Scottish Catholic Observer

The community of St Andrew’s Secondary School in Glasgow has been celebrating after HMIe inspectors rated the school as ‘excellent.’

Inspectors visited St Andrew’s last year, and in their report, which was published yesterday, they referred to the school’s young people as ‘exemplary.’

St Andrew’s gained three ‘excellent’ scores for improvements in performance, learners’ experiences and improvement through self-evaluation.

The school was rated ‘very good’ for meeting learning needs and for its curriculum.

Inspectors recognised that although the school is in a deprived area of the city, it is performing above the standard of other schools serving similar backgrounds.

“At S4 to S6, the school performs much better than schools that serve young people with similar needs and backgrounds,” the report stated.

“There is improvement in how well young people perform in national examinations and the school continues to prioritise further improvements in attainment.

“The progress of vulnerable young people is outstanding. Almost all young people leave school to go on to further study, employment or training.”

Gerry Lyons, St Andrew’s headteacher, said that the secret to the school’s success is involving young people in their learning and making sure feedback from pupils is put in place.

Despite the success of the report, Mr Lyons said that staff and pupils cannot afford to rest on their laurels.

“It is still early days in what I want to achieve for the school but we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “I think we can build on this report and the feedback from inspectors and then take what we achieved to another level.”

Some of St Andrew’s pupils are pictured above at their recent feast day celebrations.

PIC: Paul McSherry