Top exam results for all at Park Mains High
A culture of aspiration and achievement is being created across Park Mains High School, inspectors have discovered.
Education Scotland visited the Erskine school at the end of last year when it found young people who were more actively engaged in their learning.
Officials graded the school as “good” in the two areas it examined as part of their inspection.
They found the school to be performing well in its learning, teaching and assessment and its approaches to raising attainment and achievement.
In a report, the school was praised for the support offered to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as recent efforts to raise attainment in numeracy.
It identified, at S4, most young people attained SCQF level 5 or better in literacy and numeracy in 2022, with most achieving level 6 in literacy by the end of S5 or S6.
However only a minority achieved SCQF level 6 in numeracy.
The report states: “Senior leaders acknowledge the need to build on recent improvements in mathematics to support sustained improvement in young people’s attainment in numeracy.
“Staff in the mathematics department are developing pathways to meet the needs of all learners better.
“There is early evidence of the positive impact of these pathways in improved performance at SCQF level 5.”
Teachers have also upped the number of times they track a child’s progress every term meaning they are better able to set learning targets and goals in partnership with the students themselves.
Work around closing the poverty-related attainment gap was also highlighted in the report.
Schemes such as small group learning and the study cafe – which offers young people hot food and drinks, school uniform and packs of essential resources for learning, were singled out as good examples of this.
The report added: “The school is effective in identifying the most disadvantaged young people or those who are experiencing other barriers to learning.
“These learners are targeted for extra support from all staff wherever possible. Support for learning staff have worked well with learners identified as vulnerable to deliver bespoke units focusing on literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing, employability, enterprise and citizenship and thinking skills.
“Teachers have identified gaps in learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have worked with P7 transition teachers to create a bespoke ‘Pathways’ class.
“This supports S1 pupils at early level in literacy and numeracy to build their skills in a small group setting. As a result, young people are making good progress in literacy across the school with emerging improvements in numeracy.”
Going forward, senior leaders have been tasked with ensuring recent progress in numeracy is maintained, while also delivering high quality learning that meets the needs of all children.
There will be no further action or visits required to the school as a result of the inspection.
Staff in the mathematics department are developing pathways to meet the need of all learners better