Highland pupils go back to school on 19 August
Highland pupils go back to school tomorrow (Tuesday 19 August 2014) following a teachers’ in-service today (18 August).
Chairman of The Highland Council’s Adult and Children’s Services Committee, Councillor Alasdair Christie said: “There is great change in progress for all those with a stake in Education in the Highlands including our, pupils, parents, staff and our partners in building new schools in the region. We have recently seen excellent results in the SQA exams for our S4 pupils who sat the new National exams for the first time and continuous improvement among S5 pupils sitting Highers. With the progress in our modern schools building programme and ongoing improvements to our education infrastructure we have exciting times ahead for our young people.
“I would like to welcome all our new pupils starting in nursery, primary and secondary schools, or pupils who have moved into the area. I also welcome our new Probationer Teacher and congratulate our new Head Teachers in their new roles.”
Three new head teachers have been appointed by the Council. Dr Fiona Grant former Head Teacher of Thurso High School has been appointed on a temporary basis as Head Teacher of Wick High School. She takes up her new post on 18 August. At Foyers Primary School, Louise Robertson was appointed to the post of Head Teacher at Foyers Primary School before the summer holidays. Louise had been Acting Head Teacher at the school. Lynne Lambert was also appointed as Head Teacher of Hilton Primary School, Inverness. Lynne was previously the Depute Head at Dalneigh Primary School and takes up her new post at the start of term.
For some pupils, going back to school also means living away from home as they stay in school residences. The Highland Council is pleased to announce that school residences have been praised in a report published by the Care Inspectorate.
The residences, which provide accommodation for school pupils who live too far from school to travel daily, were visited by Inspectors in June. The Care Inspectors visited 4 of the Council’s 5 residences and concluded that: “The service has maintained very high standards in most of the areas we inspected. They had continued to involve young people in service development and to find out their views so that they could improve the service…Overall we found confident young people who were well cared for and supported by an enthusiastic staff group.”
The Inspectors evaluated both the quality of care and support, and the quality of environment, as “good” while the quality of staffing, and the quality of management and leadership were both assessed as “very good”.
Hugh Fraser, Highland Council’s Director of Education, Culture and Sport said: “I am delighted at this very positive report that recognises the commitment and skills of our staff. It is not always easy for young people to face the prospect of boarding away from home, but parents and pupils can be confident that our school residences offer the highest standards of care.”
A copy of the Report can be found on the Care Inspectorate’s website.
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