St Columba’s High School is a denominational secondary school serving the south-west of Greenock, Gourock and the villages of Inverkip and Wemyss Bay. Approximately 653 young people attend the school. Around 38% of young people live in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) one and two. Twenty-four percent of young people are registered for free school meals. Forty-three percent of young people have additional support needs.

The improvement issue

School leaders identified, through self-evaluation, that they needed to improve their policies, planning and actions so that they were strategic and promoted a parity of esteem between the broad general education (BGE) and the senior phase among staff and young people.

Identified areas for improvement in the BGE included:

• cluster transitions
• planning and progression
• meta-skills development
• tracking and monitoring

These priorities were included in the 2022-23 school improvement plan.

What St Columba’s High School did

Cluster Transitions

Secondary teachers worked in partnership with primary colleagues across the cluster. They focused on highly effective pedagogy, moderation, common methodology and progression in learning. Secondary teachers planned and delivered weekly literacy and numeracy lessons in P7 classes across the cluster.

Primary and secondary staff also worked collaboratively on arrangements for extended transition, for example through Getting it Right for every Child (GIRFEC) planning meetings, family learning events and establishing more shared approaches to equalities education.

Secondary staff have embedded a ‘maximising attendance’ model at cluster level. This is helping to improve the coordination of intervention, resource efficiency and appropriate support for identified families. The use of a weekly local authority attendance dashboard and monthly tracker is helping staff to systematically measure the impact of interventions on cohorts of young people and individual pupils.

Planning and progression

Teaching staff have embedded enhanced approaches to planning learning, teaching and assessment in all curriculum areas. Planning is informed by Experiences and Outcomes, Benchmarks and Meta-skills. These approaches are helping to incorporate more responsive teaching using a range of assessment approaches. This is helping to prepare young people for the senior phase.

Teaching staff are considering the progress of identified groups of young people, such as those with potential barriers to their learning. This allows staff to make well-judged interventions to their planning of learning, teaching and assessment. Teachers carefully consider activities that will support their learners to make better progress. Teachers are now better placed to continue to adapt and plan their classroom practice.

Meta-skills development

The curricular offer is responsive to the interests, skills and young people’s BGE attainment profile. The BGE curriculum has been enhanced over the last two years by including:

• meta-skills programme in S1 and S2
• skills for the future classes in S3

Tracking and monitoring

School staff have improved their approaches to tracking and monitoring in the BGE. The improved system includes:

• target setting across all curricular areas
• systematic analysis of data using the BGE attainment dashboard at departmental and whole-school levels
• bi-annual raising attainment and achievement meetings focussing on all curriculum areas
• personal achievement and skills profiling for all pupils in BGE

Parity of esteem between the BGE and the senior phase

Using collegiate time, staff have enhanced approach to planning learning, teaching and assessment in all curriculum areas. Planning is now informed by experiences and outcomes; national Benchmarks; and Meta-skills. It incorporates responsive teaching via a range of assessment approaches to support preparing young people for the senior phase.

Senior leaders have used moderation well to inform curriculum planning and progression from BGE to the senior phase. Teachers benefit from the support of colleagues who have been appointed to work for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). They use their experience to support their colleagues’ understanding of national assessment standards. This helps teachers support young people to progress confidently through their learning in the senior phase.

Senior phase and post-school destinations

The curricular offer is responsive to the interests, skills and BGE attainment profile of young people. Staff systematically track and monitor pupil progress in attainment and skills development and plan a range of interventions for cohorts and individuals who are not making expected progress.

Collaboration with the Developing the Young Workforce coordinator and pupil support staff ensures that almost all young people secure a positive and sustained destination. This includes enhanced and targeted interventions for identified cohorts and individuals throughout the senior phase.

What the sustained impact has been

Cluster

Staff’s collaborative working with cluster colleagues has helped to improve approaches to moderation. This has improved their understanding of the expected standards in literacy and numeracy. As a result, almost all young people are achieving third level or better, with the majority achieving fourth level in both literacy and numeracy, by the end of S3.

BGE

An enhanced approach to planning for learning, teaching and assessment, and the school’s rigorous approaches to tracking and monitoring, are showing improvements in attainment over time in the BGE. By the end of S3, almost all young people are achieving third level or better in almost all curriculum areas beyond literacy and English and numeracy and mathematics.