Item 08 Appendix 1a
West Dunbartonshire Council · 12 June 2024
Back to Educational Services Committee — 12 June 2024 and its agenda
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Clydebank High School Standards and Quality Report 2023-2024 Appendix 1a
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Introduction National Improvement Framework and Improvement Planning - the vision School Improvement Planning is structured around the five National Priorities for Scottish Education as set out in the National Improvement Framework (NIF): • Placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of Education. • Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing. • Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people. • Improvement in skills and sustained, positive school leaver destinations for all pupils. • Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy. In West Dunbartonshire we work together to ensure that our children, young people and their families are nurtured and empowered to make a difference in their lives and communities. Within West Dunbartonshire, Wellbeing, Empowerment and Sustainability are the foundations upon which we build to be respectful, responsible and resilient citizens. 1 - Our school vision and values
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Our vision for Clydebank High School is to continue developing a school community focused on producing young people who are respectful and well equipped for life. We will achieve this by giving our young people inspiring educational opportunities and challenging learning experiences. This will be done in an inclusive and safe community. Young people will be encouraged to work in a manner which promotes mutual respect for their peers and others within the multi-cultural society in which we live. Clydebank High School will continue to work in partnership with parents/carers and other partners to enhance the learning journey and life chances of each young person. Learning within the school community is personalised according to need. Difference and individuality are valued and our young people continue to be aware of the skills required to become Successful Learners, Confident Individuals, Effective Contributors and Responsible Citizens of the future. At Clydebank High School, we promote our core values of trust, commitment, respect, confidence and resilience, which are central to ensuring positive relationships are at the heart of our school community. Our school strap line is: Working Together, Striving for Excellence.
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A message from our headteacher Welcome to the 2023-24 Clydebank High School Standards and Quality report. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of our key achievements and progress with our priorities for improvement. I hope you will find the details we have provided useful. In December 2023, a team of inspectors from Education Scotland visited our school and some of the areas of strength and areas for improvement will feature in this report and our School Improvement Plan for session 2024-2025. We continue to expect high standards from all young people and staff continue to work hard to provide opportunities to enable every young person to achieve success. As a school, we are committed to
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providing high quality learning and teaching, as well as a range of supports to allow all young people to thrive. Our staff really do go that extra mile for our young people. I strongly believe Clydebank High School would not be the ambitious and successful school it is today without the close partnerships between parents/carers, partners and the school. I want to thank you for your continued support. I feel immensely proud of the work that goes on in the school. In the meantime, if I can be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school. Jacqui Lynam Headteacher The context of our school Clydebank High School is a six year non-denominational comprehensive secondary school located in the town of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire. The school roll increased as a result of a successful merger with Braidfield High School in 2007 and the new Clydebank High School campus was opened in August 2009. The school serves the area of Clydebank and is part of a local learning community with our associated primary schools Carleith, Clydemuir, Edinbarnet, Gavinburn, Goldenhill, Kilbowie, Linnvale and Whitecrook primary schools. The nominal capacity of the school is approximately 1200 pupils.
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Current roll in each year group is: S1 – 238 S2 – 210 S3 – 214 S4 – 205 S5 – 183 S6 – 106 The estimated S1 intake for future years (excluding placing requests) is: • 231 pupils in 2024 • 236 pupils in 2025 The profile of our school catchment area with regard to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is: • 22% of our young people reside in SIMD 1 • 46% of our young people reside in Quintile 1 (SIMD 1 and 2) • 2% of our young people reside in Quintile 5 (SIMD 9 and 10) Further information regarding the Scottish Index of Multiple can be found at: http://simd.scot/ We are pleased to announce that Clydebank High School has been awarded the UNICEF Bronze: Rights Committed Award. A Rights Respecting School is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practiced, respected, protected and promoted. At Clydebank High School we aim to have the children’s rights at the heart of our ethos and culture, to improve wellbeing and to develop every child’s talents and abilities to reach their full potential. We have successfully achieved the Bronze Award: Rights Committed, we are now working towards achieving Silver: Rights Aware.
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Progress we have made in improving Health and Wellbeing In session 2023-2024 our improvement priorities to support health and wellbeing were: • To revise approaches to support young people and families with a clear focus on mental health and wellbeing, ensuring the young person is at the centre and all stakeholders are included. • To develop and implement a range of interventions to improve attendance for identified young people.
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• To implement CIRCLE (Child Inclusion Research into Curriculum Learning Education) phase 2 to support inclusive practices and plan for strategies to support identified groups/individuals. Progress made in achieving improvement priorities: • All staff work very well together to create a nurturing and caring ethos built on the school values. As a result, young people are learning in a very supportive and safe environment. • Our Health and Wellbeing programme allows young people to learn about mental health, relationships, inclusion, diversity and equality and healthy life choices suitable to age and stage. • Young people’s wellbeing and learning needs are met very effectively by a highly proactive staff team. They work very well with a range of partners and external agencies to ensure young people thrive in an inclusive environment. • Young people are supported very well in a calm and highly nurturing environment. Positive relationships across the school are grounded in a very inclusive climate of mutual respect and shared values. Almost all staff are greatly skilled in de-escalation and relational approaches. This results in young people feeling respected and included. • A robust system for tracking of attendance and timekeeping is utilised by Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Pupil Support Team. • Our approach to wellbeing across our school and learning community supports our strong positive destinations. All young people receive universal support and, where necessary, some learners receive a more targeted and individual provision. Next Steps: • To continue to use SMART planning and timescales for review of young people’s support plans, engaging with and reflecting the views of all stakeholders, with the young person at the centre. • To continue to target year groups with successful interventions which are increasing young people’s understanding of the importance of maintaining strong mental health. Build on these developments to reduce further the stigma around mental health. • To continue to implement CIRCLE Phase 2 to support inclusive practices. • All staff should continue to work with partners to improve the attendance of a few young people.
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Progress we have made towards achieving excellence and equity In session 2023-2024 our improvement priorities to support excellence and equity were: • To implement supports and strategies to ensure all learners make very good progress from their prior levels of attainment on literacy and numeracy - including those learners in danger of missing out. • To implement our strategy for continuous improvement in line with our learning, teaching and assessment cycle, implementing timely interventions where appropriate. • To develop a strategy to ensure achievement is recognised, supported and celebrated through the curriculum and wider school context. • To deliver a range of strategies to promote equity for all our young people. • To continue to work with a range of partners to support families to overcome social and economic barriers, support improved attendance at school and the transition to a positive sustained destination post school. Progress made in achieving improvement priorities: • Teachers have well developed approaches to supporting young people at department and whole school level through a wide range of intervention strategies. For example, targeted study support sessions, mentoring and signposting to the virtual study hub.
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• Staff’s positive approaches to improving literacy and numeracy and equity across the school are supporting improved attainment in S1 to S3 and S4 to S6. • Staff use effective systems to track attainment at whole school and year group levels. This generates reflective questions and discussions for staff which inform planned professional learning to improve learning, teaching and assessment. • Young people who require additional support are well supported to achieve. Targeted interventions, such as a reading programme, are supporting young people to make improved progress in their attainment. • Teachers use a variety of assessments, including standardised assessments, along with strong approaches to moderation. These are supporting improved attainment and reliable professional judgements. • Young people’s achievements in and out of school are acknowledged very well within the school, through the praise systems, social media and an annual awards ceremony. This is helping to motivate young people and to maintain their engagement in learning. • Young people are developing leadership skills and communication skills by taking part in leadership roles. Young people also gain accreditation through programmes such as Sports Leaders, Youth Philanthropy Initiative and the Prince’s Trust and the pupil parliament. • Staff have a clear understanding of the socio-economic circumstances of young people and their families. Staff are very aware of the challenges facing their community. They have taken positive steps to minimise the cost to the school day. PEF is used to support access to materials, school uniform and PE kit to ensure all young people can access the curriculum fully. Next Steps: • To continue with the positive steps taken to raise attainment for young people living SIMD one and two. A focus on ensuring success at SCQF level 3 or better and level 4 or better could support this. • To continue to use the whole school tracking system to track effectively the progress of young people through the BGE. • To continue to review and widen the curriculum offer for young people in S6. • To continue to build on the tracking of wider achievement to improve the profiling of BGE pupils. • To evolve the BGE skills framework in line with SDS meta-skills. This will also support with introduction of the SDS profiling toolkit.
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Progress we have made in improving learning, teaching and assessment In session 2023-2024 our improvement priorities to improve learning, teaching and assessment were: • To build on the effective BGE improvement work already underway to improve learners’ experiences and the purpose of learning. • To increase ways to seek the views of young people and to plan to implement a range of activities that empower them to contribute effectively to the life of the school and wider community. • To develop and invest in staff professional learning with a focus on pedagogy to support high quality learning experiences. • To develop the use of a variety of assessment approaches, moderation, tracking and monitoring in the BGE to allow learners to demonstrate skills, competencies and maximise successes and achievements.
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Progress made in achieving improvement priorities: • Very positive relationships between staff and young people are a major strength. Staff have worked very effectively to ensure a very warm, safe and respectful climate for learning. • Almost all young people engage well with the tasks provided by their teachers. They are highly motivated by opportunities to be actively engaged in their learning through a range of well- planned activities. • Improved approaches to planning learning and teaching ensures learners are appropriately supported and challenged in their learning. As a result, almost all lessons have sufficient pace and challenge to meet the needs of learners and is motivating them to succeed. • Teachers effectively use monitoring and tracking data as part of learner conversations with their students. As a result, young people are clear about their strengths and next steps in learning in both the Broad General Education (BGE) and senior phase. • In all lessons, learning intentions and success criteria are shared and almost all are differentiated. In most lessons, teachers provide high-quality explanations of planned learning activities to support young people’s learning. • Across the senior phase, teachers are confident and have a strong understanding of the assessment standards required for National Qualifications (NQs). The school has well established internal verification processes within and beyond the school. • Teachers are planning effectively to ensure the delivery of strong programmes of learning based on Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) benchmarks. Almost all departments make very good use of bespoke tracking systems to identify and support young people who are not on track with their learning.
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Next Steps: • To develop a framework which makes more explicit use of a shared understanding of skills young people are acquiring through their learning experiences. • To continue to develop further the consistent high-quality of success criteria across all subjects. • To build on the positive impact of ‘Cycle to Success’ to deliver further improvements in high quality learning and teaching. • To continue to share effective practice to further support embedding digital technology in lessons. • To further enhance the quality of learning through higher-order questioning and explicit links to real life contexts.
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Our Pupil Equity Fund Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) is additional funding allocated by the Scottish Government directly to schools. The aim is for schools to use this funding to plan and implement interventions to closing the poverty- related attainment gap. The Scottish Government has committed to this funding as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) programme until 2025/26. Pupil Equity Funding is part of the Attainment Scotland Fund (ASF). In November 2021, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills set out plans for a refreshed Scottish Attainment Challenge from April 2022. The mission of this refreshed Challenge is: to use education to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. Progress made in achieving improvement priorities: • Improved attainment in literacy and numeracy. • Enhanced support for young people and their families to reduce the cost of the school day and holiday hunger. • Enhanced support for young people and their families to improve attendance at school, increase engagement and remove barriers. • Increased supports available such as nurture, mindfulness etc to support pupil wellbeing. Next Steps:
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Our next allocation of Pupil Equity Funding will be received from the Scottish Government before the end of the current academic session. The funding will be used to continue to plan and implement interventions to achieve excellence and equity, close the poverty-related attainment gap and help young people to achieve positive destinations beyond school. How good is our leadership capacity and collaboration with others? In session 2023-2024 our improvement priorities to improve leadership capacity and collaboration with others were: • To develop and streamline approaches to quality assurance and self-evaluation, and include the involvement of learners and parents/carers in evaluating the work of the school. • To develop Curriculum Leader Collaboration Groups to share best practice and to use a range of evidence to improve outcomes for learners. • To develop Career Long Professional Learning (CLPL) opportunities for staff aspiring to leadership roles. Progress made in achieving improvement priorities: • The school’s vision and values are reviewed regularly and underpin the work of the school. Almost all staff and young people across the school model the values consistently in daily interactions with each other. Young people articulate well how the school values impact on their school day and how they help nurture mutually respectful relationships. • The senior leadership team promote an aspirational vision of continuous improvement which is underpinned by strong self-evaluation processes based on the school improvement plan. There are effective systems to monitor and evaluate progress towards achieving school priorities. These are supported by a well-designed continuous improvement calendar at whole school level.
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• Staff recognise their whole school role as leaders through commitment to shared values and professional standards. They have a strong commitment to improving experiences for young people through professional learning, including reflection on their practice. • Young people feel listened to and empowered to contribute to the life of the school. For example, the pupil parliament is an important decision making group that has representation across all year groups. • Strong and effective partnership working is contributing to improved wellbeing and attainment outcomes for young people. Partners feel very valued by the school and appreciate the welcoming and trusted approach by school leaders. Next Steps: • To continue to develop collaborative leadership opportunities to support innovation, creativity and practitioner enquiry to build capacity and empower staff to lead on aspects of school improvement. This includes a continued focus on improved pedagogy to enhance learners’ experiences. • To further develop opportunities for accreditation of wider achievement and pupil leadership. • To continue the effective strategic leadership of self-evaluation, widening the participation and contribution of stakeholders including parents/carers and partners. • To further develop the role of young people in leading change through self-evaluation, decision making and planning for improvement. • To continue to use data to monitor and evaluate how effectively the use of Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) is meeting the needs of cohorts of learners who are affected by socio-economic disadvantage.
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What are our school improvement priorities for session 2024-2025? What are our school improvement priorities for session 2024-2025? Our strategic improvement priorities, which align with West Dunbartonshire’s priorities are: • To improve and support the health and wellbeing of our learners. • To achieve excellence and equity, close the poverty-related attainment gap and help young people to achieve positive destinations beyond school. • To improve learning, teaching and assessment. • To build leadership capacity through a self-improving system and collaboration with others. What is our capacity for improvement?
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2 - Links to further information Pupil Zone - Virtual Study Hub Clydebank High School Website 3 - @clydebankhigh on X
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