St Benedicts HS Inspection ECSPB
Renfrewshire Council · 18 May 2023
Back to Education and Children's Services Policy Board — 18 May 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 ___________________________________________________________________ To: Education and Children’s Services Policy Board On: 18 May 2023 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Children’s Services ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Education Scotland Inspection of St Benedict’s High School ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 St Benedict’s High School was inspected by Education Scotland in February 2023 as part of a national sample of education. Education Scotland uses different models of inspection and at St Benedict’s High School the full model approach including a separate review of the Columba Flexible Learning Resource (previously known as the Columba Base) was deployed. Inspectors assessed the school and the Columba FLR with a focus on four quality indicators which are referenced in How Good is our School? 4 Quality Indicator 1.3 Leadership of Learning Quality Indicator 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment Quality Indicator 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion Quality Indicator 3.2 Raising attainment and achievement 1.2 This was a positive inspection which evaluated all quality indicators as ‘good’. 1.3 As part of the inspection model the following areas were also reviewed: Quality Indicator 2.1 Safeguarding Quality Indicator 2.2 Curriculum: Learning pathways Quality Indicator 2.7 Partnerships: Impact on learners – parental engagement Education Scotland do not attach an evaluative grade to these areas. Instead in the Summary of Inspection Findings there are evaluative statements provided which are positive and contribute to the overall school ratings of good.
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2 1.4 The inspection report in the form of a letter to parents, published by Education Scotland on 25 April 2023, is attached as an appendix to this report and is also available from the Director of Children’s Services. The letter to parents identified four key strengths of the school. These were: The headteacher’s commitment to developing a culture of increased expectations and high aspirations for young people. Senior leaders and staff ensure the highly relevant school values underpin the work of the school. Young people are confident, articulate and responsible citizens. They are eager to support the wellbeing of others and are positive role models within their community. Relationships between staff and young people are nurturing, mutually respectful and support a well-developed climate for learning. Staff in the flexible learning resource are skilled in providing young people with a calm and engaging environment for learning. 1.5 The inspection report also identified four areas for further improvement: Staff should continue to develop approaches used to identify, measure and evaluate the impact of school improvements on outcomes for young people. This includes demonstrating improvements in aspects of wellbeing, equality and inclusion. Teachers should continue to develop high-quality learning, teaching and assessment to challenge and meet the needs of all learners. Young people should have further opportunities to lead aspects, and have increasing ownership, of their learning. Senior leaders should continue to ensure that all programmes and courses meets the needs of all young people in the senior phase. This should appropriately build on their prior learning and allow them to achieve success. Staff in the flexible learning resource, working in partnership with the local authority, should continue to build on the positive relationships developed with young people and parents. This will help young people to increase their attendance and engagement with school. 1.6 There is an agreed set of procedures for responding to inspection reports which will support the school and Children’s Services to plan how the area for further improvement will be addressed. Actions are detailed within the school improvement plan which is shared with parents. In addition, the school will be supported in its improvement journey by Children’s Services. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 Members of the Education and Children’s Services Policy Board are asked to note and celebrate the key strengths and recognise the areas for further improvement in the Education Scotland report on St Benedict’s High School.
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3 _________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 Following a pause to inspections due to the pandemic, Education Scotland’s routine programme of inspection of schools and early years settings resumed in September 2022. Children’s Services welcomes the process of audit undertaken by Education Scotland as supportive to continuous improvement in Renfrewshire’s education establishments. The school team at St Benedict’s High School approached the inspection in a positive manner and embraced it as a professional learning opportunity in partnership with colleagues at Education Scotland. 3.2 The report includes four areas for further improvement, and progress in addressing this will be monitored by Children’s Services staff through the Quality Improvement Framework. 3.3 The inspection report will inform planned improvement activity, and will enable the school, the flexible learning resource and wider service, to build on the recognised strengths and focus further development on areas for improvement to enable the school to continue to deliver a quality educational provision. ___________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial - None 2. HR & Organisational Development – None 3. Community/Council Planning – engaging with, and learning from external inspection, ensures that our Renfrewshire is thriving: high standards of education provision ensure that children and young people are given the best start in life so that they promote and contribute to a more prosperous, fairer society. It also ensures our Renfrewshire is well – by providing an environment which encourages care, welfare and development, establishments play a crucial role in developing children and young people so that they become responsible citizens. The inspection process also supports delivery of the Council Plan cross- cutting theme of improving outcomes for children and families as well as other Council Plan key strategic outcomes, for example: Economy Equipping all children and young people to achieve success in life Fair
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4 Creating inclusive and supportive learning environments for children and young people. Embedding children’s rights in our decision-making processes 4. Legal – None 5. Property/Assets - None 6. Information Technology - None 7. Equality & Human Rights - (a) The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety - None 9. Procurement – None 10. Risk - None 11. Privacy Impact - None 12. Cosla Policy Position – N/A 13. Climate Risk - None _________________________________________________________ List of Background Papers - None __________________________________________________________ Author: Tracy McGillivray, Head of Service
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1 | St Benedict’s High School, Renfrewshire Council, 8620032 © Crown Copyright 25 April 2023 Dear Parent/Carer In February 2023, a team of inspectors from Education Scotland visited St Benedict’s High School. During our visit, we talked to parents/carers and young people and worked closely with the headteacher and staff. The inspection team found the following strengths in the school’s work. • The headteacher’s commitment to developing a culture of increased expectations and high aspirations for young people. Senior leaders and staff ensure the highly relevant school values underpin the work of the school. • Young people are confident, articulate and responsible citizens. They are eager to support the wellbeing of others and are positive role models within their community. • Relationships between staff and young people are nurturing, mutually respectful and support a well-developed climate for learning. • Staff in the flexible learning resource are skilled in providing young people with a calm and engaging environment for learning. The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the headteacher and a representative from Renfrewshire Council. • Staff should continue to develop approaches used to identify, measure and evaluate the impact of school improvements on outcomes for young people. This includes demonstrating improvements in aspects of wellbeing, equality and inclusion. • Teachers should continue to develop high-quality learning, teaching and assessment to challenge and meet the needs of all learners. Young people should have further opportunities to lead aspects, and have increasing ownership, of their learning. • Senior leaders should continue to ensure that all programmes and courses meets the needs of all young people in the senior phase. This should appropriately build on their prior learning and allow them to achieve success. • Staff in the flexible learning resource, working in partnership with the local authority, should continue to build on the positive relationships developed with young people and parents. This will help young people to increase their attendance and engagement with school.
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2 | St Benedict’s High School, Renfrewshire Council, 8620032 © Crown Copyright We gathered evidence to enable us to evaluate the school’s work using four quality indicators from How good is our school? (4th edition). Quality indicators help schools, local authorities and inspectors to judge what is working well and what needs to be improved. Following the inspection of each school, the Scottish Government gathers details of our evaluations to keep track of how well Scottish schools are doing. Here are Education Scotland’s evaluations for St Benedict’s High School Quality indicators Evaluation Leadership of change good Learning, teaching and assessment good Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion good Raising attainment and achievement good Descriptions of the evaluations are available from: How good is our school? (4th edition), Appendix 3: The six-point scale A more detailed document called Summarised Inspection Findings (SIF) will be available on the Education Scotland website at: Reports page | Inspection reports | Education Scotland What happens next? We are confident that the school has the capacity to continue to improve and so we will make no more visits in connection with this inspection. Renfrewshire Council will inform parents/carers about the school’s progress as part of its arrangements for reporting on the quality of its schools. Graham Parry HM Inspector