and a vital ingredient to ensuring success.

Social Media

It was a little disappointing that there had been interaction with our school Twitter account over the weekend by a few pupils commenting inaccurately on our uniform expectations. The use of social media by a very few in this way was disappointing. However these are always learning opportunities for young people and so we reminded pupils the other ways in which this could have been handled in tune with our school values.

Malawi

After school on Monday, the Malawi team 2016 met the Outlook leader and heard more details of the expedition itinerary. We are fast approaching the target fundraising figure and I am delighted to report that the successful music night topped up the fund by around £1400.00. I must state that the effort from our young people and their parents supported by our staff team has been impressive.

TUTE

On Tuesday we welcomed Sean Gardener, the Chief Executive of TUTE. TUTE is an education learning platform that connects a teacher with learners anywhere. We are currently investigating its potential and conducted a live demo with some of our pupils preparing for their National 5 exams. It has the potential to complement learning and teaching through the access to an online tutoring tool and for this reason we will explore it further in the form of a small pilot. At the same time we will interrogate the evidence base of its impact in English Schools, where it has currently been operating.

Health & Wellbeing

On Wednesday I met with Mr Love, Acting FPT for Health and Exercise Science to hear our next steps for developing health and wellbeing across all subjects. There is a strong curriculum focus in school on Health and Wellbeing experiences and outcomes through Physical Education, Home Economics and Personal and Social Education, as well as through extracurricular opportunities. However we want to better capture where each young person is with their development of knowledge, understanding and skills in this area. We know that not only do they need these abilities now but will even more so in the future.

Parent Council

On Thursday evening the Parent Council held their monthly meeting where the main topic of discussion was the prefect, Head boy and Head girl team appointment process. Our senior pupils presented to parents a clear picture of the appointment process. What quickly became apparent is that parents were not aware of the many opportunities for pupil leadership beyond the prefect role at Alva Academy, so this is something we will address. The presentation will be posted on the website, so please do look at it. My thanks go to Craig Baxter, Heather Breingan and Callum Gullen for pulling everything together. They are a credit to the school.

Achievements

Finally it is good to finish off this week’s reflections with news of wider successes. Our Alva Academy cheer leading team came third in the Forth Valley Cheer Competition this week.

I was also delighted to read not one but two articles published in the herald recently by one of our former pupils Ross Brannigan. Well done Ross we are very proud of your achievement and obvious progress.

The Senior Boys Basketball Team won the Secondary School Team of the Year Award at the Clackmannanshire Sports Council Awards at Alloa Town Hall. Great reward for all their hard work last year.