18 December 2012
Dear Parent/Carer
Dalbeattie High School
Dumfries and Galloway 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 the S1
activities programme and arrangements for helping young people to make a
confident start at S1. We also looked at how well young people are taking
responsibility for their own learning. 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 learn well and achieve successfully in a wide range of activities.
Across the school, relationships between staff and young people, and between
young people themselves, are very positive. Almost all young people behave
responsibly and are keen to learn. They feel safe and well cared for and are
confident that they will get help when it is needed. Most young people feel they are
treated fairly. A few, particularly at the senior stages, feel that the merit system
could be improved. Young people work well together when they have the
opportunity. A sizeable minority of lessons are too teacher-led and, as a result,
young people are sometimes too passive in their learning. In most classes, young
people are becoming skilful in evaluating how well they have learnt.
Recently-introduced learning logs help young people to reflect on their learning and
are becoming more consistently well used across the school.
Young people are developing new skills through taking part in a broad range of
activities. Almost all young people have achieved a Heartstart award as part of their
personal and social education. Young people, particularly at S5 and S6, gain
national awards for some of their achievements. For example, many young people
at S6 have achieved Safe Road User awards. A few develop important new skills for
life and work through The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Staff are taking steps to
improve the opportunities for young people across the school to show leadership and
to have their achievements accredited more formally. By the end of S4, young
people’s attainment is, overall, in line with both national averages and schools which
serve pupils with similar needs and backgrounds. At S5/S6, young people’s
Education Scotland
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Transforming lives through learning
attainment is above national averages and much better than in schools serving those
with similar needs and backgrounds. There has been a steady improvement in the
number of young people achieving Advanced Higher awards at S6. Most young
people move on to positive destinations when they leave school.
How well does the school support young people to develop and learn?
The school meets the needs of its young people very well. Arrangements for
meeting the needs of young people who require additional support are particularly
strong. Across the school, staff are caring and provide young people with very
strong support for their learning. Staff know young people very well and provide a
wide range of suitable tasks and learning activities. In most lessons, young people
learn at a suitable, brisk pace. Young people benefit from very good opportunities to
receive extra help in their learning. Support staff, including support for learning
assistants, provide young people with very strong support. They work very well with
a wide range of partners, including the home link worker, to identify and meet young
people’s support needs. The school’s strong ethos of inclusion results in young
people with a wide range of learning difficulties being happy, respected and able to
play a full role in the school.
Overall, the curriculum provides most young people from S1 to S3 with a broad
range of experiences. Increasingly, staff are working well with colleagues in
associated primary schools to enable young people at S1 to build successfully on
their earlier learning. An activities programme at S1 and a wide range of interesting
interdisciplinary activities at S1/S2 help young people to link different aspects of their
learning. Staff make good use of the local environment and community in providing
young people with varied learning activities. Staff now need to ensure that all young
people at S1 to S3 receive a suitably broad education with appropriate progression
routes from one year to the next. At S4 to S6, staff provide young people with a
commendable range of courses which meet young people’s needs very well. Young
people have good opportunities to develop skills for life and work. Staff have
developed strong links with a wide range of partners who contribute positively to the
curriculum. Promising links with a neighbouring secondary school help to broaden
young people’s learning opportunities.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The school’s approaches to self-evaluation and planning improvements are strong
and are helping to improve the quality of its work. Almost all staff are reflective and
work hard to improve the school. They share good practice readily and contribute
very well to developing each other’s professional skills. A calendar of self-evaluation
activities has been drawn up and staff engage in a wide range of appropriate
activities throughout the year. This has led to important improvements in young
people’s learning experiences. Careful analyses of examination results, which
involve almost all staff, have led to some improvements in performance. Classroom
observations by promoted staff provide teachers with some helpful suggestions for
improvements and should now be developed further. The headteacher provides
very strong leadership and has shared her vision for improvement very well. She is
very highly respected by parents, staff and young people. Under her leadership, the
school has already improved and has a very strong capacity for further improvement.
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This inspection of your school found the following key strengths.
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Young people’s positive relationships with staff and each other.
The commitment of staff to providing a wide range of learning opportunities for
young people.
The contribution made by a wide range of partners to young people’s learning
experiences.
The inclusive ethos and quality of support for young people.
The quality of the headteacher’s leadership for improvement.
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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Provide more consistent approaches for young people to become independent
and confident learners.
Continue to develop the curriculum to ensure it meets all young people’s needs
and entitlements.
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.
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/Da
lbeattieHighSchoolDumfriesandGalloway.asp.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for
example, in a translation. You can contact us
at enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT, Education
Scotland, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
01506 600200, or write to us at the above address or e-mail:
feedback@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk.
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