 | Currie Community Council |
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Currie Community High School |  |
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Report to Currie Community Council, 14th December 2011
Staffing Susan MacKenzie, teacher of English, will retire at Christmas after 36 years of service to the school. She leaves us with our sincere appreciation for these years of hard work and commitment to the school and our very best wishes for a long, happy and healthy retirement. Alison Kirkwood, PT Support for Learning, has decided to leave teaching at Christmas to focus on her business venture. While we will miss Alison greatly, we wish her well for the future. Pending the local authority review of Guidance/Pupil Support, Fiona McLean will be temporary full-time PT Support for Learning from January until the end of the session. We are very pleased to announce that Hannah Bond has been appointed permanent teacher of Geography. John Byrne Award Following on from last year‘s success in the John Byrne Award, we are delighted that another group from Currie were runners up this year receiving a commendation, a John Byrne print and a cheque for £1000. The team included, Bryony Jones, Hayley Gray, Zoë McRae, Katie Ross and Lindsey Hunter all of S6. Christmas Fayre Sunday 27th November The Christmas Fayre organised by members of our Parent Council raised over £750 which will support a number of pupil activities around the school. We are grateful to all those who helped in any way in the organisation of this event and to the "customers" who supported it. S1 Focus Group 5th December Percy Farren, Senior Depute and I met with a group of 14 parents of S1 pupils. The meeting had an open agenda where parents were able to raise any issues of concern to them and to help us identify areas where our service might improve. Discussion ranged from extra-curricular to reporting to anti-bullying to pastoral care. There were some areas where parents had some suggestions for us but overwhelmingly, comments were positive and reassuring that we "get it right" for the most part. Environmental Improvements A grant has been received (£500) which will enable us to make improvements and carry out essential maintenance to our quad area. Well done to Rachel Avery on the success of her application. A further grant has been requested to enable us to expand our orchard area. In November, our Eco Committee repeated a waste audit that was carried out last year. The good news is that the amount of rubbish we throw away is down by 13%. The number of plastic bottles being thrown away is down a massive 58%. We are well on the way to achieving our target of 25% for waste reduction. Edinburgh University Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Pilot Douglas Buchanan of Edinburgh University has conducted the first session of a series of CPD with our Science staff. The focus is on active learning in Science including teachers' questioning skills which is one of our improvement priorities. This is a pilot study which is being provided free of charge by Edinburgh University. Duke of Edinburgh Our annual presentation of DoE award certificates and badges will take place on Friday 16 December. Councillor Ricky Henderson will present the Bronze and Silver section certificates to senior pupils who have completed this year. To date, 25 pupils have completed their Bronze and 11 their Silver. | |
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Kate Paton
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