How did our school respond to our problems?

Planning

We agreed to work together as a school community, united in purpose. When we worked through the developing priorities for our school quality improvement plan, we invited a wide range of interests to contribute; our pupil council, staff consultative group, representatives of our school board and parents and our senior management team. This was done through a strategic planning meeting held during the school day in late May.

The plan that emerged was very focussed. It identified the following priorities:

	promoting a sense of belonging to our school community
	ensuring a consistently high level of learning and teaching
	promoting a positive ethos of achievement based on respect
	improving communications with parents
	promoting the concept of shared leadership throughout our school

The achievement of these priorities became our shared vision. We felt confident that we had a consensus about our priorities and that we could get off to a good start. We knew, however, that we needed to sustain our developments over the long-term in terms of providing the kind of educational experiences our pupils deserved and in re-establishing our credentials within the wider community.

Promoting a positive ethos of achievement

In recent years, our school has made good progress in promoting an ethos of achievement. We have a positive behaviour management policy built on a culture of praise. We knew that we had to make clear that bullying behaviour was, simply, not acceptable. Rather than mount an overt campaign against bullying that might have indirectly made it seem attractive to a minority of pupils, we decided that we should explain the rationale for the ethos we wanted to develop. By doing this, bullying behaviour would be marginalised. Our anti-bullying policy provides advice for pupils, staff and parents on what bullying is and how it may be tackled. Most importantly, we have emphasised the key themes of belonging, respect and participation. with pupils and staff. Even such potentially tricky areas as social dancing classes have benefited from a greater prepared awareness of the feelings of others with resulting reduction in non-participation and offensive teasing.

"I was left reflecting on how easy it is to keep pupils to the path when they have been shown the path in advance".
(Teacher, having successfully elicited an apology from one pupil to another after an incident of offensive behaviour)

We have created Social Inclusion groups for pupils who can benefit from extra support in avoiding disaffection and lack of focus. We have been working with them to improve their levels of achievement and self-esteem, by, among more routine work on matters such as target setting (see Picture D), organising a seminar in a local hotel.

"Everybody was taking part. There was no carry on. We’ve got more confidence to talk to the teachers about stuff. We were helping to make the school better, but it was fun, too. It let the teachers and the other staff know what we were thinking. We agreed activities for our group and we organised a poster competition about litter with the art department".
(S4 pupil)

Other similar groups, for example the Bangerstocks Group (see Picture E), worked in a joint education-social services project that aimed to broaden the curriculum with pupils getting to grips (see Picture F) with vehicle function and maintenance.

Developing a sense of belonging

We prepared well for the information evening for the parents of Primary 7 pupils in June. Understandably, they wanted to be reassured that their children would be safe. Some parental comments follow:

"Parents who attended had anxieties due to the bad publicity the school had been given. Parents and prospective pupils needed to be put at ease about what their experiences at the school would be like. The headteacher… spoke with honesty and reassurance. He demonstrated a commitment to the school and its staff, and did much to put parents at ease. We had the opportunity to ask questions, which were answered in a clear and concise way. The tour which followed gave the 3rd year ‘guides’ the opportunity to show off their commitment to school life and their excellent navigation skills. It was obvious they felt comfortable in the school environment and had good interpersonal relationships with the staff who were in attendance".

"It was a busy evening with lots of children and parents looking for the relevant information from boards that were placed too close together. It might have been helpful to have the boards in separate areas, but there were plenty of staff and helpers on hand to ask for help in understanding the board layout. David has adjusted well to secondary school considering he came from a small rural school with only nine pupils. He was looking forward to meeting children his own age and making friends and he has not been disappointed. High school has been a positive experience so far for David".

Establishing a dress code

We agreed that, from Monday 7 June 2003, we would implement our dress code. Every pupil was expected to wear our school tie, polo shirt or sweatshirt.

"Since school uniform was introduced at Blairgowrie High School, there has been an improvement in the behaviour of pupils. This has improved the image of the school. There has been less bad publicity in the newspapers about the school. It is easy to decide what to wear to school as I have school clothes and other clothes. It saves time in the morning and arguments with my mum".
(Pupil)

Asking for external help

‘In-house’ help from the school and authority communities has been invaluable but outside assistance has also been a significant factor in our recovery. In May 2003, we invited the Manager of the Anti-Bullying and Ethos Networks to visit our school and give us some practical advice. He suggested that we expand the pupil social areas, soften the built environment by introducing more indoor plants and provide seating for pupils in the concourse (see Picture G). We included pupils in planning these changes and also extended the role of the pupil council.

When the ABN/SSEN Manager paid a return visit in January 2004 to discuss our progress, he toured round, met with a group of pupils, and a group of staff. He was complimentary about the pupils in the classes who projected a very positive ethos. He thought we could be described as a ‘friendly school with a calm, light atmosphere’. He noted that the guidance team spoke positively about pupils and that our social areas were improved. So far so good! He went on to provide further environmental advice: making drinking water available and making further improvements to the toilets. Importantly, he highlighted that we should offer more and better explanations about the way things happen in the school and how decisions are taken. He also talked about our ‘trigger issue’, bullying, and the importance of having a range of strategies to combat bullying - that it is not a ‘single solution’ problem. He offered to come back to speak to parents at an information evening.

Continuing professional development

Everything that has happened during our recovery period has in one sense or another been developmental but we have also invested in specific professional development. We invited three teachers to participate in a critical skills programme and to share the outcomes with their colleagues.

"The programme was very useful, it introduced me to an alternative learning strategy and has given me the opportunity to reflect and evaluate my own teaching practice. It helped me to recognise and build upon individual pupil strengths within the classroom thus increasing pupil involvement and self-esteem. Through the programme, I regained enthusiasm and confidence in my ability to promote a positive learning and teaching environment within the department. It helped me to develop more meaningful and interesting learning experiences for both staff and pupils".
(Participating Principal Teacher)

Improving our communication systems

We recognised that communication had to be systematic – that if something was worth communicating, it should be done so in ways that ensured its effective clarity and delivery:

	we have sharply focussed weekly assemblies for each year group (starting with S5/6 on Mondays and ending with S1 on Fridays)
	we have briefing meetings for principal teachers lasting 15 minutes each Monday morning
	we post our school newsletters directly to parents
	the rector has monthly meetings with the Chairs of the School Board and of the Parents, Staff and Friends (PSF) group
	we established a school marketing group who ensure that our achievements and positive activities receive positive and widespread media attention
	we have invested in six high quality public notice boards to help us promote our positive ethos.

Sharing leadership

Michael Fullan, guru of managing change in education, tells us that the success of School Heads should be measured by how many other leaders they develop to help their schools progress even further. We asked some people in Blairgowrie High School to comment on their own leadership responsibilities and were pleased that there is no shortage of leadership in our community!

"We share the responsibility for our children’s education by showing interest and encouraging a diligent approach to homework. By reinforcing school rules and standards such as the wearing of a uniform, we are encouraging a sense of belonging to the school and in turn are teaching our children self respect".
(Parent)

"I feel primarily it is our duty to help promote the positive ethos of our school, by organising social events that cover a broad spectrum of age that will bring our community together. Secondarily, we hope that we will make a profit from those events so that we are able to invest money back into the community. We are also able to help by showing an interest in how school policies are set and then by raising the awareness of parents about these school policies, and endorsing their importance".
(Chair PSF Group)

"By all sharing the responsibility of leadership we will encourage the pupils to do the same, and in doing so make our community a far better place to live".
(Parent)

Teachers at all levels and other staff all recognise their own multiple areas of responsibility and leadership, from direct teaching, consultancy and support, to managing budgets and simply

"...having a pleasant welcoming manner with visitors to the school and when answering the telephone - listening and trying to be supportive if they have a problem".
(Teacher)

Pupils too, again at all stages but most prominently the School Captains, practise leadership, in their case ranging from daily helping contact with younger pupils to big one-off events such as, this year, a very successful Senior Citizens Tea Dance and the Burns Supper for pupils, teachers and local VIPs.

How are we getting on now and what have we learned?

We recently asked parents about how they felt we were progressing. There was a lot of positive feedback. There were also areas where we need to make further improvements. These included:

	further building up our school’s reputation in the community
	dealing more effectively with pupil misbehaviour
	increasing pupil participation in extra- curricular activities
	responding more quickly to letters and telephone calls
	encouraging our pupils to work to their full potential

We have also responded to proposals from the pupil council and social inclusion groups and listened to informal feedback from the local community, which has been supportive. Some hard evidence will take longer to emerge, for example, the effect on SQA examination performances.

So far this session, 15 pupils have been excluded for a total of 91 days, a very significant improvement on the previous two years, noted earlier. The incidence of major breaches of school discipline is reducing but we are working towards further improvements.

As a school community, we know that we are now an improving school. However, we also recognise that we must continue to learn and improve. Until now, we know that improvements have been variable - now we must improve consistently:

	we need to emphasise the importance of belonging in our school community
	we must reinforce the culture of justified praise to ensure that it is firmly established in our school
	we need to communicate effectively, particularly about our priorities and our strengths and respond promptly to expressions of concern or complaints
	we need to underpin all our activities with a shared respect and care for each other and to encourage full participation by all the stakeholders (staff, pupils, parents, support agencies)
	we need to re-structure our support for pupils to maximise the effectiveness of our existing good practice.