Agenda item

(Copy reports to follow.)

HAWICK HGH SCHOOL

In Attendance:- Ms Lisa Scott (Acting Headteacher), Catherine Thomson (Quality Improvement Officer) and Councillors Ramage and Richards.

WELCOME

3.1       The Chairman welcomed the representatives from Hawick High School.  

3.2       HMIe Report

With reference to paragraph 3 of the Minute of the Education Performance Sub- Committee held on 3 March 2022, there had been circulated copies of a report which explained that Hawick High School had initially been inspected in January 2020, a follow up support visit in January 2022 to report on the progress made had resulted in sign off to the local authority in 2022.  The visit by HMIe to Hawick High school noted significant improvements in all areas, with the second Report being published on 8 February 2022.  Scottish Borders Council had monitored progress and a formal review visit was held in January 2023.  A team of Officers from Scottish Borders Council visited the school to validate the improvements made and to quality assure the progress made over the past 12 months.   The team met with staff, business partners and young people, observed lessons and reviewed all aspects of the schools progress with the initial recommendations of the HMIE Report in 2020.  In February 2023, the Chief Officer, the Quality Improvement Manager and the Headteacher met with the Head of Scrutiny for HMIE to give their report.  Following a lengthy professional discussion, HMIE endorsed the Local Authority’s report and agreed to a final sign off from HMIE.  The areas of improvement had been identified  as  a) A clear strategic overview was now needed of the range of work taking forward improvements. Staff should continue to work collaboratively to progress a more joined-up approach with clear timescales for activities and an appropriate pace of change; b) Building on existing effective practice and enthusiasm of staff to continue to improve the quality of learning, teaching and assessment across the school; c) All staff need to recognise their role in providing support for all young people. Staff should continue to develop approaches to supporting all young people, including those who are facing significant challenges in their lives, to attain and achieve. This should lead to all young people feeling welcome, valued and included in the life of the school and d) Further work is needed to improve the curriculum so that young people can make better progress in their learning; e)Improve the attainment of young people. Work is needed to ensure that more young people leave Hawick High School with appropriate qualifications.

3.3     Miss Scott explained that over the past 12 months there had been a continued focus on the development of leadership at all levels and a coherent approach to school improvement.  There was a clear measurable planning cycle, alignment of the SIP/FIP and the work of Improvement Teams.  Middle Leaders were more strategic in their approach to school improvement and pupil voice was at the heart of the school improvement and the Student Forum beginning to play an important role. Extended leadership opportunities to promote leadership at all levels continued with the appointment of a new Posts and Development Officer role.  In terms of building on existing effective practice and enthusiasm of staff to continue to improve the quality of learning, teaching and assessment across the school, there continued to be considerable improvements in this area with high quality professional learning offered for all staff.  Professional dialogue around pedagogy and improved experiences in the classroom for young people and a Shared understanding of ‘what excellent looks like’ and all staff were developing their pedagogy using a clear cycle for learning based on the redefined Lesson Evaluation Framework.  The LEF gave a structured approach to lessons and sets out the school expectations.  Formative assessment strategies were a more prominent feature of lessons and this was supporting learners to understand where they were in their learning and what they needed to do to improve.  The use of IEP (student passport) with regular planned reviews of extracted students with staff/parents and agencies ensured that young people were receiving the appropriate support.  Weekly House meetings were strategically structured and robust procedures for attendance and lateness. Pastoral Support ANAs had daily focus and identified patterns of concern and initiated supports as required.  The focus on the student voice through the Student Forum continued to be developed.  HWB/Nurture surveys completed with action points identified and addressed by the Nurture Improvement team and feedback shared with student forum.

3.4       In terms of improving the curriculum so that young people can make better progress in their learning, the curriculum continued to provide a growing range of pathways and experiences for young people through the addition of NPAs and new National courses.  The DYW Improvement Team had been working to embed the employability skills and establish sustainable employer links with the local community and the Employer partnerships continued to support and develop curriculum innovation.   Vocational pathways offered in most subject areas had strengthened the curriculum offer, and young people leave to a sustained and positive destination.  There was a relentless focus on Post 16 destinations with partners to ensure that every young person was supported into a positive destination. A Strategic group established to move beyond the 14+ Group, identifying emerging trends and  provide a service for young people in Hawick that was tailored specifically to the young people in the school and supporting the most vulnerable Qunitile1 learners. This included CLD, SDS and DYW Borders in its membership.  The creation of a temporary Curriculum and Partnerships Development Officer post would ensure that a vocational program was in place for session 2023/24 so every young person had experienced work based learning including a textile based vocational programme that would offer students the ability to work with local employers on a regular basis and gain certification. This pathway followed on from the continuing Textile based Projects in collaboration with Johnstone’s of Elgin to deliver in the BGE. Attainment of young people in the senior phase had significantly improved and Young people were achieving more qualifications at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) level 4 – SCQF level 6.  Young people in the senior phase were also attaining well in literacy and numeracy.  The performance of young people living in Quintile 1 continued to improve across all indicators and a High number of young people leave HHS into a positive destination.   The Headteacher highlighted and acknowledged the hard work and dedication of the staff, young people and parents of Hawick High School which had led to the significant improvements in attainment.  The outstanding achievement for the school was testament to the leadership of the now retired head teacher Vicky Porteous. The school continued to strive to be the best it can be on its journey to excellence.

3.5       Jonathan Short, Chair of Hawick High School, although unable to attend had submitted a short statement in which he congratulated the pupils and staff at Hawick High School for their commitment to improvement over the past 4 years and expressed his delight that this had been recognised in the report.  Young people felt welcomed into the school and felt safe and supported and enjoyed more positive relationships with Teachers.  The re-introduction of an Evening of Celebration had been welcomed and it had also been noted that the Senior Phase was achieving more qualifications and leavers with positive destinations was at its highest in five years.

3.6       Mrs Thomson, QIO explained that she had been involved with the school for a number of years and had witnessed first hand the progress made by the school.  The School remained ambitious and there was collaboration with the wider community to take full advantage of working with Local Employers. 

3.7       In response to a question about discipline within the school and why some pupils were still reporting that they felt unsafe, Ms Scott explained that those pupils reporting that they did not feels safe had been followed up on an individual basis to explore what needed to change and this was an ongoing process.   Mrs Munro explained that across Scotland and the Scottish Borders there had been a knock on effect on behaviour from COVID and some young people were experiencing higher levels of anxiety, although very confident in the actions being taken to mitigate these trends.  Elected Members congratulated Ms Scott on her presentation given she had been Acting Headteacher for such a short period of time and expressed the wish to attend Hawick High School and work with the School and Ms Scott extended an invitation to all Elected Members to come along to the School and see what they were working on.

DECISION

AGREED to approve the Local Authority and Education Scotland’s recommendation that Hawick High School be fully signed off following            an intensive period of improvement.