A fascinating day out

On Saturday I did something I haven't done for at least 10 years. Along with my wee brother and nephew I visited Ibrox to see Rangers take on the mighty Kilmarnock. From my point of view, things looked very rosy indeed at the halfway stage. Thanks to an uncharacteristic blunder by MacGregor, Killie reached half-time with a fragile, but slender lead. Thanks however to their striking talisman, aka Boyd, Rangers came through comfortably in the end to secure the three points and retain pole position in the league. Thereafter it was onto the underground and off to the centre of Glasgow in a 'Rangers pub' to join the post-match revelries. In order to protect my real allegiances I found myself listening intently whilst one very animated little man clad in red, white and blue, recounted with (disheartening) glee how much he had enjoyed his plundering visit to Parkhead only two weeks ago. My out-of-tune accompaniment of Simply The Best could easily have blown my cover. At one stage I found myself clapping a a flute band from a local lodge as they were escorted up and down past our hostelry by Strathclyde's finest. When, at one point in the conversation, mention was made of Larrson, something about his legitimacy, I found it difficult not to suggest who was the finest player to play in Glasgow in the past decade.

Following a superb curry, the latter part of the Saturday evening was spent in the Park Bar. There I met several who I went to school with many years ago. The most famous of these was Malcolm Jones (Runrig guitarist), who, along with Callum Iain MacCorquodale (also from North Uist) kept a packed venue singing, tapping and dancing until the wee small hours.

As I watched the game on Saturday, mesmerised by the touchline antics of the managers on view, I reflected on what I, as a school leader, could learn from these icons. I will come back to this in a later post!

Progress

I am delighted to note that attendance rates and punctuality have been much improved since we resumed this term. In addition to an increased focus across the entire school on the importance of perfect attendance we also restructured our tutor groups when we resumed after the summer. After some resistance from pupils this change appears to have gone down well. It is really encouraging to see older pupils looking after our younger charges. In some instances I have witnessed younger pupils showing senior pupils what our standards should be!

I received an email yesterday from Iain Hutchison (PT Guidance) to tell me that we are currently processing 53 university applications for S6 pupils. This compares rather favourably with the 8 we were processing at the same stage in 2004. Well done to pupils parents and staff, who working together, have shown what can be achieved if we all raise our expectations!

New Term and a new year ahead.

New year is always a time for reflection and making resolutions about things we want to improve on. This is also true of the new term which began in August.

As always, it's been a very busy and hectic start to another term. Two days in-service gave us the perfect opportunity to ease ourselves in and make the necessary arrangement for the term ahead. After a seven week break, staff and pupils are refreshed and ready. Given the superb results achieved by many of our students it was great to start to term on such a positive note.
In the year ahead a continuing focus for us will be raising expectations for all our pupils. I am convinced that we need to keep raising the bar as our school continues to go from strength to strength.

A main focus for us will be in improving attendance across the school. During the summer all parents had a chance to respond to a questionnaire I sent out seeking their views on setting targets for pupil attendance. Though some parents baulked at setting a threshold for all pupils at 95%, below which, repeating the year or, in the case of senior pupils, not being presented for some exams, will, I am convinced, change many people's views on the importance of attending school. In the next few weeks, following discussion with pupils and colleagues I will firm up our plans in this area.

Last day of term

One normally associates the last day of term with lots of smiling faces and talk of holiday adventures to come. That was also the case for us on Friday 30 June, but it was also tinged with sadness as we said our fond farewells to several colleagues, including 5 of our maths teachers. Among those who left us were Stewart Gibson and Joyce Knox, who together had experienced a total of 72 years as maths teachers. Both have worked hard over the years and deserve a long and happy retirement and the opportunity to spend lots of time with their families.

Also leaving us on Friday were Iain Major (English dept), Angus MacWhinnie (Maths dept) and Tim Ledger (PT Maths). All go on to other posts in teaching; Iain in the private sector, Angus in Dublin and Tim to a Maths PT post at Perth Grammar. Our three probationers also finished with us on Friday. Lisa Mackay (History) starts at Beeslack in August and Isla Ross (PE) flies off to Milan to pursue a PE post in an international school. Teresa Mayer (Maths) is undecided about her next post.

We wish all these staff the very best for the future.

Townies go to see the cows

'Dear All, it is that time of year again when we take the townies out to look at the cows and feed them all for nothing in the Food Hall.'(Extract from an email from Norah Watson, PT of HE, to all staff earlier this week.)

Today, I had the pleasure of accompanying 45 of our pupils and four of my colleagues to the Royal Highland show at Ingliston in the outskirts of Edinburgh. The weather was very kind and the whole experience was just wonderful.

Highlights of the day for me included:

• Positive feedback from all pupils
• Seeing all the livestock – reminiscences of my crofting upbringing!
• Wonderful food samples available in food hall
• Meeting former pupils who had pursued a career in farming.
  

Thanks to Mrs Watson for organising a wonderful educational experience for all of us. I am tempted to go back on Sunday with my girls so that they can experience the magic of the Highland Show as we all did today.

School praised in Scottish Parliament!

Last week's prizegiving ceremony, with guest speaker/presenter Matthew MacIver (CBE), Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland, was a roaring success. Over 100 pupils received prizes for achievements ranging from sporting prowess to academic excellence. I must say I was really proud to see so many youngsters receive their awards with such big grins on their faces.

Our local MSP, Mike Pringle was one of several special guests at last weeks prizegiving. I was so pleased to hear today that Mike had spoken so positively of his experience at our prizegiving and our school's achievements during parliamentary discussion on Youth Justice. Onwards and upwards for Liberton High! Click on the following link (Liberton High progress) to read Mike Pringle's contribution to the debate.

HMIe report

Our follow through report was published today. I am delighted with the progress we have made as a school. All those associated with the school, including staff, parents and pupils deserve enormous praise for having rolled up the sleeves and getting on with the job of taking our school forward. Of course, progress in recent years is just a beginning. We must now ensure that we continue to go from strength to strength. WE will do this if we continue to work together as a community.

''It takes a village to raise a child'' (African proverb)

As we begin our celebrations to mark our 50 anniversary, the timing of such a positive report could not have been better!

Pupil attendance 3

In a recent conversation with a friend who works in the 'real world', as he often reminds me, I was shocked to learn that the reason that 80% of under 18s lose their employment is because of poor timekeeping and/or attendance. Can we as schools do something about this so that our young people are better prepared for life beyond school?

At tonight's parent council meeting we had opportunity to further explore how we will tackle absenteeism in the coming session. There is a view that we should apply employment -type standards to our expectations of pupils in regard to attendance; particularly those in the senior school. To that end, I propose, for next session, that we should set attendance targets for all pupils. Throughout the session pupils will be reminded about their attendance targets so that areas of concern are quickly brought to each pupil's attention. Parents will also need to be alerted where concerns arise.

What do we do with pupils whose attendance falls below expected standards? Do we allocate additional resources from an already overstretched budget to try and further support youngsters and families? Should pupils be asked to repeat a year if their attendance is very poor? Should pupils with very poor attendance be presented for exams?

In addition to target setting for attendance and punctuality, we are also proposing to move to vertical tutor groups. I.e. tutor groups comprised of pupils from S1 to S6. From our discussions so far it strikes me that there are many advantages to arranging registration classes in this way. For example, this will allow us to approach peer mentoring in a different way to previous attempts. Additionally, new S1 pupils will have 'buddies' that will continue with them well beyond the first few days at High School.

I look forward to consulting and listening to pupils and parents in the next few weeks.

Pupil attendance 2

Throughout the past session a working group, chaired by Iain Stewart (PT Guidance), has been looking at what we can do at Liberton High to improve pupil attendance. In addition to reflecting on our current practices, members of the group have also visited other schools. Based on one such visit we are considering changing the structure of tutor groups. In the past, we have had groups of 25-30 pupils all the same age. What we are proposing to change to is groups of between 20 and 25 of pupils ranging from S1 through to S6 within house groups. There are pros and cons to doing this but some of the advantages include:

• Breaking up peer groups who have developed bad timekeeping habits and have security in their groups
• Giving senior pupils the responsibility of looking after and supporting younger pupils
• Further developing buddying opportunities
  

In the past few weeks staff and pupils have had the opportunity to comment on the proposals; on Tuesday night those who are at the Parent Council meeting will have the opportunity to air their views.

Pupil attendance 1

Three weeks ago I was astonished, in truth offended, when we received a call from a parent, in response to a truancy call from our automated parent alert technology, to inform us that her daughter would be off school for the next two weeks as they were going to take advantage of a last minute deal for a holiday in Malta. The fact that the girl concerned was in S3 and in the middle of her S3 exams mattered not a jot. I readily acknowledge that it has been a long winter but I despair when parents choose to take their children off school for 'casual' holidays.

One of the priorities for us in the coming months will be to reduce pupil absenteeism. Currently at Liberton High School, the average attendance is around 90%. In terms of days per pupil this amounts to almost twenty days lost each year. This was one of the main areas for action identified by HMIe in 2006, but, disappointingly, our attendance figures have barely improved over the past two years. In life beyond school, whether it is in a place of further learning or employment, absences of this magnitude would not be tolerated. Why then should we accept this in schools? Should we direct additional (limited) resources to 'supporting' families where attendance is a problem?

The reasons for such high levels of absence aren't easily explained. In truth, neither is it clear as to what actions we should take as a school to impact positively on this area of concern. One thing, however, is very clear to me: The status quo is not an option. Over the coming year I am determined that we will tackle this area with vigour. In the next few posts I intend to develop further what we plan to do in this area. Suggestions from others will be welcomed.

Learning theories

I recently came across a really interesting online discussion about attachment and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Definitely worth a read! Don Ledingham's blog is really excellent.

Learning from and with others

One of the areas of practice in our school that I discussed in detail with HMIe, during their recent visit, was that of peer observation and learning from others. At Liberton, as happens at many other schools, peer observation is now integral to our CPD programme and how we evaluate our own practice. Peer observation (aka 'sharing classroom experiences') serves many purposes but a key outcome for me is the opportunity to observe staff in the classroom and to identify and celebrate best practices. Staff, generally, don't like being praised publicly and being singled out. How can we overcome this?

The most important part of the observation experience is undoubtedly the professional dialogue that takes place afterwards. When this is done well, both staff involved engage in reflection and dialogue. I am convinced that if we are to continue to develop as a school we must aim to further develop further means of learning from each other. During this coming session it is our intention to develop a primary/secondary reciprocal visits programme. I think this will be really useful in informing our thinking on where we want to go with Curriculum for Excellence and also exploring how Aifl motivated classroom pedagogy has evolved in the different sectors. I look forward to exploring this area further in later posts.

Visit to General Assembly

Along with a few pupils and members of the chaplaincy team I was really proud today to be invited to the General assembly of the Church of Scotland to witness our pupils being awarded the Stevenson prize for religious observance. This is the first time this prize has been awarded so it was really great to be the first secondary school recipient of the award. The prize recognises the incredible input from our chaplaincy team who work in conjunction with our RME department to deliver a first class religious education experience to all our pupils.

The afternoon started off with a lunch in the company of delegates in the hall at St Columba's church. After that we all went off to the General Assembly building at the top of the mound. I must say this was a quite incredible experience. To be in this awe inspiring building and to witness just some of the Assembly proceedings was amazing. Having won this prize a real challenge for the school will now be to consider how we can further develop religious observance and education in our school. The £500 we won today will certainly help.

Independent learning

Earlir this week we decided that it was time to remove the stabilisers from our daughters' bikes. I have to admit that I was rather hesitant to do this. I simply didn't believe they were ready. How wrong I was.

Within 24 hours, after umpteen scrapes and bumps, both girls had mastered the art of balancing and were cycling round the garden as if they had been doing so for years.

Reflecting on what had happened, I feel that the difficulty I had experienced as a child in learning to ride a bike had significantly influenced what I believed my own kids would be capable of. My expectations of my daughters were much lower that they ought to have been. This has really made me think and appreciate how much more difficult it can be to engage educationally with children whose parents had a less than positive school experience. Undoubtedly for me, raising the expectations of all who are associated with my school will be crucial if we are to continue to make progress on our journey to excellence. I also need to think further about how we can remove the 'stabilisers' that can make our pupils so dependent on others and miss out on the really deep learning that takes place when you take control of your own learning.

The fear of failure

Despite Monday being a holiday, this has been an exceptionally busy week. In addition to the perennial pressures and organisational challenges associated with a busy exam schedule, the school is also buzzing with all the usual activities one would expect. For example, today we had a large number of our S2 pupils visiting a local university to find out more about the opportunities available to school leavers. At Liberton High we encourage all of our pupils to aim to achieve University level qualifications. There is nothing to be ashamed about if they don't succeed. However, I do have a real issue with anyone who does not try. So often, in schools, as in life in general, it is people's fear of failure that is the biggest barrier to success. Schools should strive to encourage risk taking; if we don't I would question whether we are adequately preparing our young people for an increasingly competitive life beyond school.

English Exams

Today was the biggest of the Standard Grade exams this year and was the culmination of of many years hard work. Some will say that the Standard Grade course is a two year course but I much prefer to consider it as an eleven year course. If we do otherwise then surely we undervalue the work done throughout Primary School and in years one and two in Secondary.

Almost inevitably, the day of the English Standard Grade exam is sunny and hot. Such a contrast to the long, wet and cold winter we have just had. When it comes to deliberating about whether to support the proposal to have a winter diet of exams, it will do no harm to think about the benefits that we might gain if our teenagers are able to enjoy more of the May sunshine than they presently do.

League Tables

It seems to me that during this past week league tables, allegedly depicting performance and achievement, across a range of activities, have dominated the newspapers I choose to read. Throughout the week, as we have throughout the season, the back pages of most newspapers keep us posted as to how our footballing teams are progressing. Earlier this week we had the publication of school league tables based on pass rates in exams. Today, a headline in the Times, forewarns me that tomorrow's Times will have a league table showing our country's highest earners over the past year. I can hardly wait.

As I drove back home from chaufeuring my daughters to their ballet classes I was reflecting on when a league table might actually be useful and when it is not. In the context of football, where winning the league is the ultimate prize, there is no doubt in my mind that the publication of the league table is essential and useful. Football teams are in direct competition with each other and rivalry between opposing teams is what their marketing and survival depends on. League tables to show who is the richest is entertaining and probably sells newspapers but is really no more than useless gossip. In the context of schools though, I have a big issue with putting schools in league tables, based on data that is fundamentally flawed. It can be argued that:

• League tables for schools take no account of pupils' starting points or progress made since arriving at that school.
• League tables take no account of social factors that may impact on pupil performance.
• Schools who have entrance exams or use other means of selecting their intake (E.g. catchment area)tend to do better.
• Senior (S5 and S6) school exam pass rate calculations are based on the roll when that group of pupils was in S4. In the context of Liberton High School, where more that 50% choose to leave school at the end of S4, it is hugely misleading to compare our exam pass rate with schools where staying on rates are close to 90%.

In trying to maximise opportunity for all of our learners, should the emphasis be on putting schools in direct competition with each other? Is there more to be gained by scrapping our league table mentality and developing a genuine culture of collaboration and partnership between genuinely comprehensive schools?

Edinburgh's best kept secret?

Whenever I tell someone that my daughter attends a Gaelic medium school in the centre of Edinburgh the response, invariably, is one of surprise. That a gaelic medium school should exist, indeed thrive, so far from the traditional gaelic heartland catches people completely unaware. The children at the school are taught exclusively through the medium of gaelic. A number of the children have parents who can converse with them in gaelic but not all. Our older daughter is now in Primary three and perfectly bilingual in Gaelic and English. She loves school; I am convinced she would attend at weekends given the opportunity!

One of the fears that prospective parents have about enrolling their child at the school is that education exclusively through Gaelic, in a predominantly English based society, will inhibit the development of their child's English language development. Amazingly, the converse is true. The gaelic medium pupils, after a short intensive course in English at the end of P3, not only demonstrate that they have caught up with their monolingual peers, but have in fact overtaken them. I believe that this unexpected anomaly is also evident in other countries where more than one language is practised.

As parents, we are absolutely delighted with the quality of experience on offer at Tollcross Primary School. If Gaelic is to survive, Education as our daughter experiences, is going to be pivotal. An t-ionnsachadh og, an t-ionnsachadh boidheach!

Staffing update

It's that time of year again when, as a headteacher, I am working hard with colleagues in trying to get our staffing organised for next session.

Last week we were able to appoint a Biology teacher to Liberton HS to replace Ms Sarwar who left us at the February break. I was really impressed at the quality of the three candidates we shortlisted; I would have been delighted to have welcomed any one of them onto our staff. For the first time in my experience we observed all the applicants teaching a class. ( I was so pleased to see that only one pupils across three classes needed to borrow a pencil. This level of preparedness, as many who know me, is something I value highly). This approach has been used by privated schools for years. I foresee that this will be standard practice at Liberton High from now on.

Of course, as most will know, our staffing complement is based on pupil numbers and, as our roll is projected to fall to just under 700 next session, this means that we have to declare some staff surplus. I have to say that is one of the least pleasant parts of my job. As someone who had direct experience of being declared surplus (Firrhill HS 1986) I fully understand and can sympathise with those in this situation and the feelings associated with being in this position. Not surprisingly, I think the longer a member of staff has been at a school, the harder it can be to uproot and move elsewhere. On a positive note I am delighted to say that both staff involved have been highly professional in their response and I hope they can be quickly and painlessly relocated to another Edinburgh school.

Back to business

It was back to school yesterday after a relaxing 2 week Easter vacation. It's amazing how differently we all approach matters when we are refreshed and relaxed. The term that has just passed was a very stressful and busy one for staff at Liberton High. Not only did staff and pupils have the usual pressures of SQA deadlines and folio completion to contend with but we also had our follow through inspection with HMIe. I found the whole HMIe experience to be quite stressful; I know that colleagues hold a similar view. One of the areas I have been reflecting on recently, particularly, since the tragic death of a HT colleague in the borders, is how schools, local authorities and HMIe can more effectively work together to manage school evaluation. I am convinced that self-evaluation (i.e. evaluation carried out by school staff within the school as part of an on-going improvement process) is the most important and effective means to improving educational outcomes for learners. What are the arguments for external moderation? Why do the Finnish and Irish education systems, which have a very different moderation model to ours, regularly outperform us in the various international comparisons?