Headteacher Update
Dear Parents, Carers and Pupils of Craigroyston,
I hope you are all well and have had a brilliant week! Please find below all our news from the week!
| Priorities and Matters Arising |
| A huge thank you to the parents and carers who attended our S3 Parents’ Evening on Thursday. It was great to see so many so many of you there! A special shout out to our senior phase pupils who helped on the night! Our young people enjoyed assisting and did very well preparing the snacks – I particularly enjoyed the tea and toast as well! Thanks again everyone! Any feedback about the evening is appreciated. Eid 2026 Eid Mubarak to all of our staff and pupils who celebrated Eid on Friday! We hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with your families! Staffing We are continuing our drive to ensure that we have a full staff come August. Although staffing still continues to a frustration for us, we are doing our very best to ensure that our young people have consistent teachers in front of them each day Scottish Parliamentary Election – Thursday 7th May 2026 With the election only a matter of months away, it is fundamental that young people are informed of the process and their right to vote in Scotland from sixteen years of age. This week at breaks and lunches Ms Dunlop and I will be making young people aware of this and helping them register to vote. As of Friday, 46% of our young people were registered to vote. They must turn 16 by or on Thursday 7th May to be able to do so. We will do the same in the coming weeks as well as informative assemblies. Young people must have their National Insurance number to be able to register. Any help with this is much appreciated! S6 Leavers’ Celebrations – Broomlee Residential On Thursday 26th March our S6 pupils will be attending their leavers’ trip to Broomlee Centre in West Linton. If your child would still like to attend but has not yet brought in their letter, please email/contact me at school today to let me know. We’re very excited about our trip away! Easter Study The timetable for Easter Study for S4- S6 timetables will be sent home to parents/carers this week. |
| School Security |
| We continue the drive to ensure that our school is a positive, safe and pleasant learning environment for all. This includes ensuring that there is no litter lying around after breaks and lunches and that our school is not vandalised in any way. Although a little more positive this week, we still have issues around this. We will be speaking with our young people about this but any support with discussions around this at home would be really appreciated! Thank you! |
| Staffing |
As you know, we’re continuing our recruitment drive as we work towards a full complement of staff in August! Last week was a very busy week for us in terms of interviewing. A huge congratulations to Mr Chris White who we appointed to the permanent post of DHT Learning and Teaching and Raising Attainment. He is currently CL Maths at Dunbar Grammar School. Mr White will start with us on Tuesday 19th May. He will also be the Head of Bute House. Congratulations also goes to Ms Giuliana Di Rollo who was appointed to the permanent post of CL Languages at the end of last week. Giuliana will be joining us from Knightswood Secondary School in Glasgow. It is likely that she will begin immediately after the Easter holidays. As you will be aware, interviews also took place for a permanent Teacher of HE at the end of last week. Whilst we interview individually, this post is part of a centralised recruitment process. I am hoping that I will know the outcome by this time next week so I can share this with you then! The following posts are currently live on myjobscotland: Teacher of English (permanent) CL Expressive Arts (permanent) Teacher of Support for Learning (permanent) Teacher of Drama (permanent) Pupil Support Leader (permanent) Teacher of Social Subjects (temporary) The following posts will be advertised in the coming weeks: SSA (part time permanent) CL Wellbeing Hub (permanent) Development Officer of Attendance (temporary) As you know, on Friday 27th March we sadly to say goodbye to Mrs Ellis! We’re very sad and will miss her very much! She has been an outstanding addition to our team for the past two years. We’re wishing her all the very post in her new post at Newbattle High School in Midlothian. Mrs Ellis will always be part of the Craigroyston family! From Monday 30th March, Ms Stewart will take over Mrs Ellis’ remit as DHT of Pupil Support. Ms Stewart will continue to be Head of Arran House. |
| Headteacher Highlights |
ELATE A massive well done to Ms Macrae and our S4 pupils for their article in the most recent publication of ELATE! This is a City of Edinburgh Council magazine which celebrates the successes of young people in our city. It shared their experience of the Ocean Conference in Paris in November and was a lovely summary of the wonderful opportunity they had. I am absolutely delighted that their experience was also shared with all our schools and celebrated in ELATE – a huge thank you to Sarah for making this happen! Please see an excerpt of the article below!  Duke of Edinburgh Silver Awards A massive well done to Abbie, Leon, Stewart and Lennon who all completed their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award this week. They were presented this at Portobello High School earlier in the week. This is a massive achievement for them! They’re now all working towards their Gold Duke of Edinburgh! We are so so proud of them!    Refereeing Level 7 A huge well done to Euan Reid and Kyle McIntyre on achieving their Refereeing Level 7. They have achieved this in addition to the SFA Refereeing Qualification which means that they can now referee matches and work their way up in doing this! Such an incredible achievement! Might see them refereeing Hearts v Hibs in the future! 😊 Library Malachy and his friends have started a Blender/Minecraft Club which is going well. Yesterday they unboxed a 3D printed and talked about designs they’re going to do including printing figures. Some exciting developments to come! Brooke Sangster has started volunteering in the library and did some great work reorganising the shelving and display for our Expressive Arts section! Well done, Brooke! Red Nose Day On Friday we celebrated Red Nose Day by wearing a touch of red! Well done to our winners, Kayla and Maisie! We particularly loved Maisie’s efforts of red hair! Well done everyone – it was a fun way to end the week! Thank you to Mrs Hunter and Mr Linnane for organising!   Senior Football Our seniors finished for the season with a friendly against Firhill High School. They all had a great time and there a real positive vibe between the players! A big thank you to Mr Irvine and Mr Stevenson for organising all the games!  |
| Important Upcoming Dates |
Monday 23rd March P7 Headteacher Information Evening 4pm Thursday 26th March S6 Trip to Broomlee 10am (all day and night) Tuesday 31st March S1 Parents’ Evening 4pm – 6pm Thursday 2nd April S6 Leavers’ Celebration P5 – P7 Thursday 3rd April Easter Holidays Begin |
| And finally… Quote of the Week |
| ‘It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.’ Queen Elizabeth II |
Please do not hesitate to contact me at Shelley.McLaren@craigroyston.edin.sch.uk if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Shelley
Shelley McLaren
Headteacher
Craigroyston Community High School
Craigroyston Community High School 