Welcome Back!

I’m absolutely delighted to be able to welcome the whole High School Family back to school for the start of session 2020-21.

The High School of Dundee

The first day of the new school year is always a very special one. Friends reunite after the summer, there are lots of new pupils to get to know and there’s the thrill of seeing our L1 and F1 pupils start hugely important stages in their lives, as their primary and secondary school educations begin.

But of course today is even more significant. It’s the first day in 5 months that we’ve been able to have our pupils in school and we are hugely excited to have everyone back. The sight of so many smiling pupils this morning was so uplifting for both myself and the rest of the teaching staff. We missed our pupils so much during lockdown; while we were able to connect remotely through home learning, the thing that makes all teachers tick is having young people in front of them.   

We’ve been planning for and working towards this day for a number of months and our number 1 priority is the safety and wellbeing of our pupils and staff. I am enormously indebted to our dedicated staff for all of the work which has been going on behind the scenes in this regard. We are absolutely committed to creating the best learning environment for the young people in our care and we will be following government guidance and closely monitoring the situation with Covid-19 in the weeks and months ahead.

The school looks a little different just now with pupil bubbles in place and various measures set up to ensure physical distancing. It’s natural to feel a little anxious about settling back in to school in these circumstances and after such a break from normal school life. However, with our Recovery Curriculum playing a key role, we will be here to help and support our pupils every step of the way.

I was delighted that our Nursery was able to reopen last week, it was wonderful to have our youngest pupils back with us. I think of the High School as a family and with our Junior and Senior Years pupils joining us today, that unit is now complete again, albeit with some different arrangements in place, at least for a while.

We can’t say for certain how the COVID-19 pandemic will develop from this point onwards but I know that we are ready to respond, and I’m certain that our young people will blow us away in the year ahead with their talents, their thinking, their positive action and their ideas. I can’t wait to see what they are going to achieve!

Lise Hudson, Rector