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Holyrood R.C. Secondary School

1 About our school

Holyrood RC Secondary opened in 1936 to serve the Catholic community of the south east of

Glasgow. This year is our 75th anniversary. To mark the occasion the school community has

organised a number of commemorative events. The first was a celebration of Mass in one of

our local parishes Christ the King by Archbishop Conti and a former pupil Bishop John

Mone. In November we marked our 75th

anniversary with an exhibition of the life and history

of the school from its opening in 1936. Recordings were made of former pupils’ recollections

of their time here in Holyrood.

The building was extended extensively in 1972 with a five storey teaching block, assembly

hall, swimming pool and sports facilities added. In 1996 a new purpose built IT block was

added giving 12 ICT rooms. In 2000 a new sports centre was built, with part of the cost met

by Lottery funding. This building is shared with Glasgow Life for use by the local

community in the evening and weekends. In 2002 the school was further extended and

refurbished with a new teaching block, dinner hall and a school oratory, built in the patio

area.

Currently the school roll is approximately 2000 pupils and 134 FTE teaching staff. At the

present time our school is the UKs largest secondary comprehensive school. Holyrood

secondary is the hub of the Holyrood learning community which comprises nine primary

schools St Albert’s Primary, St Francis’ Primary, St Bride’s Primary, St Brigid’s Primary,

Holy Cross Primary, St Fillan’s Primary, St Mirin’s Primary, Our Lady of the Annunciation

Primary, St Conval’s Primary and St Oswald’s ASN school. The school serves a wide area

from south of the river Clyde to the city boundary.

The proportion of young people entitled to free school meals is well above the national

average. English is an additional language for around a third of young people on our school

roll. A significant number of pupils enter the school by placing request. ( The number in

receipt of a free school meal is approximately 24%.)

The Senior Management team consists of the Head Teacher and 7 Depute Head Teachers.

The Pastoral Care team comprises 10 Principal Teachers. There are 15 Curricular Principal

Teachers. The school also operates a Learning Unit to promote social inclusion and promote

positive behaviour and a language unit to support those for whom English is not their first

language.

The school has very good links with parents and the wider community. It has an active and

supportive Parent Council. Links with the Catholic Church are strong through the ministry

of the Chaplain, the local parishes and the Archdiocese of Glasgow.

Holyrood is a Roman Catholic Secondary school and our life and work are based on our

Gospel values. We also acknowledge that our school contains young people of other faith

backgrounds and we have successfully developed an inclusive community.

Standards and Quality Report for Session 2010-2011

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2 Our vision, values and aims

In Holyrood Roman Catholic Secondary School, in partnership with parents and carers, our

parishes and our community, we aim to:

Achieve success for all our young people.

Promote the values of the Gospel.

Achieve the highest standards in all that we do.

Promote respect for everyone within our school community.

It is understood that:

‘Success ‘refers to all aspects of attainment and achievement by young people, to achieve full

potential. Our aspiration is that all young people are included in that vision.

The Gospel values are derived from the ‘beatitudes’ such as love, justice, wisdom and

compassion and fully relate to the values of the Scottish Parliament: wisdom, justice,

integrity and compassion.

3A Our successes and achievements

What outcomes have we achieved?

Improvements in performance (Quality indicator 1.1)

The overall quality of Improvements in performance is very good.

The recent Inspection report stated: There are aspects of young people’s achievement which are excellent.

Overall levels of attainment from S3 to S6 are consistently better or much better than schools serving

young people with similar needs and from similar backgrounds. In almost all measures the school

consistently performs in line with or above national averages. There are clear improving trends in

attainment in the majority of key measures. By the end of S6 figures have improved year on year over the

last four years and the school performs consistently above the national average. Across all stages, the

attainment levels of the most vulnerable young people have been raised.

Papal visit Bellahouston Park

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SQA- Single Year Attainment % (Source: STACS)

By the end of S4, the % achieving

2009 (Post Appeal) 2010 (Post Appeal) 2011 (Pre Appeal)

H CG Gla N H

CG Gla N H

CG Gla N

Eng and mathematics at level 3 or better 92 93 88 93 90 92 90 93 86 91 91 93

5 or more at level 3 or better 92 90 86 92 92 90 89 92 89 89 91 93

5 or more at level 4 or better 73 73 65 78 77 69 69 78 77 70 72 78

5 or more at level 5 or better 35 29 24 35 36 26 24 36 32 27 24 35

H= Holyrood

CG= Comparator Group (Median value)

N= National Level 3 is FoundationLevel at St Grade or Access 3 at National Certificate Level 4 is General Level at St Grade or Intermediate 1 at National Certificate Level 5 is Credit Level at St Grade or Intermediate 2 at National Certificate

On all measures Holyrood outperforms comparator schools in S4. Our results in S4 are also

better or equal to the national average. Holyrood’s results are well above the City of Glasgow’s

average.

By the end of S5, the percentage achieving

2009 (Post Appeal) 2010 (Post Appeal) 2011 (Pre Appeal)

H

CG Gla N

H

CG Gla N

H

CG Gla N

1 or more Higher 42 33 29 41 43 37 32 43 43 37 33 44

3 or more Highers 23 16 13 23 29 18 17 25 25 18 16 26

5 or more Highers 11 6 5 11 15 6 8 11 9 7 7 12

5 or more at level 5 or better 50 40 34 47 47 44 37 49 49 40 37 50

Similarly to the S4 picture Holyrood on all measures Holyrood performs above comparator

schools at Higher level. Our results in S5 are also better or equal to the national average.

Holyrood’s results at Higher level are well above the City of Glasgow’s average.

SQA- Single Year Attainment % (Source: STACS)

By the end of S6, the percentage achieving

2009 (Post Appeal) 2010 (Post Appeal) 2011 (Pre Appeal)

H CG Gla N

H CG Gla

N H

CG Gla N

3 or more Highers 34 24 22 31 31 27 22 33 36 29 24 35

5 or more Highers 24 14 13 21 23 18 13 22 26 19 15 23

These figures indicate that young people in S6 add considerable value to their SQA attainment,

performing above national standards and showing virtual year on year improvement.

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School Leaver Destinations (% breakdown of Positive Destinations, Excluding Voluntary Work)

2009 2010 2011

School

HE 31.3 37.6 38.1

FE 33.6 32.9 25.0

Training 4.4 7.3 8.3

Employment 18 12.8 19.2

Glasgow

HE 26.0 27.3 28.3

FE 30.8 29.0 28.5

Training 9.0 10.3 10.1

Employment 18.0 17.2 18.4

National

HE 34.9 35.7

FE 27.0 27.1

Training 5.1 5.2

Employment 18.4 18.5

HE is Higher Education: University Courses FE is Further Education: Primarily College Courses

Attendance

Attendance in Holyrood has improved by approximately 4% over the past five years. A range of

strategies have been employed to bring about and sustain this improvement. These include SMS

text to parents of child absent from school. Additionally the Holyrood Challenge programme

rewards pupils for good attendance each month. Pastoral Care staff carry out a daily examination

of period attendance discrepancies.

Stage Attendance (%)

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Total

2008 92.9 90.5 90.4 89.5 94.6 94.8 91.8

2009 92.3 90.4 87.9 91.7 94.0 95.9 91.5

2010 92.7 91.5 88.1 89.0 92.1 93.8 90.9

Overall Attendance (%)

2008/09 2009/10 2010/11

School 91.8 91.5 90.9

Glasgow 89.1 89.8 89.6

National 91.1 91.2 N/A

Our overall attendance improved over the past years from 88% in 2007 to 91% in 2011.

In an on-going way we use our assembly programme to highlight attendance and statistics and

stress to pupils the importance of good attendance. A new initiative has been the training of staff

(ELO) on MSN text messaging to parents of pupils who are absent. Tutor time –is used to

monitor attendance and mentoring by volunteer staff with PTPC focuses on good attendance. Our

pastoral care staff undertake a daily scrutiny of period attendance discrepancies. This is followed

up by referrals to attendance council. We have a rota of lunchtime detention for pupils

persistently late.

Census Roll

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Stage S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Total

2009 394 355 353 390 272 175 1939

2010 387 385 355 354 321 166 1968

2011 347 380 393 343 308 220 1992

Stay-on Rates (%)

S5 (Sept) S6

School Glasgow National School Glasgow National

2009/10 76 77 79 53 53 60

2010/11 82 84 82 61 58 66

2011/12 87 56

Exclusions

Exclusion Incidents and Openings Lost per 1,000 pupils

School Glasgow

Session Openings Lost

Exclusion Incidents

Openings Lost Exclusion Incidents

2008/09 615.3 90.0 873.3 145.2

2009/10 280.6 44.9 615.6 111.6

2010/11 252.5 35.6 508.4 100.0

FME (%) (as taken from School Meals Census, February each year)

Session

2009 2010 2011

Holyrood

19.3 24.1 22.2

Glasgow Secondary Schools 27.2 30.1 29.3

The overall trend in exclusions is downwards, because we continue to take a problem-solving approach to

dealing with children’s challenging behaviour. The big drop in exclusions is evidence of our efforts to

adopt such strategies and try different sanctions and measures.

Teaching block built in Malawi Making porridge for World Porridge Day

What progress have we made?

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Building a school in Malawi S6 pupils giving blood

Pupils at the Anne Frank exhibition in the school library

Our schools website www.holyrood-sec.glasgow.sch.uk gives some examples of the curricular and extra-curricular work of the school.

What are our areas for improvement in the coming session?

Malawi fundraising Ball

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4 How good can we be?

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For further information contact: T McDonald, HEADTEACHER

Appendix 1

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Self-evaluation Tools

SQA Analysis by SMT and by individual departments. In October each department head meets with the HT and outlines an SQA action plan.

Department and whole school self-evaluation using HGIOS quality indicators 1.1, 2.1, 5.1, 5.3, 5.9 and 9.4, using materials from ‘Taking a Closer Look at Excellence’ (TACLE). This has been developed over past year with input from our link QIO.

Annual Performance Review – Area Education Manager and link Quality Improvement Officer meet with Holyrood’s Senior Management Team. The SQA performance and QI of the school examined and points for action developed.

Professional Review and Development meetings

Regular meetings with PT Curriculum, PTPC and SMT to review progress in curricular and developmental areas.

Programme of class visits involving SMT as well as departmental visits. The focus for class visits was again linked to the school improvement plan. A calendar of review dates issued at the beginning of term 1. .

Interim review of school improvement plan and department improvement plans at the end of each term.

Departmental programmes of monitoring and evaluation. PTs make a regular return on their work in the monitoring of their department. Cross marking, class visits, developmental tasks etc.

For each Year Team, review of attendance, behaviour and progress, through a weekly meeting of DHT and PT Pastoral Care

Feedback sought from parents following Parents’ Evenings, pupil reports and Information Evenings

Meetings of the Parent Council.

Meetings of pupil councils, including consultation on school improvement priorities

Meetings to reflect on improvements required, i.e. Senior Management Team, Management Team, Subject Departmental meetings, Joint Support Team, Working Groups.