21 January 2014
Dear Parent/Carer
Marr College
South Ayrshire Council
Recently, as you may know, my colleagues and I inspected your child’s school. During
our visit, we talked to parents and young people and worked closely with the
headteacher and staff. We wanted to find out how well young people are learning and
achieving and how well the school supports young people to do their best. The
headteacher shared with us the school’s successes and priorities for improvement.
We looked at some particular aspects of the school’s recent work, including how well
the school is building its capacity to make improvements. As a result, we were able to
find out how good the school is at improving young people’s education.
How well do young people learn and achieve?
Most young people enjoy learning at school and feel that they are getting along well
with their school work. In most lessons, young people are motivated, behave well and
respond positively to the tasks they are given. When given the opportunity, young
people work well together and enjoy being actively involved in their own learning.
Increasingly, young people’s views are being gathered through surveys and focus
groups. Many young people would like to have more of a say in making improvements
to the school and in the ways in which they learn. Overall, young people’s learning
experiences are not of a consistently high enough quality. Young people do not
always understand what they need to do to improve.
Young people achieve well through taking part in various activities, including
out-of-hours clubs. The School of Rugby initiative, run in association with Marr Rugby
Club, has successfully encouraged over 60 young people at S1/S2 to develop skills in
the sport. Across the school, young people respond well to opportunities to develop
enterprise skills. From S3-S6, increasing numbers of young people achieve success
in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. At S6, school and house captains are developing
strong leadership skills and act as very positive role models. A large number of young
people at S5/S6 are developing citizenship skills by supporting younger pupils as
buddies and class helpers. Several young people have achieved notable successes in
various sports at national and international levels. Across the stages, a high number
of young people develop performance skills in music by participating in the choirs,
orchestras and other ensembles.
At S1-S3, most young people are making suitable progress in their subjects. At S4,
young people’s attainment is, overall, above the national average and in line with
Education Scotland
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Transforming lives through learning
schools which serve young people with similar needs and backgrounds. At S6, a
sizeable number of young people achieve success in a wide range of Open University
courses. At S5/S6, attainment is notably above national averages and better than in
schools serving young people with similar needs and backgrounds. Over recent years,
high numbers of young people have successfully moved on to Higher Education.
How well does the school support young people to develop and learn?
Across the school, most teachers plan their lessons well and provide young people
with a varied range of tasks and activities. In the majority of lessons we observed,
tasks were well-matched to meet the needs of most learners. Some lessons, however,
were too teacher-led and did not always provide sufficient challenge for
higher-achieving pupils. There are appropriate arrangements in place for identifying
young people who need additional support. Staff are developing the use of available
data to help support children in their learning as they move from P7 into S1 and
beyond. A range of partners, including the campus police officer, help to provide
young people and their families with strong support. Most young people feel safe and
well cared for. A sizeable minority, however, feel that they are not always listened to
or treated respectfully by others. We have asked the school to develop its approaches
to providing all young people with effective support in line with national advice.
From S1 to S3, staff provide young people with a broad range of subjects and
opportunities in line with Curriculum for Excellence. At S3, a ‘skills option’ offers young
people choice and provides opportunities for them to broaden their learning
experiences, for example, in art and design or through participation in the Duke of
Edinburgh’s Award. Staff should develop further their approaches for encouraging
young people to link their learning across different areas of the curriculum. Across the
school, approaches for developing young people’s skills in literacy and numeracy are
not yet consistently well developed. Staff are making positive progress in designing
courses at S4 to deliver National Qualifications. They should continue to develop the
curriculum at S3 to ensure that it helps learners to move confidently into S4. The
South Ayrshire consortium arrangement helps the school to provide a wide range of
courses at Advanced Higher for young people at S6. Staff should now involve
partners more fully in developing and planning improvements to the curriculum.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The school has developed some important approaches for evaluating the quality of its
work. There are now well-established arrangements for promoted staff to monitor
young people’s learning experiences. Staff are given helpful advice for improving the
quality of learning experiences which they provide and approaches for sharing good
practice are being developed. All staff are now involved in annual analyses of young
people’s performance in national examinations. Some of these approaches are
beginning to lead to improvements and senior staff have correctly identified where
further improvements are necessary. Many staff and young people are confident that
the school is improving. Parents have had opportunities to give their views but are not
always confident that their views have been properly taken into account. There is
scope for improving how the school communicates and works in partnership with
parents.
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This inspection found the following key strengths.
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Young people’s positive attitude to learning.
The effectiveness of many staff in enabling young people to achieve in a range of
subjects and activities.
The attainment of young people at S5/S6.
The headteacher’s commitment to improving the school.
We discussed with staff and South Ayrshire Council how they might continue to
improve the school. This is what we agreed with them.
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Develop a more positive ethos across the school.
Improve the consistency of young people’s learning experiences.
Improve arrangements for providing all young people with their entitlement for
appropriate support.
Develop stronger partnerships with parents and the local community.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that most of the
school’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. Our Area Lead
Officer will work with South Ayrshire Council to build capacity for improvement and will
maintain contact to monitor progress. Parents will be informed of the extent to which
the school has improved.
Alistair Brown
HM Inspector
Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations, for
your school can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/primsec/Marr
CollegeSouthAyrshire.asp
If you would like to receive this letter in a different format, for example, in a translation
please contact the administration team on the above telephone number.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact us
by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail: complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
or write to us addressing your letter to the Complaints Manager, Denholm House,
Almondvale Business Park, Livingston EH54 6GA.
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