See also the calendar.

EARLSTON HIGH SCHOOL

Priorities for Improvement for the Academic Session 2009/2010

Earlston High School continues to strive for excellence in all that it does. Through evaluation with stakeholders we have identified a number of key areas that we think would improve our school for our young people.

We are always looking to improve our pupils attainment and achievement. The introduction of target setting and tracking for S3-6 pupils will ensure academic progression as well as early identification of those that may require additional support. We will also continue to focus on study skills and mentoring.

A Curriculum for Excellence is an initiative that all schools will be working on over the coming years and our main priorities this year, in connection with this, will be to develop learning and teaching approaches through mediated learning (tools and techniques to unlock learning). Our work will also involve revising our curriculum to allow a broad general education to be delivered to S1 pupils from August 2010.

New School, New Ways of Working- After many years of planning and construction, we moved into our new school at the start of session. We recognise that a period of adjustment is required to allow us to make best use of our new facilities.

The new accommodation will provide us with the opportunity to expand our curriculum to meet the needs of all pupils. We plan to introduce a range of vocational opportunities for school leavers. It is hoped that these opportunities will provide an insight into the skills required for work as well as the confidence to take the next step.

The school’s ethos is very important to us. In preparation for our new school, a considerable amount of time was spent last year on developing our new vision, values and aims. Through a series of activities, we plan to bring these alive this session. Also last year, to improve relationships and behaviour across the school, all staff were trained in ‘Restorative Practice’. Our aim this year is to develop this with pupils to allow us to become a fully restorative school in the future.

We are always looking to develop our use of ICT to enhance our learning and teaching, and this year we will turn our attention to expanding the use of Glow as a learning tool as well as SEEMIS as a recording mechanism to improve whole-school monitoring and recording. We recognise the need to further develop our quality assurance procedures to ensure that our work leads to an improvement for our young people.

Throughout this year we plan to develop more effective partnership working, not only within our local community but also looking to our wider(global) community. We must relish the opportunity to enrich the education of EHS pupils and also those that we are working with.

All our work is centred on how we can make things better for our pupils. As always, we welcome suggestions from pupils, parents and staff on how we can further improve our school.

M Strong (September 2009)

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EARLSTON HIGH SCHOOL

Standards & Quality Report Summary 2008-2009

This summary report gives parents and the school community an overall picture of our progress last session. It highlights our aims, achievements and areas for development.

1. What do we aim to do?

• To promote high quality teaching and learning
• To develop confident individuals, effective contributors, successful learners and responsible citizens
• To strive for continuous improvement and excellence
• To ensure our pupils are safe, happy and achieving their fullest potential
• To encourage participation in school and community
• To work collegially within the school community and all school partners
• To celebrate attainment, achievement and diversity
• To prepare pupils for life and work

2. What have we achieved this year?

EHS is an inclusive school that provides a high quality of education and encourages all pupils to achieve their potential. In session 2008/09, we achieved the following:

Attainment

• Quality assurance procedures continue to challenge departments to analyse SQA results and encourage them to seek strategies to raise levels of attainment
• Academic mentoring continues to provide targeted support for students
• Target setting and tracking is beginning to promote enhanced levels of attainment and achievement

5-14 Attainment

Key: EHS = Earlston High School

SBC = Scottish Borders average

NAT = National average across Scottish schools

Comp = Comparator schools

Level E by the end of S1

Level F by the end of S2

Our5-14 performance continues to be above SBC and comparator schools.

S4 Attainment (5+ credit level standard grades)

In 2009, SQA attainment was consistent with previous years and remains well above the national pattern.

S5/6 Attainment

Attainment is well above the national pattern, the S5 2009 results were the highest since 1999.

Achievement

• As a school we are keen to recognize wider achievement and the introduction of our ‘Hall of fame’ ’this year has helped us to move towards this goal.
• Our new system for recording participation in both school and community activities helps us to encourage those not already involved, as well as an opportunity to congratulate those that are.
• Our extra-curricular programme is extensive and continues to develop year-on-year.

Curriculum

• Pupils retain a curriculum that gives them experience of a wide range of subjects at all levels. Several new subjects have been introduced, including Higher Drama and Higher RMPS.
• Continual progress was made with our preparation for the implementation of ‘Curriculum for Excellence’, with staff and students involved in a variety of activities throughout the year. Significant curricula changes will occur in the future.

Learning and teaching

• We continue to offer and wide range of in-service and training opportunities to allow staff to develop new skills
• Sharing good practice has become a feature across the school with peer observation gaining popularity
• Our reporting procedures continue to be developed to include pupil input. Many departmental PLPs contain a section for parental feedback
• This year has seen a significant growth in self-evaluation activities across all sectors of the school. Feedback from stakeholders is now informing both departmental and the school improvement plans
• We have continued to develop Numeracy across the curriculum and will move on to literacy this coming year.
• Staff have been engaged in cross- curricular working, including work with our feeder primary schools.

Support for Pupils

• The S1 buddy system was extremely successful with the evaluation forming the basis of the training for this years sixth year students.
• The school placed a huge emphasis on ‘Anti-bullying week’ with all pupils receiving a wristband and a clear message about not bullying.
• A lot of time has been spent developing processes for more effective transitions at all stages

Ethos

• In preparation for our new school and in consultation with pupils, parents and staff- our vision, values and aims were revisited and rewritten. This was a huge piece of work but a very worthwhile one.
• Continual progress is made with Health Promotion, Eco- Schools and citizenship activities. The home coming week was particularly successful.
• Stakeholders decided on our new dress code.
• Communication and consultation with stakeholders to inform decision making has been a valuable experience throughout the session

Resources

• A significant amount of time was spent planning for the move to the new school as well as developing new ways of working.
• Electronic communication across the school has seen a radical reduction in paper use

Management & leadership

• Leadership at all levels across the school has developed with further work for 2009/10
• Careful management lead to the successful implementation of Pupil Council and Executive council who have had a very busy year; making decisions on school dress, school values, the new school and school priorities

Other successes include:

3. What is our capacity for change?

EHS continues to strive for excellence in all that it does. Teachers are committed to the school; they set high standards and provide a wealth of extra support for our young people. Pupils are keen to do well and there is a strong, inclusive community. Parental involvement is high and community links are developing well. SMT see learning & teaching as the core business and regularly review how to improve aspects of the school. Our new accommodation provides us with an excellent environment in which to embrace the curriculum of the future.

4. What do we plan to do during session 2009/10?

Through evaluation with stakeholders, we have identified a number of key areas that we think would improve our school even further.

We aim to:

• Improve Learning and teaching through mediated learning, study skills and regular consultation with pupils
• Improve pupil attainment and performance through target setting and tracking
• Involve pupils in their learning through Personal Learning Planning (PLPs) and target setting
• Design our curriculum and timetable to allow for the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence.
• Continue to develop the curriculum to include the development of vocational education
• Develop effective partnerships with our local and wider communities
• Develop the use of ICT to enhance learning experiences for all, especially ‘Glow’.
• Develop a more rigorous self-evaluation system that leads to an improvement for our young people.
• Development of the new school systems

We trust you find this leaflet helpful and informative. All our work is centred on how we can make things better for our pupils. As always, we welcome suggestions from pupils, parents and staff on how we can further improve our school.

M Strong

Headteacher (September 2009)

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NEW VALUES, NEW LOOK

ETHOS AND VALUES

One day a teenage girl arrived home quite indignant. She was outraged at the way one of her ‘friends’ had spoken to his mum. “How dare he speak to her like that?” she huffed and puffed around the kitchen. ‘We would NEVER speak to you and dad like that’, she shrilled (she was no angel herself!) When she was asked ‘why she would NEVER speak to her mum and dad like that?’ she struggled for an answer. Had she been told not to speak to them that way? No. Were there rules? No. So how did she know?

She went away to think about this. She made many attempts to explain how she knew not to speak to others in this way, she finally concluded ~ ‘we just know not to’.

Values are like this. They simply shape us so that we know how to be. They are not rules imposed from outside. They can’t be forced on us. They are just about the way we run our lives. They determine and influence the way we behave and respond to others and to situations, they shape the way we are. To be effective they come must from within and they take a while to get there. But how do they get there?

Probably by example, by consistency, by reinforcement, by equality, by agreement/consensus, by regular, gentle repetition.

But what does this have to do with Earlston High School?

Earlston High School has a very good reputation. Many people speak highly of the school ~ its exam results, its breadth of education, its productions, its extra-curricular activities, clubs and sports, its openness. As we move into our new school we would also like to be known for our ethos.

Early in the autumn term of 2008 Principal Teachers supported the idea of developing a School Ethos; a set of values which would provide a positive framework on which to base the behaviours, approaches and attitudes of everyone involved in our school, ideally, a way of being which would reduce the need for rules.

A set of values that would be owned and understood by everyone

Since then pupils, staff and parents have discussed and voted, independently, for the values they feel are most important for Earlston High School. Surprisingly 3 values came top of each vote:
Respect
Honesty
Responsibility

Then pupil representatives got together for lunch where they voted for and added 2 more: Commitment
Excellence
Each value probably embraces other values, but these 5 can encompass most.

Next steps

On their own, these words, these values may not mean very much. It’s really important that everyone talks about what the values mean to them, otherwise how do we know them when we meet them or experience them? Can we think of examples of behaviour which demonstrates respect, honesty, responsibility, commitment or excellence?

During the summer term of 2009, in RME (religious and moral education), pupils will have been discussing behaviours that are good examples and demonstrate these values. Staff have been asked (through departments and as individuals) to share their thoughts about ways of conducting ourselves and our lives to show respect, honesty, responsibility, excellence and commitment. S1-4 are looking at values in RME whilst seniors are discussing them with Senior Management in PSE (Personal and Social Education).

Once all this work has been gathered together it will be added to the website, but in the meantime we hope that you will start to discuss and share what behaviours you would expect from those around you and how you might act to show your understanding of our values and ethos ~ the values and ethos of Earlston High School; our pupils, our staff, our families and our community.

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SCHOLAR

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