22 January 2013
Dear Parent/Carer
Abercorn Secondary School
Glasgow City 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 literacy
and numeracy, the school’s broad education courses and programmes, and
partnership working. 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?
Young people learn and achieve very well. They are very keen learners who
contribute well to the life of the school. They listen attentively and are well mannered
and keen to participate in all aspects of learning. This is leading to improved
achievements and attainment for most. They feel safe, well cared for and respected
and speak very positively about the very wide range of support they receive from
staff, including support beyond school hours. Across the school, young people are
challenged to develop independent learning skills as well as to work successfully in
pairs and teams. For example, a mixed-age group in music work well together to
produce concert pieces for a variety of performances in and out of school. In almost
all classes, young people are increasingly involved in setting targets, demonstrating
their progress and planning next steps in their learning. They benefit from applying
their learning in a very broad range of settings both in school and in the community.
Young people enjoy a wide range of residential experiences at home and abroad as
well as numerous educational day trips. These experiences increase their
awareness of other cultures and promote individual achievement, confidence and
independence. Health and wellbeing are embedded in all aspects of school life. As
a result of their many and varied experiences, young people recognise how these
contribute to their growing confidence, their understanding of what makes for a
healthy lifestyle and how they are learning to be more independent.
Young people are gaining confidence and skills for life through an extensive range of
achievements. Across the school, they are applying and deepening their literacy and
numeracy skills very well. Teachers and pupil support assistants provide one-to-one
support for those requiring help with reading. Young people are developing their
Education Scotland
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0141 242 5757
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www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Transforming lives through learning
performance skills by participating in local and national festivals, and their art work
has been recognised widely. Young people gain personal and citizenship skills
through their roles in leading charity work, as members of the Eco-Schools Scotland
group, by taking part in equality and diversity activities and as pupil council
members. They also take part and are successful in a wide range of sporting
activities with a few representing their country at the World Special Olympics in
Athens. They achieve in a broad range of national qualifications at a range of levels.
In addition, an increasing number of young people are achieving success through a
wide range of award schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. When they
leave school, almost all young people enter further education, employment or
training.
How well does the school support young people to develop and learn?
Across the school, young people enjoy very positive relationships with staff that are
helping them to become confident and highly motivated to learn. Their learning
needs are identified effectively by a well-planned admissions process.
Post-placement reviews identify and address any difficulties at an early stage. Staff
make effective use of individual pupil summary profiles outlining barriers to learning
and suggested approaches to dealing with these difficulties. There are regular
opportunities for young people and their parents/carers to review and refresh their
targets and to take account of changing circumstances. Most staff plan learning
using Curriculum for Excellence guidance and are taking very good account of
learners’ needs through a range of engaging tasks and activities. Teachers are
constantly developing their courses and programmes to try to meet the needs and
interests of the young people. However, staff need to ensure that they help young
people to see the links across learning. Pupil support assistants successfully help to
address individual needs, including keeping young people safe. Staff work
proactively with partners, including those from health, further education and local
businesses, to support young people both in and out of school. There is scope to
develop these partnerships further to enhance the school’s approach to supporting
individual needs.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The recently-appointed headteacher has made a very positive start in leading the
school. She has gained the support of staff and parents. She will benefit from the
continued support of the education authority in taking forward improvements in the
work of the school. All staff are committed to improving their practice and to
supporting the headteacher to improve achievement, learning and teaching. The
school gathers a range of evidence about the quality of its work, including asking
parents and pupils for their views. It now needs to continue to develop ways of using
this evidence to make improvements in learning and teaching, and to monitor their
impact. There is scope for the professional learning undertaken by staff to be more
closely linked to the school’s agreed priorities for improvement.
This inspection of your school found the following key strengths.

Happy, confident young people who are enthusiastic about their learning and
benefit from the strong relationships with staff and each other.
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Dedication of staff to meeting the social and emotional needs of young people.
Wide range of opportunities for young people to develop confidence, citizenship
skills and resilience.
Flexibility of the school’s approach to developing the curriculum to meet the
needs of all learners.
Young people’s levels of achievement and attainment which have a positive
impact on their life chances.
We discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to
improve the school. This is what we agreed with them.
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Continue to develop the curriculum to help young people see the links across
learning.
Continue to refine how the school evaluates its work with a greater focus on
learning and teaching.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that the
school’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a result, we will
make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The local 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.
John 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/Ab
ercornSchoolGlasgowCity.asp
If you would like to receive this report 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 6AG.
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