Oban High School
Argyll and Bute Council · 12 June 2024
Back to Oban Lorn & The Isles Area Committee — 12 June 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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ARGYLL AND BUTE COUNCIL SECONDARY SCHOOL ATTAINMENT REPORT AREA COMMITTEE SCHOOL BADGE Oban High School 12th June 2024
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School information/school context – include SIMD etc. At Oban High School we seek to embrace the rich heritage and culture of the area whilst promoting a progressive, inclusive and holistic approach to education. Our vision and values permeate every aspect of school life. The school has 19 partner primary schools and has one of the largest geographical catchment areas in Scotland, catering for pupils from remote rural and island areas and large numbers of urban pupils. The pupils from nine islands stay in the school hostel throughout the school terms. Our catchment contains areas of deprivation between Decile 1 through to Decile 9 of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Approximately 30% of our pupils have additional support needs. To ensure a fully inclusive pastoral support structure, we have merged our severe and complex needs facility with both behaviour and learning support departments and inter-linked these across a full time Guidance structure. Our Clan System is central to our vision and values and was highly praised by the HMIe. The core purpose of the clan system is to promote the concept of “family” and supporting each other; though competitive spirit also remains prominent as shown in our annual Highland Games and clan competitions throughout the year. Our pastoral support is also structured around the clans, with pupils coming together in assemblies and in tutor classes in clans. The assemblies are led by pupil Clan leaders, thus allowing them valuable leadership experience. We seek to use every opportunity to provide wider opportunities for our pupils, in and out of lessons. We celebrate staff collegiality and embrace a talent management philosophy through a number of opportunities to develop staff leadership. All staff are expected to lead some aspect of whole school improvement and development. In order to provide the necessary qualifications, skills and experiences to equip our youngsters for life and work after school, we deliberately provide one of the broadest curriculums in Scotland. It is a policy which ensures a very high level of positive destinations for our pupils. We have a good and developing record in promoting and celebrating wider achievement as evidenced by the number of pupils that take part in a very wide range of activities in and beyond school, many of which are recognised by certification (e.g. Mental Health and Wellbeing Award, YASS, Duke of Edinburgh). Our young people make an impressive contribution to the wider life of the school community and are encouraged to take on leadership roles throughout the school. Leadership activities include involvement in the Senior Pupil Leadership Team (SPLT) in leading Clan Assemblies; leading the Pupil Council; running charity events; school events and representing the school at civic events both locally and nationally. The pupils were and continue to be co-authors of our curriculum. The SPLT lead groups of prefects on a weekly basis but also co-opt other pupils from across the school on an on-going basis. Wider achievement is also a key element in the senior phase of our curriculum with an extensive range or vocational opportunities being provided through our well established “Pathways Programme”. This Programme, which Education Scotland uses as a model of good practice, is delivered in partnership with a wide variety of local businesses and partner Primary schools allowing senior pupils the opportunity to gain valuable experience on a weekly basis in a profession or industry that they wish to pursue after leaving school.
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We have three “Schools” within Oban High which provide a higher and more specialist level of education in particular fields as well as providing greater breadth and opportunity across both the junior and senior curriculum. We believe all three “Schools” have a positive impact on future career progression; talent development, attainment, attendance, confidence and discipline Working in partnership with the Scottish Rugby Union, our School of Rugby curricular programme is centred on the development of the whole child. The sport lends itself to developing leadership, fitness, responsibility, discipline, respect and sportsmanship. It also provides an opportunity for our students to excel in the sport whilst providing a pathway to represent the school, community, region and their country. This session we also introduced our School of Shinty which has the same aims as our School of Rugby. Our School of Traditional Music utilises the experience and skills of nationally and inter-nationally renowned musicians to mentor, support and nurture the talents of our pupils who have a passion for traditional Scottish music. It provides our youngsters with the opportunity to develop their talents, both in terms of their instrument and in concert performances, to the point where they can either choose a career as professional musicians directly after school. Working in partnership with Ballet West, our School of Dance gives pupils an opportunity to receive specialist dance tuition within the curriculum. The provision has had a positive impact on pupils' broader school life. Pupils themselves have spoken about it improving their confidence and having great pride in being part of Oban High School. Feeling valued and building strong relationships with staff and peers has really helped our pupils develop a positive attitude to school in general. Our annual dance show was incredibly well attended this year too, and was an excellent opportunity to showcase the pupils’ skill. In addition to securing pupils a wide range of academic and vocational qualifications, we are also committed to providing effective and timely support to ensure that our pupils leave Oban High School with a positive destination. This is evidenced through our positive destination figures which have been consistently above the national and local authority averages in each of the last 5 years. We also have a successful record when it comes to ensuring pupils secure a university place with typically between 30-35% doing so. Although our figures for pupils moving onto further education is below the national average this can often be due to our rural nature and is offset by the extremely high employment rate we have with 35-40% of pupils going straight into work compared with the national average of around 20% for the last 5 years. A wide range of vocational work based learning is undertaken in Oban High School, which is provided by 95 different employers, giving pupils the opportunity to select placements which they find relevant. Work experience is also used to personalise the timetables of pupils who are experiencing significant problems in engaging with mainstream education. Last session we continued to deliver Foundation Apprenticeships in Business Skills, Engineering and Construction and have added an additional Foundation Apprenticeship in Hospitality which proved to be very successful. These qualifications can be up to the equivalent of two Highers, with work experience and theoretical work taking place hand in hand in an effort to bridge the gap between education and employment.
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Section 1 S3 ACEL Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy School Level Reading Writing L&T Numeracy Oban High School Third Level or better 91.1 90.6 90.6 89.0 Argyll & Bute Third Level or better 88.5 86.9 89.0 86.0 Oban High School Fourth Level 65.8 65.3 67.4 59.0 Argyll & Bute Fourth Level 54.4 51.4 53.8 56.4 S3 ACEL – Gaelic (if applicable) School Level % Achieved Gaelic Reading Gaelic Writing Gaelic L&T Third Level or better 100 100 100 Fourth Level 100 50 100
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Evaluative Comment – Areas of Strength in BGE Attainment: Percentage of pupils reading, writing and L&T at third and fourth level are above A&B averages. These strong performances will be maintained. Percentage of pupils achieving third and fourth level numeracy is also above A&B average. Evaluative Comment – Areas for Development in BGE Attainment: Action points include: Increasing liaison and moderation with primaries to ensure progression from L2 to L3 in S1/2. Make better use of primary school data to target SEAL and Fresh Start interventions. Carry out S3 SNSA earlier in order to address common misconceptions and moderate curriculums to better support progression. Continue to engage with authority moderation of writing and participate in QAMSO training. Continue with work on Learning, Teaching and Assessment and BGE moderation in faculties. We will provide further CLPL for staff in these areas. Moderation for Literacy and Numeracy to focus on transitions between L2/3/4 and L3/4/5. Assisted Self Evaluations in English and Maths to focus on use of data to inform improvement as well as Learning, Teaching and Assessment in BGE Section 2 National Qualifications 2023 – Percentage of Awards – A-C and A-D 77.10% 79.20% 88.50% 76.93% 77.12% 79.44% 78.80% 77.10% 79.80% NAT 5 Higher Adv H OHS % A-C Awards OHS A&B National
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Evaluative Comment – Areas of Strength We continue to follow a positive presentation policy deliberately ensuring that as many pupils as possible are presented for as many courses/levels as possible. This ensures the number of pupils passing can rise but does have the effect of reducing the percentage pass rate from those we have taken a chance on. We will not raise the percentage pass rate merely by withdrawing borderline pupils. Despite this positive presentation policy, which can affect overall pass rates, our pass rates for last session were very strong and above Argyll & Bute and National rates in the majority of cases. Evaluative Comment – Areas for Development Continue to develop alternative courses for S5/6 pupils sitting courses at Level 5. Our Level 5 FA Hospitality and Level 5 Applied Science courses were introduced last session. These will be further developed with a focus on attracting a greater number of pupils into these courses. 90.90% 93.40% 96.20% 90.70% 92.10% 93.00% 90.50% 90.50% 92.70% NAT 5 Higher Adv H OHS % A-D Awards OHS A&B National
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Section 3 Insight Data What is Insight Scotland? Insight is a professional tool, aimed at teachers and other staff. It is used to help secondary schools and local authorities identify areas of success and where improvements can be made for pupils in the senior phase. The dashboard has four measures: • Improving Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy (presented below as separate Literacy and Numeracy graphs) • Increasing Post-School Participation • Improving Attainment for All • Attainment Versus Deprivation The school’s data below is compared to what is termed The Virtual Comparator. The virtual comparator consists of a sample group of school leavers from schools in other local authorities who have similar characteristics to the school leavers from the school in question. This allows the most accurate and meaningful comparison of attainment data.
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3a Improving Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy
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Evaluative Comment – Areas of Strength Attainment in Literacy and numeracy at Level 5 is strong. Level 5 Literacy is 3% above our virtual comparator and Level 5 Numeracy is equal to the virtual comparator. Attainment at this level has also remained consistent for the last 3 years. Evaluative Comment – Areas for Development Attainment in Literacy and Numeracy remains an area for development. Level 4 Literacy is 3.5%% below our virtual comparator and Level 4 Numeracy is 10% below our virtual comparator. We need to ensure that our Maths and English Departments are targeting pupils to pass Level 4 Literacy and Numeracy and support more pupils to pass these qualifications. Poor attendance and non-attendance/ lack of engagement by a minority of pupils continues to present challenges in this area. We are working with partners in health and social work to improve outcomes for these pupils.
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3b Increased post-school participation Evaluative Comment – Areas of Strength 95.73% of pupils who left Oban High School last session achieved a positive destination. This figure is above or equal to national and authority figures.
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Evaluative Comment – Areas for Development Continue to support our pupils into positive destinations and take account of our local context where 44.51% of our leavers went straight into employment. This is much higher than the National figure which is 24.34 and 17.8% more than our virtual comparator. This is why we continue to develop vocational, skills based courses that give our pupils the skills they need for the local employment market such as FAs in Construction and Hospitality. 3c Improving attainment for all
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Evaluative Comment – Areas of Strength Our most able pupils and the middle 60% achieved more qualifications than all the comparators. Our highest 20% gained 167 more tariff points than our virtual comparator and 164 points more than the national figure. Our middle 60% gained 114 more tariff points than our virtual comparator and 125 points more than the national figure. Evaluative Comment – Areas for Development Our lowest 20% gained 30 tariff points less than our virtual comparator. This is an area for improvement, we need to ensure that our least able pupils are supported to achieve more qualifications.
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3d Attainment versus Deprivation
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Evaluative Comment – Areas of Strength Performance at SIMD 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 is very strong and above the National figures. We have successfully implemented strategies to support pupils to achieve to their potential. Evaluative Comment – Areas for Development Attainment at SIMD 3 is disappointing. This represents only 2 pupils who struggled to achieve due to attendance and health issues. We are looking at strategies to better target pupils in this situation in the future. Section 4 Wider Achievement Qualifications National Certificates; Higher National Certificates; Scottish Vocational Qualifications; National Progression Awards; Skills for Work qualifications; Foundation Apprenticeships; Scottish Baccalaureate Overall evaluative comment/narrative on Wider Achievement Qualifications in your school: This is an area of strength with the delivery of Foundation Apprenticeships in Engineering, Business and I.T and Construction - 35 pupils gained these awards last session. This session we have introduced Level 5 Foundation Apprenticeship in Hospitality. Level 6 NPAs are delivered in Exercise and Fitness, Journalism and Sports Development - 38 pupils gained these awards last session. Scottish Studies is also delivered with 58 National 5 Awards and 7 Higher passes achieved last session. Mental Health and Wellbeing Level 5 is delivered in S5. There were 112 passes last session. Leadership Level 6 is delivered in S6. There were 28 passes last session. 75 S6 pupils achieved Emergency First Aid at Work qualification, We plan to deliver this to S4 to S6 pupils this session.
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Our wider achievement qualifications continue to add to the experiences and qualifications our pupils gain in Oban High School Section 5 Equity and Attainment – Evaluation of Key Factors 1. Factor in attainment Data Evaluation of key issues in school Proposed Actions Attendance School Ave. Att. 22-23: 86.7% This is an improvement from the previous session. There continues to be issues with pupils not engaging in education due to anxiety, mental health, lack of parental support. We were an ANA pilot school last session and now that the assessment tools and strategies are more embedded this should help to improve attendance further. Continue with ANA strategies Outside agencies employed FLO Child Plans PT Guidance/support Use Harbour/Bridge facility to improve attendance amongst disengaged learners. Exclusion No. of Exclusion Incidents 22- 23: 28 No. of Exclusion Openings 22- 23: 84 This is slightly more than last session reflecting the very challenging behaviour from a small minority of our pupils. Continue to foster good relationships Early intervention and appropriate support put in place Continue to foster good relationships with parents % of School Roll Evaluation of key issues in school Proposed Actions Additional Support Needs 46.4% This is a very high proportion of our pupils with ASN needs PT Support and colleagues have a very clear pathway to follow to identify and evidence the supports required by individual pupils with ASN throughout the whole year for
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assessment purposes. Continue to utilise this pathway. Training for ASN assistants is a priority. SIMD D1 1.5% D2 0.0% D3 0.2% D4 12.4% D5 25.3% D6 15.5% D7 27.8% D8 13.8% D9 0.0% D10 0.0% Some hidden poverty in decile 5 and 6 due to rural setting. 3.5% of the roll currently have no assigned SIMD. This is being investigated but likely to be the new housing development in Dunbeg. Continue to use PEF to fund Flos/Cost of the school Day. Our attainment versus deprivation data is improving. Free School Meal Entitlement 12.5% Continue Breakfast Club for targeted pupils. Care Experienced (and previously Care Experienced) 4.8% The number of CEYP has increased recently and, in particular, three very challenging pupils who have just been placed in Shellach View. This has been very challenging. Individual targeting of pupils to assess progress and attainment and any risk of disengagement. Proactive strategies, working with partners when necessary. Use of outdoor learning, small groups, MCR Pathways, alternative curriculum to support these pupils. English as Additional Language 6.5% We continue to have a significant number of EAL pupils enrolling, particularly Ukranian refugees. Online sessions with EAL teacher working well and having a significant impact on language skills. Also working on improving links with parents through after school sessions. Other (give details) Pupil Equity Funding
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Attendance – This was monitored weekly by the specific Clan Pastoral Team (Clan DHT, PT Guidance, Family Liaison Worker)with the DHT Raising Attainment maintaining an overview of the specific PEF target group. Pupils who fell below 90% attendance were targeted for interventions. These included one to one meetings with Family Liaison Worker, work on anxiety, resilience and depression, Outward Bound trips, attendance at a targeted Friendship group, weekly sessions at Dunollie Castle, Youth Cafe Sessions and pick-ups in the morning. This session we were also a pilot school for the authority Addressing Non-Attendance Strategy. This involved extensive staff training on the factors for non-attendance and the employment of assessment tools to identify strategies to improve attendance. For the target group 78% of pupils either improved their attendance from the previous session or it stayed the same. 40% of pupils in the target group maintained an attendance rate of 95% or above and 57% of pupils had an attendance rate of 90% or above. Therefore, all of the above strategies are helping the majority of pupils in the target group to attend school more regularly. However, 22% of pupils in the target group’s attendance declined from the previous session. An analysis of these pupils shows a variety of issues affecting attendance. These included anxiety, depression, school refusal, failure to engage with Family Liaison Workers and serious mental health issues. Attainment – This was measured using BGE Progress and Achievement Levels and Assessment Level Progress (ALP) levels for Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Well-Being. Assessment levels increased for 82% of pupils. By S3 81% of the target group had achieved level 4 in Literacy, 70% had achieved level 4 in Numeracy and 85% had achieved level 4 in Health and Well-Being. For pupils whose levels remained unchanged it is clear that this is linked to very poor attendance, behaviour or serious mental health issues. Indeed, of the 22% of pupils whose attendance declined 64% saw limited or no progress in CfE levels. Exclusion – Exclusion rates within the target group are relatively low. The 7 pupils from the target group who were excluded this year are working with our Family Liaison Workers on anger management, resilience and anxiety. 3 of these pupils were excluded on only one occasion and the most common reason for exclusion is verbal abuse of staff. Again, this is an area that we are working on with our pupils. Engagement – This was measured using an adapted form of the Leuven Scale for Well-Being. 41% of pupils in the target group gained an average rating of 1 for engagement across the session. 43% gained an average rating of 2 for engagement. This means that the majority of pupils in the target group remained motivated in lessons and were able to complete tasks to a high standard. 10% of the target group gained an average rating of 3 and 4% gained a rating of 4. These pupils have remained disengaged and motivation levels are low despite a variety of strategies employed. Participation – This is measured using a questionnaire based upon how often pupils participate in extracurricular activities. Pupils complete a questionnaire in September and then in June. For the target group 60% of pupils attended at least 2 clubs each week for the whole year and 18% attended 4 clubs every week for the session. This has taken us almost back to pre-pandemic levels of participation. Pupils from the target group (especially S1) were encouraged to try new clubs and activities. In addition, activities offered by the Raising Attainment team such as Outreach, Coffee and Chat Club, and Girl’s Gym Club helped to keep pupils active and participating. This session the team also worked extensively with Hebridean Pursuits to give pupils in the target group outward bound opportunities and this has proven to be very successful.
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Section 6 Other information Link to Standards and Quality for June 2023 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUh9HWwZaczCWFAdyEsZdnER2e9MU342/edit