Author: PMcWatt (St Mungos)

CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES/EXCURSIONS

Date	Year	Dept	Details
10 Sept	ALL	Maths	We will support the national Maths Week which includes events across Scotland for schools, families, communities and adults. ‘Maths Wi Nae Borders Competition’ will involve 5 tasks in 2 hours. (Mrs McKelvie)
12 Sept / 7pm	S4-6	Various	All parents are invited to a Senior Phase Parents Information Evening to learn more about what their children are learning and how they can support their study at home.
13 Sept at 7pm	S1		All S1 parents are invited to the S1 Welcome Mass to celebrate and pray for our new pupils.
16-21 Sept	S5		S5 Leadership Academy with Columba 1400 on Skye
17 Sept / 7pm	ALL	PARENTS	All parents are invited to attend a meeting at 7pm to review feedback from our recent parent survey and focus-group meetings to improve how we work in partnership with parents/carers.
w/c 17 Sept	S4-6		Senior Phase ‘Early Warning’ alert to parents regarding pupils’ learning , attainment and future pathways.
17 Sept / 5pm	ALL	Learning Support	In partnership with Clyde College, ESOL classes will be run for parents/carers
18 Sept	S5/6	Social St	Scottish Parliament Consultation on the age of criminal responsibility. A group of Higher Social Subjects students will take part in this event. (Mrs Matthewman)
21 & 24 Sept	ALL		SEPTEMBER WEEKEND: the school will be closed on Fri 21 and Mon 24 September; pupils should return on Tues 25 Sept
26 Sept / 1.20pm	ASD	Learning Support	An ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Parent Forum meeting will be held in the Support for Learning department. New parents/carers welcome
1 Oct			ANNUAL AWARDS CEREMONY—MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW
25 Oct	S5/6	Politics (Social St)	All Higher Politics students should attend the Annual John Wheatley Lecture at 7pm (details tbc)
June 2019		Mod Lang	Educational excursion to Italy—Mr Lansdowne (Information evening in May)
3-5 June 2019		Social St	Educational excursion to London. Waiting list in place. Further details will follow. (Mrs Matthewman)

CLUBS & ACTIVITIES

Year	Activity	Details
S1	Fresher’s Fair	Thursday 6th September for S1s to learn about clubs
S1	Modern Languages Homework Club	Fridays @ 12.45 - Mr Lansdowne
S2	Computer coding club	Friday lunchtimes—Mr Baird/Computing
S3	Computer coding club	Monday lunchtimes—Mr Baird/Computing
S4-6	Supported Study (N5/Higher Computing)	Tuesday lunchtimes—Mr Baird & Mr Louden / Computing
S4-6	N5/Higher Workshop support (Design & Manuf.)	Wednesday lunchtimes—Mr Greechan Friday lunchtimes—Miss Litster

Email: headteacher@st-mungosacademy.glasgow.sch.uk Web: www.st-mungosacademy.glasgow.sch.uk Twitter: @stmungosacademy

2018/19
No.1
Sept 2018

St Mungo’s Academy
School Newsletter

St Mungo’s Academy, Crownpoint Road, Glasgow, G40 2RA Tel: 0141 582 0260 Fax: 0141 582 0261 Email: headteacher@st-mungosacademy.glasgow.sch.uk

HEAD TEACHER’S WELCOME

VALUES, VISION AND AIMS

Dear Parents / Carers,
Welcome to this new style of newsletter which was developed through the feedback you provided us with. All the ‘celebrating success’ stories will come via our twitter page and is really worth a look and connecting regularly with. This newsletter is to keep parents and carers up to date with useful information and can I in particular welcome new parents into the community of St Mungo’s Academy. You are without question our most important partners.
We have had a busy start to the first term inducting new pupils and staff but we are now firmly settling in to a productive routine.
Please find enclosed some additional information including the Standards and Quality report on our work last session. We completed the year very successfully with an improvement in our SQA results and being awarded the very prestigious General Teaching Council (GTC )Excellence in Professional Learning Award. The GTC were blown away by the work of our school and commented:
‘The panel felt that teachers and young people were empowered through strong professional values and these were demonstrated in action……teachers explained why they strived daily to be the best teacher possible because the young people deserve the very best teachers who are adaptive experts and have limitless ambition for the young people and themselves’
We will continue to build on this success over the coming academic year and look forward very much to working in partnership with you.
A Milton Head Teacher

Over the past 18 months, we have consulted with pupils, parents, partners and staff to agree on our focus areas for the coming 5 years. It is our aim to work in partnership with all stakeholders to improve outcomes for our young people by:
Improving attainment and achievement
Improving the learning and teaching experience across the school
Ensuring all young people are supported and challenged
Empowering pupils, parents, partners and staff to contribute to improvement through participation

NEW STAFF

We welcome a range of new staff to St Mungo’s:

Mr Graham (English) / Mr Pitchotka (English) / Mr Kearns (English) / Miss Ryan (English) / Mrs Netten (Maths) / Miss Craig (Maths) / Mr Ruddy (Depute) / Miss Miller (Business) / PC Smith (Campus Officer) / Ms Abernethy (Family Liaison Officer)	Mrs Shakeel (Science) / Ms Sneddon (Science) / Mr Barker (Science) / Miss Ali (Science) / Ms Pietryga (Science) / Mr Beaton (Science) / Miss Hopkins (Art) / Mr Abel (Office) / Mr Stewart (Office) / Ms Gvineria (Lifelink)

WELCOME TO OUR S1 PUPILS

We would like to extend a special welcome to all our first year pupils and parents/carers. The pupils have made an excellent start to their secondary education with teachers commenting positively on their attitude and work ethic. At our first assembly we spoke to the young people about the school vision and our school values, namely Faith, Hope and Love, which underpin the work we do which is centred on fostering excellent relationships based on mutual respect and good manners.
Preparations are already underway for the First Year Welcome Mass and all S1 parents and carers will receive an invitation shortly inviting them and their extended family to join us for this very important event in our Liturgical Calendar. Our S1 pupils will also receive their certificate of enrolment at this. It would be great to see you and your son/daughter there!

S1 & S6 SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS

Our S1 and S6 students will be having their school photographs taken on Friday 14th September 2018.
Parents/carers will be able to view their child’s photographs online and place their order directly. More details about this will be sent home shortly.

S1-3 KEY ADULT

Curriculum for Excellence states that “all young people should have frequent and regular opportunities to discuss their learning with an adult who knows them well and acts as a mentor, helping them to set appropriate goals for the next stages in learning”. In St Mungo’s Academy all young people in S1-3 have an identified Key Adult to discuss their learning with. Young people have the opportunity to meet with their Key Adult each day at tutor time. They also meet their Key Adult once per month for a group session or individual meeting. Key Adults have a crucial link in raising the attainment and achievement of our young people. The Key Adult programme helps young people to achieve their full potential in terms of both academic attainment and of achievement in the widest sense. After tracking reports, Key Adults will support and challenge the young people in their group, so that they are able to set effective learning targets.

UNIFORM

Once again we would like to thank our parents and carers for their support of our uniform policy. Uniform helps to develop a sense of inclusion, belonging and pride in our school community and reduces incidences of low level indiscipline. We are delighted that the majority of our students are wearing blazers and we would encourage the small minority who don’t, to consider purchasing one from the school office. All Senior Phase students who do not wear a school blazer should continue to wear their blue/black St Mungo’s Academy school tie and not purchase the black and yellow tie. Can we take the opportunity to remind you that all students are not permitted to wear leggings, denims or casual trousers to school - again we would like to thank you for your support in ensuring high standards of uniform across the school.

HOME ECONOMICS

Please ensure that your child is equipped with a container to take food home in. Thank you.

WHO TO CONTACT ABOUT YOUR CHILD

If you have any concerns about your child’s learning or wellbeing, please contact the Pastoral Care teacher for you child’s house group:
St Andrew House: Mrs Jenkins St Enoch House: Mr Parker St Francis House: Mrs Moffat St Ninian House: Mr Marsh Br Walfrid House: Miss Lynch

WHOLE SHOOL ATTAINMENT
Our recent SQA results show very good improvements in attainment across the school. In in particular, S5 attainment has risen to its highest level in the school for a number of years which will improve how well we are attaining in comparison with local and national measures.
Increased number of pupils gaining National Qualifications:
9.3% increase in S4 pupils attaining 5 Nat 5s
8% increase in S5 pupils gaining 3 or more Highers
2.5% increase in S5 pupils gaining 5 or more Highers
Best-ever results in pupils attaining 1 and 3 or more Highers in S5
Our S6 pupils have performed very well and this has led to many positive destinations for those pupils. Through focusing on improving the learning and teaching experience and support from Pastoral Care staff and the Principal Teacher for Raising Attainment, high numbers of pupils have applied for and been granted places in college, university and employment to move on to the next stage in their lives from St Mungo’s.
The range of supports that staff have offered pupils has been key to this improvement. These have included additional resources, supported study classes and learner conversations to set and review learning targets. We have also piloted a change to the S4 curriculum to allow pupils to choose more subjects to build on their strengths and work towards their future pathway.
WIDER ACHIEVEMENT
As part of our aim to offer a range of development experiences, our pupils have been given access to more opportunities than ever through Wider Achievement. Pupils have gained SQA accreditation in many courses in the senior phase such as Childcare, Construction, Leadership, Caritas and many more. This wider curriculum enhances pupils’ experiences within the school and allows them to explore learning experiences for personal and career development.
Many positive links with partners have allowed for positive destinations for pupils. Our partnership with McTaggart’s construction has seen some of our pupils gaining industry standard qualifications (CSCS) and, for some, an apprenticeship with the company following on from their hard work. Similarly, our close partnership with Kelvin College has seen large numbers of our pupils undertake study and accreditation in Childcare, Construction, Hospitality and Science. This has allowed pupils to make the link with further education from S4 onward.
S1-3 ATTAINMENT
We don’t just focus on attainment and achievement in S4-6. In the Broad General Education (S1-3), we are focused on supporting our students to ensure a positive pathway for their learning and career. Through learning conversations and target setting, pupils are supported to set and review learning goals; these are captured in the Tracking Reports that go out to parents throughout the year. Assessment of levels in the Broad General Education indicates good progress from previous benchmarking assessments that were undertaken in P7. We are using this information to support pupils to prepare for learning in the Senior Phase so that they can choose their strongest subjects at national qualification level and in turn leading to improved attainment.
To ensure we continue to improve, the expectation levels have been set higher than ever within our school community. Working in partnership with parents, carers and families, we hope to continue to supporting and challenging all our pupils to continue this level of improvement. In short, it is our hope that by working together we can “Bring Out The Best” for all our young people throughout session 2018-19.

SEPTEMBER FOCUS: RAISING ATTAINMENT

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