Turnbull High School
Bishopbriggs
East Dunbartonshire
Council
21 September 2010
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.
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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
Turnbull High School is a denominational school serving Bishopbriggs,
Torrance, Lennoxtown, Bearsden and Milngavie. The roll was 655
when the inspection was carried out in June 2010. Young people’s
attendance was above the national average in 2008/2009.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
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Confident, motivated and responsible young people who are proud
of their school and committed to contributing to their wider
community.
Young people’s achievements, including attainment in national
examinations.
Well-planned projects which support young people’s learning
across subject areas.
The commitment of all staff to improving the curriculum, learning
and teaching, and young people’s achievements.
The school’s strongly positive ethos, including the way in which the
school, as a community of faith engaged in learning, puts its values
into practice.
The strong and highly effective leadership of the headteacher.
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Young people are keen to learn. They work well with teachers and
make enthusiastic contributions in lessons. They respond positively to
opportunities to work together, support each other and give each other
feedback in lessons. In most subjects, they are developing a good
understanding of how well they are doing and what they need to do to
improve. In a few subjects, young people need better feedback from
teachers about their learning. Almost all young people feel they are
safe and well cared for, and that they are treated fairly. They
appreciate the efforts which many staff make to support their progress.
Young people feel they are consulted in a variety of ways and that
their opinions are valued and listened to.
Notably high numbers of young people are developing important skills
and qualities as part of wider achievement in the school. Young
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people are involved in a wide range of citizenship, enterprise and
volunteering activities. For example, through developing the school
grounds and “litter picks” in Bishopbriggs, they have developed
team-working skills and extended their understanding of eco-related
issues in the local community. Young people benefit from involvement
in a wide range of musical, artistic, sporting and cultural activities.
Many have achieved success individually and as part of teams and
groups in a wide range of competitions and events. Young people
involved in the XL programme confidently gave a presentation to
parents about their course and its impact on their personal and social
development. Young people in S5/S6 make a strong contribution to
the very positive school ethos by their involvement as buddies,
mentors, prefects and “volunteer champions”. As a result, younger
pupils are inspired to raise their own aspirations and goals.
In S1/S2, attainment levels have been consistently high. Most young
people achieve appropriate national levels in reading, writing and
mathematics. A significant number exceed these levels, particularly in
reading and mathematics. The school has successfully developed
systems for tracking and monitoring young people’s progress in their
other subjects. These systems have led to improvements in
attainment. From S3 to S6, over the last five years, attainment has
been strong in relation to national averages and, in particular, in
comparison with schools serving young people with similar needs or
backgrounds. Over the last three years, almost all young people have
moved on to positive destinations. The proportion of young people
moving on to higher education has increased and, by 2008/2009, just
over half of young people did so. Young people with additional
support needs are making appropriate progress.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The curriculum is successful in its aim of providing a high-quality
Catholic education based upon Gospel values, and experiences which
enable young people to achieve their full potential. Very well-planned
interdisciplinary projects leading to awards and qualifications from the
Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN)
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have enhanced the experiences of pupils in S1. Young people in
S3/S4 have benefited from vocational options at local colleges,
complemented by programmes to develop their personal and social
skills. In S5/S6, the wide range of courses available includes 11
subjects at Advanced Higher, and an interesting range of
school-based courses for young people in S6. Committees for
curricular review, literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing have
supported teachers in planning their new Curriculum for Excellence
programmes for pupils in S1. All teachers have been involved in
evaluating the curriculum and planning next steps in implementing
Curriculum for Excellence. Young people at almost all stages have
access to two hours per week of good quality physical education. The
school has worked successfully with its associated primaries to
develop common approaches to learning and teaching, and
programmes in, for example, science and social subjects.
Across the school, almost all teachers plan effectively to provide tasks
to match the learning needs of young people. Young people’s needs
are particularly well met in a number of subject departments where
teachers arrange them carefully in groups to work and learn with each
other. A few lessons are too teacher-led and not stimulating enough
for young people. The school works very effectively with its associated
primary schools to ensure the learning needs of young people entering
S1 are fully met. Teachers and support for learning assistants receive
helpful information and advice about young people’s learning, health
and care needs from pupil support staff. Most staff use this
information effectively to meet the learning needs of all young people.
Teachers recognise that they should involve young people with
additional support needs more in setting their own targets for learning,
and monitor their progress more carefully to ensure they achieve the
best they can.
4. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
Young people benefit from the school’s strong links with local parishes
the diocese and a number of church agencies, supported by the
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chaplaincy committee and the school chaplain. A range of activities
enhance young people’s experiences, for example a programme of
retreats and days of recollection. Young people also benefit from
working with external businesses in a number of subjects, and from
links with local sports organisations which have enhanced the range of
sports activities on offer. Working with universities, colleges, voluntary
organisations and training organisations, the school organised its own
Careers Convention. Young people spoke positively about the
opportunity this provided them to prepare for life and work beyond
school. The Parent Council is strongly supportive of the school. The
school communicates effectively with parents, including through a
well-designed website and detailed reports on young people’s
progress.
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
The school’s approaches to ensuring continuous improvement in the
quality of its work are sector-leading. The headteacher has drawn up
a programme for weekly departmental meetings which has been
particularly successful in ensuring that all teachers regularly discuss
aspects of the curriculum, learning and teaching, leading to
improvement in young people’s experiences and achievements.
Senior managers provide thoughtful articles on aspects of learning and
teaching in a termly bulletin for teachers. Most teachers are involved
in voluntary “twilight” meetings at which good practice is shared across
subject areas. Senior managers visit classrooms across the school to
observe learning and teaching. The headteacher then produces an
overview of the findings of the visits, listing strengths and aspects for
development, which teachers discuss at their weekly meetings. These
approaches have been successful in developing teachers as reflective
practitioners, and motivating them to continue to improve learning and
teaching. The school has conducted a wide range of surveys of the
views of young people and parents, and has taken action to bring
about improvement as a result. For example, arrangements for
parents evenings have recently been reviewed in response to parents’
views.
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6. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
There is a notably strong ethos across the school community which
encourages young people to aspire and achieve highly. Young people
speak very positively about the relationships between staff and pupils,
and the strong moral dimension of the school. They feel that staff
know them well and understand their needs. The school tracks and
monitors young people’s attainment and progress very carefully. This
allows teachers to identify any underperformance promptly and to take
action to address it. The school celebrates success in wider
achievement through awards ceremonies and regular newsletters.
Young people feel that the school values their achievements and
celebrates them well. All staff, including those working in facilities and
catering, have benefited from very high quality child protection training.
The school gives high priority to meeting the needs of potentially
vulnerable young people. Young people have good opportunities to
develop their thinking on equalities issues, for example, through an
imaginative joint project with the Anne Frank Trust (Scotland) and St
Mary’s Kenmure. Pupil evaluations showed that the project had
developed their understanding of human rights issues. The school
successfully promotes young people’s health and wellbeing.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher is a strong and highly effective leader. He has
established and maintained the school’s highly positive ethos. The
staff groups interviewed spoke very positively about his strong focus
on improving learning, teaching and achievement across the school.
The depute headteachers work well together, and support the
headteacher very effectively. All have had a significantly positive
impact in their respective areas of responsibility. Staff and young
people successfully take on a wide range of leadership roles. There is
strong commitment across all members of the school community to the
school’s aims, and to ensuring continuous improvement.
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8. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, we shall make no further visits in connection with this
inspection. The education authority will inform parents about the
school's progress as part of the authority’s arrangements for reporting
to parents on the quality of its schools.
We have agreed the following area for improvement with the school
and education authority.
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Continue work to ensure that teaching and young people’s learning
experiences are of a consistently high quality across the school.
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 Turnbull High School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
excellent
very good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jane B Renton
21 September 2010
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very good
excellent
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 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education