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Dear Parent/Carer,
We are now in week five of the new session and our
young people have settled well since returning from the summer break. As this
is my first formal correspondence to our Parent Forum, may I also take the
opportunity to thank all connected with our school community for a very warm
welcome to St Maurice’s High School. I am thoroughly enjoying my new position
as Head Teacher of the school and also enjoying getting to know many people
from within the school and across our school community.
When I held year group assemblies, I highlighted
the importance of the acronym ABOUT – representing Attendance, Behaviour,
Organisation, Uniform and Time. I am firm in my belief that if our young people
strive to achieve exceptional standards in these areas, it will significantly
aid them in their academic progress.
Uniform
Our young people
look fantastic in their new school uniforms and I would like to thank you for
your support and to ask that you continue to support us in keeping this
standard high. At the end of last session we had many children who were not
wearing their blazers, were wearing jeans instead of dress trousers and
brightly coloured trainers instead of black school shoes. There is still a
problem with the length of some school skirts and I would ask, therefore, for
your support in ensuring that skirts are of a reasonable length. Our uniform supplier, LogoXpres, can be contacted
by email throughout the session to order items of uniform that need to be
replaced.Their email address is: sales@logoxpres.co.uk
Timekeeping and Attendance
School starts at 8.55am every morning however, some
of our young people are failing to arrive on time. There is no registration
first thing in the morning and therefore young people are missing valuable
teaching time and also causing disruption to classes when they arrive late. As
I am sure you will agree, promoting good timekeeping and attendance is crucial
in ensuring that young people are prepared for the world of work in the future.
If your child is too unwell to come to school,
please telephone the school office in the morning to let us know. On his/her
return to school, please supply a letter explaining the reason for the absence. Our updated attendance policy can be found on our
website detailed at the end of this letter.
Friday morning Mass
Fr Mulholland will
celebrate mass in the school every Friday morning. On Friday 8th
September, the attendance at mass was very good and I would ask that you
encourage your son/daughter to come along, even if they can’t get to the
Oratory for the start of mass at 8.35am. Latecomers are most welcome!
Parking
Thank you to all parents
who are helping us to keep young people safe by picking up and dropping off
children at the rear of the building. We will continue to operate our policy of
letting those parents picking up from behind the building, leave first. Parents
who park at the front of the building will need to wait until traffic from the
rear disperses before they will be permitted to leave. Please inform relatives
who pick up young people for you of this policy. For the safety of our young people parents should not park on the main road. In
addition to this, please refrain from parking in Gateside Way as this is a
cause for concern for residents and can be a significant barrier to them
accessing their property.
Use of mobile phones
As we are at the beginning
of the school session, it is a suitable time to remind all of our young people
of the responsibility that they have to ensure that the use of their mobile
phone complies with the school policy. I am in the process of having the
guidance posted on the school website and would ask that you refer to this when
discussing appropriate use of mobile phones with your son/daughter.
Parental Engagement
Parental support is a vital
element of a successful school and I was delighted to meet with parents/carers
at the ‘Meet the Head Teacher’ evening on September 4th. Over the
coming weeks I am also hoping to attend mass in our associated parishes and I
look forward to meeting more people there. Please have a look at the school
website for forthcoming events and come along to celebrate the life and work of
the school. My initial impressions of St Maurice’s it that it is a great school
with outstanding young people who are a credit to themselves, their families
and their school. There is much to celebrate about the fantastic work that goes
on within the school. The support of parents/carers enriches the life of the
school, whilst also boosting the confidence and morale of our young people.
Senior Awards Ceremony
On Monday 18th
September, we have the opportunity to celebrate the successes of our Senior
Pupils at the Awards Ceremony. This will undoubtedly be one of the highlights
in the school calendar and prior to this, I would like to offer my
congratulations to all of our young people who achieved outstanding examination
results. Results such as these do not happen without the efforts of dedicated
teachers, committed learners and supportive parents and all are to be
congratulated on their contributions.
If you wish to contact the
school you can visit our website at the following address: (https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/nl/stmauriceswebsite) follow us on twitter @St_Maurice_High
, sign up for email alerts at
northlanarkshire.gov.uk or email us at: afa@st-maurices.n-lanark.sch.uk.
Yours sincerely
James McParland
Head Teacher
St Maurice’s High School were at the Scottish
Parliament on Wednesday night and it was announced that we have been short
listed for the prestigious Nature of Scotland awards in conjunction with the good work we have been undertaking with
Cumbernauld Living Landscapes and the Heritage Lottery Funding. This is an incredible tribute to the work that Tracy Lambert and her
team have been doing with our school for the past few years. The partnership between St. Maurice's and CLL
has been successful on many levels and brought immeasurable benefits to our
young people, staff and the surrounding community.
On Thursday 21 September, pupils and staff
will be involved in media coverage of the Natural Connections Project. Cumbernauld News, BBC Scotland, Herald and
STV will be represented.
All parents
are warmly welcomed to join us in an Evening of Celebration on 21 September at
7 pm, in the Assembly Hall, with a Buffet reception and short speeches from
some of our young people. Invited guests will also be in attendance. Well done to everyone for their commitment to the project!
St Maurice’s High School
Groupcall Xpressions App
View your child’s information on your mobile phone!
An exciting
new service is now available for parents to ensure communication between the
school and yourselves is easier and more effective. Groupcall Xpressions is a new service created by the award-winning school communication
company Groupcall Limited.
The app is
completely free of charge to you and can be installed on your mobile phone or
tablet. It currently supports both Apple iOS and Android devices (with Windows
mobile to follow) and you’ll be able to see information for your children.
If you have
children in different schools and those schools also use Groupcall Xpressions, you
will be able to view information on multiple children within the same app.
What do
I need to do now?
Please ensure we have your correct
mobile number and email address on our school database to ensure you can use
the new app as soon as it is available. You’ll need
to make sure you keep these details up to date in future to maintain access to
the service.
What
happens next?
Download
the app from the respective app store
Enter
the email address that has been supplied to the school
Enter
the mobile phone number that has been supplied to the school
If
both of these pieces of information have been entered correctly, then a One
Time Passcode (OTP) will be sent to the corresponding mobile number via SMS
Once
the passcode has been entered correctly, you will then be asked to create a
password, which will be used for subsequent logins to Xpressions.
We’d
advise that parents don’t log out of Xpressions, (unless advised to do so to
attempt to resolve an issue) if parents do log out of the app, they will stop
receiving notifications for new messages until they log in again.
Avoid
logging out as much as possible. You can always close the app, and Xpressions
will restart automatically when your device restarts.
Contact us
Website: www.st-maurices.n-lanark.sch.uk/
Twitter: twitter.com/St_Maurice_High
Email: ht@st-maurices.n-lanark.sch.uk/
Tel: 01236 794845
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