Hyndland Secondary
School
Glasgow City Council
26 April 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects schools in order to
let parents1, young people and the local community know
whether their school provides a good education. Inspectors also
discuss with school staff how they can improve the quality of
education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the headteacher and
staff about the strengths of the school, what needs to improve,
and how they know. We use the information they give us to help
us plan what we are going to look at. During the inspection, we
go into classes and join other activities which young people are
involved in. We also gather the views of young people, parents,
staff and members of the local community. We find their views
very helpful and use them together with the other information we
have collected to arrive at our view of the quality of education.
This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the
quality of education in the school. We describe how well young
people are doing, how good the school is at helping them to learn
and how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff,
parents and young people work together and how they go about
improving the school. We also comment on how well the school
works with other groups in the community, including services
which support young people. Finally, we focus on how well the
school is led and how staff help the school achieve its aims.
If you would like to learn more about our inspection of the school,
please visit www.hmie.gov.uk. Here you can find analyses of
questionnaire returns from young people, parents and staff, and
details about young people’s examination performance. We will
not provide questionnaire analyses where the numbers of returns
are so small that they could identify individuals. Where applicable
there will also be a report on the learning community surrounding
the school.
1
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers,
residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.
Contents
1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
4. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving their
school community?
6. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
8. What happens next?
1. The school
Hyndland Secondary School is a non-denominational school which
serves the Hyndland, Broomhill, Whiteinch and Thornwood areas in
the west end of the city of Glasgow. The roll was 998 when the
inspection was carried out in March 2011. Over 37% of pupils are
enrolled through placing requests. Young people’s attendance was
above the national average in 2009/2010.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
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•
•
•
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A strong sense of belonging to the school and community.
Involvement of staff and young people in achieving success in a
very wide range of activities beyond the classroom.
The overall quality of pastoral care and support for individual
learners.
Engagement of all staff in planning and developing the school
curriculum in line with the principles of Curriculum for Excellence.
Strong leadership and direction provided by the headteacher.
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
At all stages, most young people are well motivated to learn and
achieve. Almost all say they enjoy learning at school and most feel the
school is helping them to become more confident. Most young people
develop a sound understanding of their strengths and what they need
to do to improve. Increasingly, young people are learning with and
from each other through working in pairs and groups. They enjoy the
range of ways in which they can take greater responsibility for their
own learning. They take seriously the opportunities to express their
views about aspects of their learning through numerous questionnaires
and focus groups. Teachers are beginning to involve young people in
planning aspects of their own learning. Teachers should continue to
share good practice in order to ensure consistent high quality learning
experiences for all.
Most young people develop confidence and independence by taking
part in a very wide range of learning experiences and activities outwith
the classroom. They compete successfully in team sports such as
football, rugby and netball. Large numbers of young people play in
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bands, ensembles and choirs. Young people have many opportunities
to develop and demonstrate leadership qualities. These include a
range of educational visits and residential trips, such as an extended
experience for S1 pupils at the Locheil Outward Bound Centre. Many
young people make positive contributions to the school through
fundraising committees, Prom and Yearbook committees and
mentoring activities. A well-established programme enables large
numbers of young people to achieve Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards.
The school is developing approaches to monitoring and tracking young
people’s achievements.
At S1/S2, there have been recent improvements in performance. Most
young people are achieving appropriate national levels of attainment in
reading, writing and mathematics. Young people are making good
progress in most of their subjects. At S3/S4, at Standard Grade or
equivalent, the school’s performance has been below or well below the
national average. The school performs less well than schools serving
young people with similar needs and backgrounds. However, there
have been improvements in some measures over the last two years.
At Credit level or equivalent, the school performs in line with or above
the national average. At S5/S6, at Higher and Advanced Higher, the
school performs above or well above the national average, and better
than similar schools. The school is developing more focused
approaches to tackling underperformance in national examinations,
particularly at S3/S4.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school has a clear rationale for its curriculum, based on
developing the capacities of all young people. Senior staff place
strong emphasis on actively involving young people in their learning.
Literacy and numeracy skills, and aspects of health and wellbeing, are
being developed well across the curriculum. A sound strategy for
developing the curriculum takes account of the principles of Curriculum
for Excellence. It includes well-considered approaches which help
young people to apply their skills in a range of contexts. At S1, most
new courses introduced this session are very effective at engaging
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learners. From S3 to S6, young people can choose from a broad
range of courses. The school has plans to improve the programme for
personal and social education which is not progressive and is not
valued by young people. The school is not yet providing two hours per
week of quality physical education at S5/S6. There is no continuing
element of religious and moral education at S5/S6. At all stages,
young people have a very good range of opportunities to learn outwith
the classroom. Steps have been taken to work more closely with the
associated primary schools to make learning more continuous and
progressive.
In most classes, tasks, activities and resources are relevant and
appropriate to the needs of individual learners and groups with
differing abilities. In a few lessons, activities could be more
challenging and the pace of learning could be better. Support for
learning staff identify young people with specific needs and share
appropriate information with staff. This includes very good information
on supporting young people with dyslexia and autism spectrum
disorder. Support for learning staff and a specialist teacher work well
to meet the support needs of young people with English as an
additional language. Subject staff and support for learning staff need
to work together more closely to develop a shared understanding of
young peoples’ learning and progress. Pupil support assistants give
well-judged support across a wide range of subjects. Pastoral care
staff work very well with young people in ensuring they are making
good progress in their class work. They use a good range of
interventions to support young people who are experiencing difficulties
or are underachieving.
4. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
The school has strong and effective partnerships with parents and
members of the wider community. The Parent Council is very
supportive of the work of the school. Parents support school events
and contribute strongly to fundraising activities. The school has
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communicated effectively to parents the developments in the
curriculum. Staff consult parents about sensitive aspects of health
education. Reports to parents provide helpful information about their
children’s progress. The school addresses any complaints and
concerns appropriately and tackles bullying and racist incidents
sensitively. The school engages with a very wide range of partners to
enhance learning opportunities for young people. These include
health professionals, health improvement officer, active school
coordinator and youth workers.
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
Young people develop important skills in citizenship through raising
funds for charities, organising events and buddying younger pupils.
They readily share their views on school improvement. Teaching staff
value opportunities to take the lead in developments to improve the
quality of learning. All teachers are involved in working groups and
staff commitment to self-evaluation is very positive. The school’s
quality assurance procedures are planned within an annual calendar,
and include an appropriate range of activities. Recent improvements
have been made to the rigour of the procedures for the analysis of
attainment data. Discussions are more focused on outcomes and
aspects for direct action to ensure improvements in performance.
Senior managers conduct regular observations of classroom practice
and provide feedback to staff. The outcomes of these observations
are used to identify and share good practice. There is scope for this to
be developed and improved further. Staff should continue to develop
ways of taking account of, and acting on, the views of young people.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
Relationships between staff and young people are very positive.
Young people are proud of their school and feel a sense of belonging.
Staff generally have high expectations of young people’s behaviour
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and achievements. There is scope for staff to set higher expectations
for developing positive attitudes and raising attainment, particularly at
S3/S4. The school is raising its expectations of young people for
attendance and arriving at school on time. Young people’s successes
within and outwith the school are celebrated widely, for example
through awards ceremonies, assemblies, displays around the school
and in the local press. The school has good safeguarding procedures
for the care and welfare of young people, including child protection,
anti-bullying and safe use of the internet. Almost all young people feel
safe and cared for, and are treated fairly and with respect. The
school’s arrangements for religious observation are appropriate. The
chaplain provides very good support to the school. Young people lead
very good assemblies which cover a wide range of topical issues.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The recently-appointed headteacher has quickly gained an accurate
understanding of the school’s strengths and areas for improvement.
She is highly committed to the school and has a clear vision for
improving the experiences and achievements of all young people.
Senior managers know staff and pupils very well and work well
together to support the headteacher. There are particular strengths in
the leadership and management of curriculum development and pupil
support. The headteacher needs to review the remits of the senior
leadership team to ensure the most effective deployment of key staff.
Principal teachers lead their departments effectively and almost all are
highly committed to improvement. The school is promoting leadership
of staff across the school through involvement in working groups to
take forward key aspects for improvement.
8. What happens next?
As a result of the good quality of education provided by the school, we
will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The
education authority will inform parents about the school’s progress as
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part of the authority’s arrangements for reporting to parents on the
quality of its schools.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
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Teachers should set higher expectations for developing positive
attitudes and improving consistency in the quality of learners’
experiences.
Raise attainment, particularly at S3/S4.
Subject teachers should work more closely with pupil support staff
to meet the needs of all learners.
Quality indicators help schools, education authorities and inspectors to
judge what is good and what needs to be improved in the work of the
school. You can find these quality indicators in the HMIE publication
How good is our school?. Following the inspection of each school, the
Scottish Government gathers evaluations of three important quality
indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish schools are doing.
Here are the evaluations for Hyndland Secondary School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jim Bruce
26 April 2011
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good
good
When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our
readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.
excellent
very good
good
means
means
means
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
means
means
means
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas
for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a
different format, for example, in a translation, or if you wish to
comment about any aspect of our inspections. You can contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business
Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. This is a service
for deaf users. Please do not use this number for voice calls as the
line will not connect you to a member of staff.
You can find our complaints procedure on our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education