Mackie Academy
Stonehaven
Aberdeenshire Council
16 March 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
Mackie Academy is a non-denominational school which serves the
town of Stonehaven and surrounding areas. The roll was 1089 when
the inspection was carried out in January 2010. Young people’s
attendance was in line with the national average in 2007/2008.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
High levels of performance in national examinations.
•
The positive role of partners in supporting learning.
•
The commitment of staff and their willingness to provide
opportunities for wider achievement.
•
The vision for the school set by the headteacher.
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Most young people are keen to learn and are often enthusiastic
about completing tasks. In the majority of lessons, young people
have the opportunity to think for themselves, but need further
opportunities to become more involved in their learning by working
in groups and leading discussions. In a number of subjects, young
people use information and communications technology well.
Where teachers have begun to share clearly with them how to
improve, young people are making better progress. Almost half of
young people would like to have a greater say in the way they learn.
The school has begun to take steps to explore young people’s
views about their learning. A majority of young people feel they
enjoy learning at school. Generally, young people feel safe and
cared for. They are confident that incidents of bullying are dealt
with effectively and promptly.
Young people achieve well in a range of sporting, academic and
cultural activities. Many develop performance skills through
participating in various music groups and choirs. A few are
successful in organising and competing in the Rock Challenge. The
organisation of this event develops confidence and leadership skills.
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Team work is promoted through many clubs, particularly the
badminton, netball and rugby teams. A few young people develop
enterprising attitudes through the Young Enterprise programme. A
range of residential opportunities in places such as Iceland help
young people to develop their personal and social skills. Young
people develop good citizenship skills and responsible attitudes by
participating in fundraising events such as the whole-school
sponsored walk. They volunteer to help elderly people in the local
community. Through the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative a number
of young people researched and supported a charity in the
community. Staff recognise the need to make better use of external
awards to capture young people’s achievements fully.
The school has maintained high levels of attainment. By the end of
S2, most young people reach appropriate national levels in reading,
writing and mathematics. Many exceed these levels. The school
does not have sufficient information on how well young people
progress in other subjects. It is developing systems to address this.
In recent years the success of young people in S4, S5 and S6 in
national examinations has generally been well above national
averages. It is also well above other schools which serve young
people with similar needs and backgrounds. Young people with
additional support needs make good progress from their prior levels
of attainment. Almost all young people leave school for university,
college, employment or training.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff provide good opportunities and courses which meet the needs
of most young people well. They provide an impressive number of
activities to help young people achieve in a range of ways. The
school has produced clear plans for taking forward Curriculum for
Excellence. Working groups are beginning to raise staff awareness
of their responsibility for teaching literacy and numeracy across the
curriculum. The school is aware that it should develop health and
wellbeing in a similar way. Through the introduction of innovative
Learning Teams the school is starting to ensure young people make
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good progress as they move from primary into secondary education.
Overall, there is appropriate progression for most young people and
high achieving young people are well served. Commendably, the
school has introduced the Baccalaureate in modern languages.
The school needs to provide more opportunities for all young people
to gain valuable skills for work. Young people who are at risk of
missing out of education have their individual needs met well
through appropriately planned courses and activities. All young
people in S1 to S4 have two hours of quality physical education.
The school is on target to achieve this for all next session.
Staff know young people well and most provide them with tasks well
matched to their learning needs. However, at times learners require
more challenging work. Planning between support staff and class
teachers is good in many classes but is not consistent across the
school. Staff are provided with very useful and easily accessible
information to help them meet the needs of young people in their
classes. Communication with parents about classroom activities
would help them support learning at home more effectively. Young
people requiring additional support are identified at an early stage
when moving from primary school to S1. This support continues
through regular meetings between guidance staff and senior
managers. Very good partnership working with outside agencies
helps young people with additional needs to achieve as well as they
can. Support staff and community learning partners provide high
quality learning experiences for small groups of young people.
Guidance staff know their pupils well. Young people are very
positive about the pastoral care and support they receive. They
also recognise that topics in the personal and social education
programme are relevant to them and that they get a say in shaping
the programme.
4. How well do staff work with others to support young
people’s learning?
A good range of external partners very actively contribute to young
people’s learning. The Community Schools Network offers an
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effective structure for developing partnership working. Partners are
engaged in joint planning and evaluation. A strong partnership with
a local business helps young people develop their understanding of
business. Projects such as the Comet van and Momentum car
driving are very well supported by local community learning and
development staff. The school chaplains are very effective,
contributing well to young people’s learning around sensitive issues
such as bereavement. The Parent Council is a full partner with the
school and works well to link with parents.
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
Staff are increasingly engaged in improving many aspects of the
school. They serve on working groups, taking forward key
developments. The Teacher Learning Communities share good
practice by giving twilight in-service to colleagues. This has been
well received and school lesson observations have highlighted an
improvement in practice. Young people are increasingly involved in
improving their school. They have had opportunities to complete
questionnaires, discuss teaching and learning with the headteacher
and present their ideas for improvement to senior leaders and
young people. These ideas have influenced the school’s
development planning. The pupil council is developing its role and
council members have begun to take on more responsibility. This
process should be continued. Greater opportunities should be
available for young people to contribute to the health improvement
work of the school.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all young
people?
The school uses assemblies and achievement ceremonies well to
increase most young people’s expectations of what they can
achieve. In classrooms, most staff have high expectations of young
people’s attitude and effort. A few should have higher expectations
of what young people can achieve. Around the school, general
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expectations of behaviour and mutual respect are not consistently
high. The school should do more to encourage young people to
have respect for their environment, their peers and members of
staff. Equality and diversity are discussed in a number of subject
areas and the school is looking at how they can be promoted more
effectively. There are suitable opportunities for religious reflection.
The school deals effectively with the few complaints it receives.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher provides very effective leadership for the school.
He has a clear vision for improving learning and teaching and is
working well with colleagues to continue to spread the vision across
the school. The depute headteachers make effective contributions
in their areas of responsibility and are working to extend leadership
to all levels. Teachers are beginning to understand their role as
leaders. Greater opportunities should be provided for all staff to
take on leadership roles. Young people have a number of
opportunities to lead, for example as prefects and house captains.
Opportunities for leadership should be extended to include young
people from across the school. Overall, the school has a clear
understanding of what it does well and what it needs to improve. It
has the capacity to continue to improve.
8. What happens next?
The inspection team was able to rely on the school’s robust
self-evaluation. As a result, it was able to change its focus during
the inspection to support further improvements within the school.
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.
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We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the
school and education authority.
•
Raise expectations to establish an ethos of achievement and
respect for others.
•
Continue to develop and share good practice in learning and
teaching and leadership.
•
Ensure the curriculum meets the needs of all 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 Mackie Academy.
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: David Gregory
16 March 2010
7
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 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education