Barrhead High School
East Renfrewshire Council
9 December 2008
This report tells you about the quality of education at the school.
We describe how young people benefit from learning there. We
explain how well they are doing and how good the school is at
helping them to learn. Then we look at the ways in which the
school does this. We describe how well the school works with
other groups in the community, including parents1 and services
which support young people. We also comment on how well staff
and young people work together and how they go about
improving the school.
Our report describes the ‘ethos’ of the school. By ‘ethos’ we
mean the relationships in the school, how well young people are
cared for and treated and how much is expected of them in all
aspects of school life. Finally, we comment on the school’s aims.
In particular, we focus on how well the aims help staff to deliver
high quality learning, and the impact of leadership on the school’s
success in achieving these 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 and details about young people’s
examination performance. Where applicable, you will also be
able to find descriptions of good practice in the school and 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. Examples of good practice
4. How well do young people learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
6. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving their
school community?
7. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?
1. The school
Barrhead High School is a non-denominational school which serves
Barrhead and surrounding areas. The inspection was carried out in
October 2008 at which time the roll was 700. Young people’s
attendance was in line with the national average in 2006/07.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
The high proportion of young people who have left school to go to
university, college, training and work.
The broad curriculum which provides many opportunities for young
people to achieve.
The strength of partnership working with a range of external agencies
which has resulted in very effective support for young people and their
families.
The support provided by the school for young people with additional
support needs.
The high quality relationships between staff and young people.
3. Examples of good practice
The creation of the post of social justice and community manager
which has resulted in the development of more learning opportunities
for young people in school and the local community.
The support provided by the school for young people with dyslexia.
The Connect2learn initiative.
4. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Most young people enjoy learning. They work well in class and follow
teachers’ instructions. They feel safe, secure and well cared for. The
activities and learning approaches provided by almost all teachers in
lessons help to develop self-confidence and responsible attitudes.
Young people work well with each other in group activities which are
well organised by teachers. The relationships between staff and
2
young people are very positive. Young people show respect, equality
and fairness for each other and staff. They improve their knowledge
and skills very effectively when teachers provide them with detailed
feedback on how to improve their learning. Some teachers need to
provide more of this kind of helpful feedback.
The school’s many clubs, excursions and other out of class activities
are helping to improve young people’s personal and social skills.
These activities are developing their self-confidence and responsible
attitudes. Young people take part in a wide range of events in school
and the wider community. These include a Fairtrade initiative, the
school show, a gala day and a ‘dragons den’ workshop. A number of
young people have been making a valuable contribution to the school
through helping others. For example, some have been acting as
‘buddies’ for new entrants to S1 or as an ‘older brother’ or ‘older sister’
for a young person with additional support needs. Some activities
have been very effective in developing the leadership skills of young
people. Those who have been successful in sports such as basketball
and football have gained a great sense of achievement.
Young people are achieving well in English and mathematics. In
S1/S2 they are steadily improving their skills in mathematics. In
English, recent results show improvements in reading and writing at
this stage. Overall, the school performs very well at both S3/S4 and
S5/S6 in comparison to schools which serve young people with similar
needs and backgrounds. It has been very successful in helping young
people to go to university, college, training and employment.
However, in the sciences examination results and young people’s
prospects have not been as good as in other subjects. Young people
with additional support needs are doing well. A number with dyslexia
and autism spectrum disorders thrive on the support and opportunities
staff have been giving them.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school has a very good range of courses and activities for young
people. These provide them with choices and are very effective at
3
meeting young people’s learning needs, especially in S5/S6. Young
people can achieve at high levels in most subjects. They can also
develop further their learning and interpersonal skills. The school
works effectively with community services and local colleges to
increase learning opportunities for young people. Whole school
projects such as ‘Challenge Days’ are developing teamworking skills
and awareness of issues such as global warming. Some departments
are building well on young people’s learning in primary school but this
is not consistent across the school. Staff work well with colleges and
local businesses to provide vocational education and work experience.
The school has a number of successful strategies for meeting young
people’s learning needs. It provides courses at each stage at different
levels and helps young people to make good subject choices.
Learning support staff provide a very good service for those with
additional support needs. They identify accurately young people’s
learning needs, provide effective individual and group teaching and
help all teachers to meet these needs in lessons. In addition, pastoral
care staff and classroom assistants provide very effective support for
those young people who have been experiencing emotional and
behavioural difficulties. Throughout the school, teachers know young
people very well. In a number of departments teachers organise
lessons very effectively to take account of individual learning needs.
The school is aware that this good practice should be spread to all
departments.
5. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
Staff work very well with parents, primary school staff and a range of
agencies to help young people to learn. The recently formed parent
council is keen to support the school. Guidance staff and learning
support specialists have very good links with parents. The school’s
arrangements for young people to transfer from primary school and
Carlibar Communication Centre work very well. All young people get
to know the headteacher, other senior managers, guidance and
learning support staff, and some subject teachers while they are in
4
primary school. This helps them settle into the high school. The close
working arrangements also help teachers to identify young people’s
learning needs. The campus police officer, social justice and
community manager, school social worker, youth counsellor and
community and youth workers work well together and have formed
very positive and supportive relationships with young people. The
work of this team and other professionals is focused very well through
the Joint Support Team to help young people with difficulties.
6. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
Staff and young people are committed to improving the school and
they take part in many activities to bring about improvement. The
school regularly asks young people, parents and staff for their views
on various issues. This consultation with young people through the
Pupil Council has resulted in improvements to out-of-class activities.
Young people are also asked how learning can be improved. Many
staff are improving the opportunities for young people to develop as
individuals by giving up their time to provide extra activities at lunch
time and after school. Staff and young people are improving the
school environment by, for example, developing a garden and
designing and making banners for the theatre. The headteacher
discusses examination performance with departments. Senior
managers and principal teachers observe lessons and discuss
learning and teaching with teachers. As a result of these activities, the
school knows itself well and it has met with some success in bringing
about improvements. Some principal teachers have been very
successful in bringing about improvements to their departments by
sharing good practice. The school now needs to build on what it does
well already by developing sharper action plans to bring about
improvement to learners’ experiences and achievement across the
school.
7. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
The headteacher and most staff are ambitious and have high
5
expectations of young people. All staff care about the welfare of
young people and take appropriate steps to safeguard them.
Guidance staff keep track of young people’s progress and are quick to
act upon changes in attendance, attainment or behaviour. The school
takes steps to promote healthy living. Lessons in personal and social
education provide young people with good information to help them to
make safe and healthy life choices. Senior managers should improve
relationships between young people and canteen staff to help to
increase the use of the canteen and uptake of healthy school meals.
Young people generally behave well in class, corridors and public
spaces. A minority misbehave in some classes. Most teachers expect
high standards of work although some are lax about neatness and
standards of presentation of work. High achievement in school and
success in various sports and other activities are frequently celebrated
in school bulletins, awards to young people and in the annual award
ceremonies. The school promotes equality and fairness through a
range of courses and separate events. The chaplains provide regular
religious services. Senior managers use these occasions to help
young people to think about values and other important issues.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has a clear vision for the school and the community it
serves. This vision guided the school’s successful involvement in the
‘School of Ambition’ initiative. This three year project focused upon
improving the self-confidence and resilience of young people and has
taken good account of the ideas in ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ to
develop the skills of young people. Some school leaders are
successfully building on this and other national initiatives such as
‘Assessment is for learning’ to improve the learning experiences and
achievements of young people. Most staff share the vision of the
headteacher and have taken some steps to improve the way they
teach. However, this has yet to be consistently implemented across
the school. The headteacher should take steps to ensure that her
vision is realised more uniformly throughout the school and that staff
share their good practice.
6
9. What happens next?
We are confident that the school will be able to make the necessary
improvements in light of the inspection findings. As a result, we will
make no more visits in connection with this inspection. The school
and the education authority will inform parents about the school’s
progress in improving the quality of education. We have agreed the
following areas for improvement with the school and education
authority.
•
Increase the consistency and quality of young people’s learning
experiences in lessons.
•
Improve self-evaluation by focusing more on the actions which are
required to bring about improvement.
•
Improve the effectiveness of leadership at all levels to help the
school to achieve its aims for young people.
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 Barrhead High 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
very good
Improvement through self-evaluation
good
Managing Inspector: Terry Carr
9 December 2008
7
To find out more about inspections or get an electronic copy of this
report go to www.hmie.gov.uk. Please contact the Business
Management and Communications Team (BMCT) if you wish to
enquire about our arrangements for translated or other appropriate
versions.
If you wish to comment about any of our inspections, contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you should write in
the first instance to BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm
House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA.
Our complaints procedure is available from our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can write to our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our
complaints procedure, you can raise your complaint with the Scottish
Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent
and has powers to investigate complaints about Government
departments and agencies. You should write to SPSO, Freepost
EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also telephone 0800 377 7330,
fax 0800 377 7331 or e-mail: ask@spso.org.uk. More information
about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website
at www.spso.org.uk.
This report uses the following word scale to make clear judgements
made by inspectors.
excellent
very good
good
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas for
improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
Crown Copyright 2008
HM Inspectorate of Education.