Agenda item

Presentation by Service Director Children and Young People.

3.1       With reference to paragraph 8 of the Minute of 24 March 2016, Ms Donna Manson, Service Director Children and Young People was in attendance to provide Members with information on how schools within the Scottish Borders provided support for its young people, and in particular, highly able learners.  Ms Manson introduced Ms Michelle Strong, Chief Officer Education; Ms Jacqueline Wilson, Headteacher at Kingsland Primary School, Peebles; and Mr John Clark, Headteacher at Berwickshire High School; who would provide additional information to Members in respect of how support had been successful in their particular areas.  Ms Manson explained that the rationale Inclusion for All would be presented to the Executive Committee in May 2016 and this would detail how the Council would meet the needs of all learners, taking into account changes in legislation and plans for the provision of enhanced support in areas such as specialist needs and highly able learners.  Ms Manson reported that Scottish Borders Council schools were currently in the top quartile and improving.  SBC was also fully compliant with the National Development Framework.

3.2       Ms Strong explained that terminology used within the education system had changed over the years.  Terms such as marked aptitude, talented, gifted, exceptional etc had been replaced with "highly able learners" as the accepted term.  In order to promote inclusion for all learners, "Getting It Right for Every Child" (GIRFEC) had been implemented in the Scottish Borders in April 2016, developing and adopting a growth mindset for young people.  The term "highly able learner" referred both to pupils who worked or had the potential to work ahead of their age peers and/or to pupils who were highly able across the curriculum as well as in one or more particular areas.  It was emphasised that the Curriculum for Excellence took into consideration the development of the whole young person, including their enjoyment of learning, and support was tailored to suit each individual.  In terms of education beyond school, Ms Manson advised Members that all options were discussed with parents and issues such as readiness to leave home were considered.  Opportunities such as Modern Apprenticeships would be considered along with university, college etc and it was acknowledged that schools were often in the position of knowing the pupil well and therefore being able to tailor their curriculum and Individualised Plan (IEP) according to the ability of each young person.

3.3       Ms Wilson advised Members that there were in the region of 600 pupils attending Kingsland Primary School and just over 60 children in nursery education.  There was obviously a wide range of abilities within the school and in terms of how each individual developed throughout their primary school years.  In order to provide support for highly able learners in this environment, a number of activities were in place to encourage these young people.  Activities included participation in master classes for those identified with particular skills; opportunities to work in different classes, accelerated work such as the Scottish Mathematical Council and additional support from the High School for pupils at level three and beyond.  Further examples of local opportunities included partnership working with local clubs and taking part in national and local competitions.  Members were advised that in some instances, pupils represented Scotland internationally.  A number of other opportunities were available to highly able secondary pupils and these included developing talent and ability in sports such as pole vault, javelin and carting; musical ability and on occasion, the "once in a lifetime" ability shown by an individual young person in subjects such as mathematics.  It was recognised that resilience was an important part of education and for highly able learners, who had perhaps experienced few or no hurdles in their lives, developing resilience would help them to deal with any future disappointments they might encounter.  Mr Clark explained that "differentiation" was key across all subjects and this allowed a teacher to ensure pupils within a group were given work appropriate to their individual level and not all given the same work, as all pupils were unique; and "setting" when young people were grouped together according to ability in order to manage differentiation.  However, there was a balance as having more able pupils in groups could be a help for those less able.  These tools, when used as part of the overall strategy, were extremely beneficial at all levels of ability, as was the use of mentoring within the school setting which ensured skills were developed to the maximum.  There was a need to bring creativity to the curriculum to allow young people to develop, and links with universities and other organisations had been set up to assist in this.  Examples to demonstrate how such links were used to benefit individual young people were given.

3.4       Discussion followed and Members raised a number of questions.  It was emphasised that all aspects of a learner's journey were equally important and with regard to developing partnerships with local businesses, it was emphasised that development of business/ entrepreneurial skills was as important as any other.  Developing the young workforce within secondary schools was important and as well as young people going out into the community for work experience, businesses were also invited into schools.  In terms of mentoring and social interaction, Mr Clark acknowledged that this was a very important issue and advised Members of a mentoring project which had been tested at Hawick High School, where senior pupils had been trained in ‘Mentally Flourishing Schools’.  This also involved the use of mobile 'phone technology and the use of an application called Toot Toot.  Pupils could feed information about problems/concerns they had in to the Toot Toot online forum 24 hours per day and the school could then assess the issue and identify the most appropriate person to deal with each situation.  Discussion followed about the options for young people who did not wish to go to university immediately following secondary school.  Ms Manson explained the importance of getting the message across to communities that it was "socially acceptable" that university might not be the next step for every young person and that work experience could lead to professional qualifications in other ways.  Ms Manson also acknowledged that the new IT contract with CGI could ultimately provide a range of opportunities for young people in the Scottish Borders.

3.5       A concern had been raised in relation to the number of qualifications a young person was permitted to study in 4th year at High School.  Ms Strong explained that currently six or seven National examinations could be taken in one year whereas under the previous system it had been up to eight O levels over two years.  Colleges and Universities were not looking at 8 or 9 qualifications and Universities were looking at Highers not Nationals, so it was important to look at the totality of qualifications required by pupils to meet their future roles.  It was important to achieve a balance and allow other interests such as music, sport etc. to be continued and such hobbies and any work experience were also taken into account for further education placements.  There was work to be done to look at exactly what young people were going on to study after school and therefore best tailor the qualifications and the number taken to reach that goal.  Parents were also invited to contribute to these discussions.  Invited to speak as Executive Member for Education, Councillor Aitchison commented that schools had a very complex task to assist all learners in reaching their potential and to ensure that ability challenges were met when a young person was highly able in a number of subjects.  The Chairman thanked officers for their very informative and interesting presentation.

            DECISION

NOTED the presentation.