St Mungo’s Academy
Glasgow City Council
30 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.
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. 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
St Mungo’s Academy is a denominational school which serves the
east end of Glasgow. The roll was 720 when the inspection was
carried out in February 2010. Young people’s attendance was in line
with the national average in 2008/2009. Almost a third of young
people attend the school as a result of parental placing requests. The
catchment area served by the school includes some of the most
deprived areas of Scotland.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Ambitious young people who have a very positive attitude to their
learning and achievements.
•
The outstanding quality of relationships across the school. Staff
commitment to young people’s care and welfare, within a very
strong Catholic community of faith.
•
The imaginative ways in which young people and staff promote
health and wellbeing across the school and wider community.
•
The commitment of staff to school improvement and the impact of
the senior leadership team in setting high expectations of success
for all young people and staff.
•
The impact of the school’s partnerships with parents and the wider
community on the quality of young people’s experiences.
•
The outstanding leadership of the headteacher.
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Young people are keen to learn and settle quickly to their classwork.
They listen carefully and answer questions willingly. They work very
well during individual and group activities, in and beyond the
classroom. Young people talk confidently about using their skills
across different areas of their learning. Increasingly, they are
providing each other with helpful comments on coursework and
discussing how to improve. In some lessons, young people take a
leading role, sharing their ideas readily with others and helping to
broaden each other’s thinking. Young people feel that these kinds of
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activities help them to take more responsibility for their own progress.
They would benefit from more opportunities to do so across their
subjects. Young people feel valued, respected and well cared for.
Those at risk of missing out are making very good progress.
Young people are developing their personal and social skills very well.
They take part in a wide variety of activities to broaden their
achievements, in and beyond school. Their enthusiasm for sports,
personal fitness and healthy lifestyles helps the school to be a very
successful health promoting school. In their performances in concerts
and school shows, young people show very effective teamwork,
self-discipline and commitment, and a range of talents. Across the
school, young people are actively involved in making a difference to
their community. They make and sell bird boxes, lead community
workshops, and contribute to local improvements through the allotment
group. The work of young people in the diversity group to support
young carers has won them a nomination for a community champions
award.
At all stages, young people are making good or very good progress
across their subjects. At S1/S2, the majority of young people attain
national standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Their
attainment in reading and writing has improved over the last three
years and they have well-developed skills in listening and talking. At
S4 to S6, the school performs consistently much better than schools
serving young people with similar needs and backgrounds, although it
performs below national averages. Almost all young people go on to
positive destinations when they leave school, with around 60 percent
entering higher and further education.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school provides young people with a very broad range of
experiences to meet their needs and challenge them to achieve their
potential. These include financial education, classical studies, Urdu
and time to develop personal fitness. From S3 onwards, young people
benefit from a growing choice of courses. The school delivers skills for
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work courses very effectively, in partnership with John Wheatley
College. Courses leading to qualifications from Access levels through
to Advanced Higher and the new science Baccalaureate, meet young
people’s needs very well. The school provides the majority of young
people with the recommended amount of physical education each
week. Staff across the school are working effectively and innovatively
to take forward Curriculum for Excellence. For example, they have
developed with colleagues in associated primary schools support for
young people’s writing, numeracy and health and wellbeing skills.
Young people benefit from the school’s very effective links with
universities, colleges and the careers service. These prepare them
very well for the next stage of their education or the world of work.
Teachers know young people very well and plan relevant activities to
meet their needs. A well-planned variety of activities in most lessons
provides young people with different ways to experience success. In a
few lessons, young people have too much support, which limits their
thinking and independence. Well-organised ‘student support files’ help
to identify learning needs and share information with staff on how to
meet these needs. The student support team provides a high quality
of pastoral and learning support and is helping the school achieve its
aim of meeting the needs of all. All young people at S4 to S6 work
with a mentor, to review their work and help them make progress.
Pupil support assistants and staff from partner agencies help young
people with additional needs very well. Individuals and groups of
young people benefit from a very effective range of learning and
behaviour support provided in the ‘learning zone’. Well-considered
targets in individual learning plans are helping young people with
additional support needs to make very good progress.
4. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
The school has developed a wide range of very strong partnerships to
enhance young people’s experiences, particularly with parents. It
consults parents regularly on key issues. The Bring An Adult to
School feature of the P7/S1 transition programme allowed parents to
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learn alongside their children and find out how to help with homework.
The Parent Council provides effective support and parents also
contribute to school improvement groups. The school deals well with
the few parental concerns and complaints it receives. The campus
police officer and active schools coordinator enhance young people’s
experiences very effectively. Very strong links with the Bridgeton
Burns Club and Reidvale Housing Association allow young people to
develop a variety of additional skills and personal qualities. The local
parish contributes extensively to the development of faith within the
school community. Local employers provide work placements and
sponsor events. Young people benefit from attending the education
authority’s learning centre in Celtic Football Club.
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
Young people take part effectively in school improvement through their
membership of the faith and learning group and school committees.
They also contribute very well as class representatives, captains,
vice-captains and prefects. Almost all teachers are improving aspects
of the school through a wide range of working groups and as mentors.
Young people are benefiting from improvements which, for example,
have developed active approaches to learning and promoted and
celebrated positive behaviour. Over time, the school has continued to
improve successfully the way it reviews the quality of its work and the
outcomes for young people. The senior leadership team, subject
leaders and class teachers visit lessons and provide helpful comments
on the quality of learning and teaching. These well-organised
evaluations help departments and the school as a whole to identify key
areas for improvement and to plan carefully. In addition, teachers
analyse young people’s attainment closely to check that learning and
teaching approaches and coursework meet young people’s needs very
well.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
Young people and staff have very high expectations of themselves and
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each other. Young people enjoy ambitious and challenging activities
which call for creative thinking. They feel that staff expect them to
always work at their best. Staff and young people have developed a
high degree of mutual respect, built on strong Catholic values. Young
people benefit from taking part in, and leading regular worship, and
from opportunities for religious reflection. Young people are very
proud of their school and its achievements and behave very well. Staff
are very clear about their responsibilities for child protection and meet
young people’s health, social and emotional needs very well. The
school actively promotes equalities, widely through the curriculum and
in the ways it challenges sectarianism and gender stereotypes.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher provides the school with excellent leadership. He
inspires young people, parents, staff and partners to take the initiative
in activities which make a real difference to the school and its
community. Young people, parents and staff helped to develop the
school’s vision, values and aims, which guide the school’s work very
effectively. The senior leadership team sets appropriately high
expectations for the school’s success in developing well-rounded and
successful young people, ready for the challenges of life beyond
school. Young people’s role is about to develop further, when
representatives from S6 join the learning and teaching improvement
group. A strong and shared commitment to ‘bringing out the best’ in
everyone makes the school very well-placed to continue to provide a
high quality of education for young people.
8. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, we will 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 school.
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We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
For the next stage of taking forward Curriculum for Excellence,
ensure that young people build well on their prior learning and
continue to be engaged in suitably challenging activities.
•
Build on existing strengths in self-evaluation to keep a consistently
high quality of learning and teaching 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 St Mungo’s Academy.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Mary Ritchie
very good
very good
30 March 2010
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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