Scottish Catholic Observer

The community of St Andrew’s Secondary School, Carntyne, 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 at the end of last month, 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.

Delight

Gerry Lyons, St Andrew’s headteacher, said he was ‘absolutely delighted’ with the report.

“We have outstanding young people in our school and our staff do outstanding work with them,” Mr Lyons said. “The report is a testament to the commitment of everyone in our school community to improving the lives and life chances of every young person in our school. The inspection team was blown away by the level of expectation and commitment that they saw in their time in our school.

“I am particularly proud that they commented so powerfully on the Catholic ethos of our school: our Catholic values are the foundation of everything we do.”

Report

The report highlighted that the ‘strong relationships and tolerance’ at St Andrew’s are ‘built upon the school’s strong Catholic ethos.’

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.”

Michael McGrath, director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, said that he had sent a message of congratulations and thanks to the pupils, staff and parents of St Andrew’s ‘for all they do to provide Catholic education of the highest quality.’

“It is most encouraging to see young people being challenged, supported and cared for in an atmosphere which is based upon a strong Catholic ethos,” Mr McGrath said.

Secret of success

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

Despite the excellent 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.”

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PIC: PAUL McSHERRY