S1, S2 and S3 Open Evening Tonight

Parents, Guardians and Pupils of S1, S2 and S3 are invited to an Open Evening at Grantown Grammar School tonight from 6.00pm – 7.30pm. You will meet Head Teacher, Claire McGonigal and Depute Heads, Ruairidh Ross and Scott Wilson, who will give a brief presentation and then you will have an opportunity to look around your child’s classrooms and ask any questions you may have.

Prelim timetable

This is always a bit of a scary time for our fabulous young people.

Here is the Prelim timetable for January.

Can we ask pupils to: 1) check that all of their exams are shown. 2) none of their prelims clash.  i.e. Mr Ross hasn’t accidently timetabled them to two prelims at once. 3) let Mr Ross know if they have 2 prelims in a day – I’m afraid there are some times when that has to happen but let him know and he’ll see if things can be changed. 4) write them on a planner/calendar and start planning your study routine.

Learning Support Fundraisers – December 2022

This year the Learning Support Department is fundraising in a few different ways.

All funds raised will go towards additional resources for the department, residential opportunities for pupils and trips to enhance learning.

  • Saturday 3 December – ‘Grantown does Christmas’ – we will have a fundraising stall in the marquee in Grantown Square from 10am-4pm. We will be selling raffle tickets for our Hamper and other prizes.  We will also have Christmas chutneys and jams and gingerbread garlands for sale on the stall. 

We would welcome any help from parents or pupils on the day.

  • Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 December – LS Christmas Fayre (in school). During break and lunch time we will be raising funds by selling home baking, ‘Guess the Number of Sweets in the Jar’, raffle tickets and other Christmas items. Donations of home baking would be welcome.
  • Friday 16 December – CO-OP Christmas ‘bag packing’. Some pupils who attend our Learning Support tutorials will be helping customers pack their shopping at the Grantown Co-op to raise funds from your donations between 10am-2pm.

We really appreciate your support and look forward to meeting people when we are out in the community raising funds for Learning Support. 

S5 & S6 Gradebooks & AAR

At tutor time today, pupils in S5 and S6 received an extract from their Gradebook, along with a Comment Report on their progress in their chosen subjects for this session. These documents have also been emailed to pupils and their parent/guardian contact. Apologies to those handful of pupils/parents that have received a second email, as we discovered a discrepancy with the attendance data and therefore re-sent the updated version.

Certain pupils will also have received an information letter regarding the Alternative Assessment Requests (AAR) in place for the prelim exams taking place between 16 -27 January 2023.  These will also apply for the SQA examinations which are scheduled from 24 April 2023.

Pupils often receive face to face support for assessments. Highland Council are supporting the use of the Read & Write extension on Chromebooks. This is an amazing tool that each pupil can use to help support their work.  It includes options for speech to text and text to speech and the opportunity to create a custom screen overlay if required, amongst its many benefits. Some pupils’ arrangements include the use of this app. while others prefer face to face support. This has been discussed with each pupil requiring support.

Alternative Assessment Requests must be confirmed for each pupil, each year and for each subject.  This is based on past evidence as well as professional observations by their teachers in the current academic year.  If the teacher feels a pupil does not need the Alternative Assessment Arrangements in their subject this year, the pupil is unlikely to receive these. 

These letters have also been emailed to the relevant parent/guardians. Can you please reply to the AAR email to either confirm these arrangements or ask any questions as soon as possible, so they can be put in place and the Prelim Exam timetable can be finalised. As always, please get in touch with the school on 01479 872649 if you require any further assistance.

Adverse Weather Procedure

This letter has been issued today to advise parents, guardians and pupils of the procedure to follow should the school need to close, due to adverse weather.  Please read these guidelines and discuss your own arrangements with your child, so they know what do in the event that the school is closed. This information has been handed to pupils at tutor time today, emailed to the parent/guardian contact and you can also refer to it on the school website, under School Closure Information.

Adverse Weather Procedure – letter issued 22/11/22

Adverse Weather Guidelines for Parents/Pupils – issued 22/11/22