School’s league table position must be acknowledged

The publication in the Courier on Friday May 21 with regards the position of Campbeltown Grammar School (CGS) within the league tables came as a sigh of relief for me that someone else was on the same page.

We cannot defend where CGS sits within the factual results. It’s the result of a lack of hard work from pupils and staff and the influence from parents.

The Scottish Government publishes an annual breakdown of pupils’ attainment for which we have poor results and require inspectorate visits.

The league table cannot be defended but acknowledged.

Leadership of the school and particularly the council would benefit more if they actually illustrated ‘yes, there is a problem’ and we can fix it. Perhaps benchmark with a preforming school close by.

Defending the situation with alternative measures that are perhaps encouraging for certain individuals is not the way forward.

As a parent who wishes to have the option to allow their child to choose further education, we need to start getting the grades to grant entrance.

The results are a summary of many years of learning and not simply the year the child was assessed.

All years should be considered important, particularly the early years, so that they can achieve highly with determination and effort.

There is an enormous amount of pressure at home to find alternative methods via tutors for homework and purchasing of materials due to non-provisions within the school.

S1 to S3 should be receiving homework in academic subjects and getting it marked to improve study skills.

For the last three years, I have been campaigning within the parent council to ban mobile phones within the school. It has been proved in other Scottish schools that this ban gives best results.

Education leaders should be considering a change in policy across all Scottish state schools.

Teachers will face fierce resistance in the classroom, however, should we not be acting in their best interests?

There would be focus on study, better communication and behaviour issues would disappear.

How welcome would it be to see pupils chatting and laughing with each other instead of heads down scrolling through screens?

Covid has clearly had an impact on education this year but every school is in the same boat.

Everyone is experiencing a global pandemic, but some like to treat it as wrong Covid and not long Covid.

Susan Craig, Campbeltown, parent of third

year pupil.