Last week on the banks of the River Clyde our school had 3 different reasons to claim success on the National stage.

• Slopestyle Ski National Champions – on Wednesday at the Braehead Indoor Ski Centre, Arran Sangster, Connor Sheaves, Ewan Scott, Zander Williams, Poppy Strachan,  Abbie Harkness, and Zoe Strachan  ensured Harlaw won the Scottish Schools Indoor Freestyle Championships team trophy by a margin of 1 point.     
• Scottish Learning Festival – A day later on the North of the Clyde two of our pupils were invited to speak at the annual national conference for teachers/educators.  Toby Reid and Leila Adair, along with teacher Mrs Munro, got the very early train south to SECC where the two pupils spoke about their work as Young Leaders of Learning to an audience of around 40 educators.  They were fantastic and as a result several schools have been in contact to praise them and to find out more about what we have been doing.
• Annie Lennox – Later that day at the SECC Hydro a former pupil of the Aberdeen High School for Girls, Annie Lennox, was performing at a sell out concert.  The High School for Girls became Harlaw Academy in the 1970s and we retain close links with our FPs from that era.  Her success, and that of our speakers and skiers, show that people from our school can go on to perform on the National and International stage.

I have asked teachers to keep demanding the highest standards from our pupils in all aspects of their work – “best work, first time, on time, every time”.   The 3 examples from this week alone show clearly that, with dedication and support, pupils from Harlaw can achieve success on the National stage.