Innovation generates inspiration and renovation

Netball Practice

In August 2002, inspired by the example of the boys, two of the S5 girls came to ask about setting up netball coaching for the younger girls. The netball club at St Andrew’s Campus had stopped functioning, leaving no netball available locally. The two girls would coach if they could get staff supervision. Fortunately, in a rash moment, one of the Learning Support staff had admitted that she was keen on netball and agreed to supervise. The coaching has been a great success, with most of the 40 or so girls who started out still turning up for training (see Picture D).

The venture was so popular that the numbers initially had to be limited, and it has continued into the current year, with the coaches now in Sixth Year and another group of pupils enjoying netball practice after school every week. Lynn and Lucy, the dedicated coaches, will be leaving school this summer, and our concern is whether we will have anyone willing to take over this initiative.

Dance School

Further interest this year - bringing another request to supervise - was expressed by two S6 girls, Rachael and Lindsay, who were keen to offer a class in dance. Having tried a number of potentially interested staff without success, it emerged that one of the school assistants might be willing to supervise. So it transpired, and the initial turnout of pupils was so high that the girls had to split the group and now do two lunchtime sessions each week.

Although this activity is still developing, it has complemented our team of Cheerleaders and attracted a new range of pupils to the gym (see Picture E and F). Again, however, the girls move on at the end of this year and we have the problem of whether there will be anyone to take their place.

As in the other activities, the participating girls are extremely enthusiastic about the class and about their leaders:

"Dance class is brilliant! It’s something for us to do at lunchtime and Rachael and Lindsay are really cool".

Web School

Although more sedentary than the others, this is the longest established of our peer support activities, having been in different forms of existence for several years now. The pupil-run scheme greatly impressed HMI during the 1999 inspection. The Computer Support Scheme, as it was then, engaged computer-literate senior pupils in being assigned to computer-illiterate teachers to teach them the basics of this essential skill. Around the same time, a group of S5 boys, under the direction of Depute Head C set up a Bearsden Academy website, which was - in our view and that of others - one of the best school websites in existence at that time.

This initiative evolved into a Web School for younger pupils interested in setting up their own websites, and its popularity demanded two lunchtime sessions each week, supervised by a teacher in the Computing Department who kept an eye on the proceedings and helped with any problems. The Web school operates through the school’s network, with all the usual security precautions in force so there is little danger of the pupils gaining access to inappropriate sites.

Again, when the key pupils - Barry, Chris, Dennis and Fraser - moved on to other things, we were faced with the difficulty of keeping up the incredibly high standard they had set, and the introduction of a new school network meant that the old website had to be completely refreshed. Two of the existing S6, Alan and Calum, took on the task and the new website was launched in the autumn of 2002. This site can be visited at www.bearsdenacademy.org - we believe that its excellence is self-evident. The mainstays of the Web School, David and Stuart, who were then in S4, now continue the good work at lunchtimes, training up a future generation of webmasters. A recent Education Authority decision to regulate school websites and make them conform to a set specification would appear to threaten the sophistication both of our own website and those of other schools where staff and pupils have already invested so much thought, time and learning effort into them.

Dreams or possibilities?

At present a number of the present S6 girls are keen to form a school tennis squad. As is the case with many other schools, the tennis courts became the car-park many years ago and there are few schools who now play tennis, yet…We also have pupils who play badminton to international standard and a badminton club would be a joy…

Summary

The initiatives show that a little lateral thinking can bring solutions - or partial solutions - to difficult problems. The solutions may be temporary and they may in turn throw up other problems, but at least they allow some positive development in widening pupils’ opportunities for achievement and also the very important opportunity for older pupils to take real responsibility and prove themselves as organisers and providers of services - surely an important skill for life.

However, if the Scottish Executive and Education Authorities are serious about young people’s involvement in sport, there is a need to consider how to provide schools with appropriate personnel and facilities for sport. For example, giving schools the facility to pay coaches, allowing the offsetting of sports coaching against the 35-hour contractual week, encouraging league competitions, etc. Our experience suggests that the demand is there from the youngsters, especially when they are particularly enthusiastic at the start of their secondary school career, and that, if they are ‘caught’ young, the commitment may last. Such positive national and local facilitation would not preclude the development of pupil-pupil initiatives - indeed we would suggest that they would enable more and wider opportunities.

The various initiatives that have been undertaken by pupils and former pupils for pupils, in their own time and sometimes at their own expense, have added enormously to the extra-curricular provision in the school for younger pupils. Added to the commitment of the supervising staff involved, the programme has enabled a large number of pupils to improve their skills, widen their range of achievements and, in most cases, their personal fitness. The involvement of peers has introduced a new and different relationship to the ethos of the school and has enhanced it considerably in the process. Whilst a development of this nature is by definition difficult to sustain, there is clear evidence in our school that the enthusiasm and commitment shows no sign of declining, and offers the prospect of long-term provision for activities that cannot readily be provided from the pool of staff expertise.