Standards and Quality Report 2013-2014

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Larbert High School

Standards& Quality Report

Session 2013 - 2014


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The past year has been a terrific success for LarbertHigh School and I am confident that you will be impressedwith the achievements of our young people. This report

provides a mere snapshot of what has taken place overthe course of the last year and as a result of thecommitment and talents of both our young people and a

really dedicated, hard-working staff.

Curriculum for Excellence continues to flourish and provide our pupils withample opportunities to develop their Skills for Learning, Life & Work.Combined with a very strong set of examination results in August 2014 (whereTeam Larbert once again achieved many more personal bests) our pupils are

placed in prime position for life after school. Indeed, we recorded our highestever figure for positive destinations with 99.3% of pupils entering employment,training, further or higher education (as at November 2013). This is quiteremarkable given the current economic climate and is proof that everything weare doing as a school is coming together and producing the desired effect.When this is coupled with further improvements in attendance and a reductionin exclusion levels, to the lowest level ever, we know we are moving in theright direction and the momentum is therefore strong to secure even more

improvements.

Were constantly reflecting and looking at what we can do even better becauseall of us want the very best for each and every young person who passesthrough LHS. Headline figures are important, but behind those and what ismost important, are the talents and dreams of our young people and its our

job to help make those become a reality. So, congratulations to our staff andour pupils and thank you to all of our parents and partners for the invaluablesupport which has been provided. When everyone is working United in

Purpose to aim for the very best for our young people, it is very powerfulindeed.

I hope you find this report helpful and informative. As always, if you have anycomments on it, or on our school, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Jon Reid, Rector.

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A Word from the Rector


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Our School

Larbert High School hasbeen on its present sitesince 2000, but can

trace its origins as farback as 1631.

The school roll hasincreased significantly inrecent years, reflectingthe growing numbers ofthose who choose to live in the school catchment area plus a demand for placesoutwith.

In August 2013 we had 1718 pupils, 144 teachers and 44 support staff. Ourschool works in close partnership with the head teachers and pupils of our sevenassociated primary schools within the Larbert cluster and with Falkirk CouncilsEducation Services.

In addition to being encouraged to achieve the highest standards in academicstudies, Larbert High School pupils have the opportunity to participate in a widevariety of extra-curricular interests. At Larbert we believe that these leisure and

school experiences make a very valuable contribution to a young personseducation.

We are a community sports hub officially recognised by sportscotland (TrystCommunity Sports Club), a School of Rugby in partnership with Scottish Rugbyand a School of Football in partnership with the Scottish Football Association, a

School of Basketball inpartnership withBasketball Scotland and

a School of Dance inpartnership with NRGDance.

standards and quality report for 2013-2014 page 3


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Improvement Plan Priorities 2013-14

In session 2013-14 we carried out a number of improvements in the followingfive areas:

Curriculum (for Excellence)

Learning and Teaching

Ethos

Support

Leadership

Successes and Achievements

How are we doing?/How do we know?In this section we report on our improvements in performance, ourexpectations and our promotion of wider achievement.

Examination results are only one indicator of the schools effectiveness andshould be considered within the context of each pupils individual progress.



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Headlines from our 2014 Exams

From S4 The results achieved in 2014 at all levels in S4, outperformed both the

Falkirk and Scottish averages.

Two pupils passed Higher Latin, three pupils passed Higher Photographyand eight pupils passed Higher Modern Studies all one year early.

From S5

Our pupils in S5 maintained a very strong set of results at Higher level withincreases at all levels and which we anticipate will place us in the top 50schools in Scotland (from over 400) for the fourth year in a row.

86 pupils (27%) passed 5 or more Highers - with 14 pupils achieving 5Highers at Grade A.

156 pupils (48%) achieved 3 or more Highers and 213 pupils (67%) achievedat least one Higher these are our highest ever levels!

As well as these excellent Higher results, two-thirds of S5 have at least 5Intermediate 2 awards (which can be used to enter college or as a steppingstone to Higher).

From S6

Larbert High School pupils, in S6, have secured another very strong set of

Higher and Advanced Higher results, with an overall improving trend over thelast 5 years.

Five pupils gained the Scottish Baccalaureate in Science and Languages.

Eight of our pupils passed three Advanced Highers at the same sitting, withtwo of them achieving grade A in all three.



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Highlights of our Achievements and Developments

There have been numerous achievements which have helped to develop andenhance pupil experience and school identity. These have included:

1. In November we had the privilege of mingling with the very best leaders in

their field at the Nature of Scotland Awards, which are designed to recogniseand celebrate excellence, innovation and outstanding achievement inScottish nature conservation. We won the highly coveted Youth & EducationAward, which was presented to us by Sally Magnusson and Fred MacAulay.This recognises the wonderful work that has been done in the Carron DamsNature Reserve which is used by many subject areas in an interdisciplinarylearning capacity.

2. All of our first years have taken part in the John Muir Award with over 300

pupils achieving discovery level. This is led by the humanities faculty with afocus on encouraging people from all backgrounds to care for wild places.

3. We have established a school community garden with the help ofCommunities Along the Carron (CACTA) which has resulted in us accessinggrants, local help and now growing and selling our own produce.

4. Our work in promoting Glasgow 2014 and the Commonwealth GamesLegacy resulted in Education Scotland awarding us with a Game On Scotlandplaque.

5. Our Captains Challenge was launched this year involving 1200 pupils andwill leave a lasting legacy in the school for generations to follow. It includeda visit to the school by Sir Chris Hoy in April and Judy Murray in October. Theaim of the challenge was to increase physical or cultural activities in ouryoung people and was complemented with a series of visits from sevenCommonwealth athletes.

6. Nicola Morgan, our Patron of Reading, hosted an event along with our S1literacy quiz during our Literacy Across Larbertweek in March, to promote

our young people as better readers, writers, listeners and speakers.7. We have had many activities in the Science field with awards being won from

the Concrete Society, The Royal Society of Chemistry, The ChemistryOlympiad and our Go4set winners from last year shared their good practiceat the UK Young Scientists and Engineer Fair in Birmingham. In addition wereceived a visit from Lab in a Lorry as part of the National Science andEngineering Week celebrations and hosted a Science, Technology,Engineering and Maths Fair, designed to increase the number of young

people entering into a positive destination in these fields.



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8. Our charity work and fundraisingcontinues to grow from strengthto strength, supporting Help forHeroes, Maggies Cancer Centresoon to be built at Forth Valley

Hospital, our link with WoodlandsSchool in Cape Town; Children inNeed; Movember; Shoe BoxAppeal for Belarus; EpilepsyAwareness Day and theChildrens Hospice Scotland raising around 14,000. In total the generosityof our young people and their families has been outstanding.

9. Thirteen pupils working towards their gold Duke of Edinburgh award visited

Gambia in April volunteering and renovating a skills centre for locals andalmost seventy pupils achieved their silver award.

10. The Tryst Community Sports Club continues its success with the promotionof health and wellbeing across the school with 63 different clubs andactivities from 7.30am until late in the evening and 17 young sportsmenand women regularly competing in a variety of sports at regional, nationaland international level. We have secured funding in excess of 220,000 toconstruct a bike pump track, which will be the only one of its type inScotland.11. We continue to host numerous high profile events, allperformed to capacity audiences. Our school show Fame was outstandingand highlighted an abundance of dramatic and musical talent, our DanceShowcase showed off dance and movement skills of a professional standardfrom all year groups including some from our cluster primaries and ourSchool of Dance pupils. Our fourth environmentally friendly Trash Fashionshow produced some stunning creative and artistic outfits all designed andmade by our pupils.

12. The Expressive Arts Faculty had an evening of celebrations where the

Musical Theatre and Theatre in Education WAO performed, and the MusicTechnology WAO provided the lighting and sound back up and thePhotography WAO mounted a display of their work. This was in addition toperformances at Strathcarron, the Dobbie Hall and our associated primaries,a performance with an African Choir and the Drama groups play FirstContactwritten and devised by the pupils.



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What are we going to do next?

In session 2014-2015 it is our intention to continue our journey to excellence byensuring academic and wider opportunities are available to all our pupils throughour Broad General Education (S1-S3) and our Senior Phase (S4-S6) offering adiverse range of courses and experiences to allow our pupils to achieve success,prepare them for their pathway when they leave school and to strive for furtheracademic excellence.

In particular we are going to focus on:

improving levels of attainment for all learners.

enhancing our tracking and monitoring approaches to track attainment,achievements and skills in the Broad General Education (BGE) and SeniorPhase.

integrating our subject profiles with our S3 profiles and our Optimum Awardto support young people in articulating their strengths, their achievementsand their next steps.

the implementation of the new National Qualifications and revise our internalverification and moderation procedures to ensure a consistently high qualityof delivery.

updating our learning & teaching policy to include best practice video clips

from across our Cluster schools.

extending our interdisciplinary learning (IDL) policy across all year groups.

introducing a new electronic homework system called Show My Homework


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Work and Life of the School

How are we doing?/How do we know?

During session 2013-2014, the school made very good progress withimprovements in the following areas:

We have ensured that our 2 year courses have added value units to giveour pupils the best possible chance of achieving their targets.

Wi-Fi has been installed throughout the school, and we produced andpublished a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device policy) to allow the use of mobilephones and other technology to enhance the learning experience for ouryoung people.

We continued to improve our transition processes at all stages with a

particular focus on individual plans, course choices and vocationalexperiences which resulted in 99.3% of our young people moving into apositive destination. This was achieved through partnership working withForth Valley College, Employment and Training Unit, Community Learning &Development and Skills Development Scotland.

We introduced the Optimum Award for our first year pupils, which is aLarbert achievement award to complement pupil profiles.

We planned for the implementation of a 33 period week including introducingelectives in S2 to complete the BGE and further refine our Senior Phase.

We developed and implemented a new Numeracy across Learning policyresulting in all first year pupils gaining their numeracy passport.

We redefined our pupils support facilities and created a nurture base toprovide additional support for some of our young people and their families.



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We will:

extend the range of subjects available in the Senior Phase working withpartners and local businesses to achieve this and we will review our

curricular policies to take account of this. we will implement additional time within our BGE for S1 Transition and extend

the Skills for Learning, Life & Work agenda with the addition of further BGEelectives.

introduce a S6 Transition programme, a community volunteering programmeand create a framework for the delivery of RMPS in the Senior Phase.

with colleagues across our Cluster, pilot a new approach for the delivery of

PE and Music and design a 1+2 languages programme which complementsour work within our BGE.

revise our health and wellbeing (HWB) programme, particularly focussing ontransitions from the BGE to Senior Phase with the aim of achieving 100%positive destinations.

develop an alternative to exclusion programme and further embed theprinciples of a nurturing school.


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Vision and Leadership

How are we doing?/How do we know?

We work with teachers, parents and other parties to develop and shape acommon vision for our school. Our vision is firmly based on outcomes for our

learners and is clearly linked to national and local priorities.Continuous improvement, achievement and success for our learners are centralto our schools strategic direction. In this respect, one of our key priorities is tocontinue with our positive partnership working and to develop and distributeleadership at all levels.

We have made very good progress in the following areas:

Our pupil council was restructured to involve senior pupils leading and

mentoring younger pupils. We involved pupils in the recruitment and selection of staff through lesson

observation feedback and involvement on interview panels.

We embarked on a tiered introduction of the new employee review &development (ERD) process to further enhance the skills of our staff.

We have ensured our quality assurance system is in place involvingleadership at senior and middle level and requiring all staff to play a role in

this. A successful IDL experience for S3 pupils was led by our probationer

teachers and resulted in a project for the entire year group involving allsubject areas.

We have registered and are working towards achieving UNICEF RightsRespecting School status through excellent work in global citizenship andsustainable schools.

Our programme of three learning and teaching reviews within a schoolsession continued involving members of the senior and middle leadershipteams and using the findings to inform our improvement and qualityassurance agendas.


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The priorities for our Improvement Plan for session 2014-2015 have beenidentified through consultation with groups of pupils, staff and parents.

In particular we will:

look to increase pupil and parent voice through surveys, questionnaires andfocus groups and extend our programme of parental information sessions.

introduce a Leadership Academy to provide formal leadership opportunitiesfor S1-S6 pupils so that this contributes to the confidence and personalskills of our young people to equip them for life in the 21st century.

enhance our self-evaluation and quality assurance procedures with theintroduction of a Performance Manager Role at Senior Leadership level to

track and monitor targets, data and process to ensure that they have animpact on pupil progress.

continue to implement our new ERD programme which is linked to theGeneral Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS) professional update process.

update and embed our self-evaluation policy in line with national guidancefrom Education Scotland.

Conclusion

Larbert High School has a focused continuous improvement agenda which wehave made very good progress in the last year in almost all of the areasidentified. In session 2014-2015 a number of further improvements will beembarked upon which will enhance the experience of our pupils. Full details ofthese improvements can be found on our website at www.larberthigh.com.


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Appendix 1

S3 Achievement in 2014

Since 2008, Larbert High School has presented all pupils in S3 for SQAexaminations. This is a year earlier than most other Scottish secondary

schools. S3 results are not published nationally this only applies to results inother year groups.

Under Curriculum for Excellence, other than in exceptional circumstances,presentation for examinations in S3 is being phased out (this is a nationalposition).

In 2014, the following results were obtained by pupils at the end of S3:

57 pupils achieved awards in three National 5 subjects;

102 pupils achieved awards in two National 5 subjects;

161 pupils achieved an award in one National 5 subject.

S4 Achievement in 2014

Previously in S4, some of our pupils topped up what they had achieved in S3.Other pupils start their Higher and National courses which they complete overtwo years.

As intimated previously, the introduction of new Curriculum for Excellencequalifications means that comparisons with the past results are no longerappropriate or valid for the S4 pupil cohort.

However, some headline figures from 2014 worthy of note are:

Our most literate S4 cohort, ever! 174 pupils (59% of the year group)gained a qualification in National 5 English (an increase of 8% whencompared with a similar level of qualification from last year)and all pupilswho attended school achieved a literacy qualification.

99.3% of the year group achieved a qualification in Mathematics, with morepupils achieving this at a higher level than ever before.


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1 or more Awards at SCQF Level 6

(% of pupils achieving 1 pass, or better, at Higher Level)

2012 2013 2014

67% 68% 69%

S6 Achievement

By the endof S6

3 or more Awards at SCQF Level 6(% of pupils achieving 3 passes, or better, at Higher Level)

2012 2013 2014

48% 53% 51%

By the endof S6


(% of pupils achieving 5 passes, or better, at Higher Level)

2012 2013 2014

35% 39% 38%

By the endof S6

1 or more Awards at SCQF Level 7(% of pupils achieving 1 pass, or better, at Advanced Higher Level)

2012 2013 2014

20% 28% 27%

By the endof S6

3 or more Awards at SCQF Level 6(% of pupils achieving 3 passes, or better, at Higher Level)

2012 2013 2014

42% 39% 48%

S5 Achievement

By the endof S5


(% of pupils achieving 5 passes, or better, at Higher Level)2012 2013 2014

28% 21% 27%

By the endof S5


(% of pupils achieving 3 passes, or better, at Higher Level)

2012 2013 2014

62% 65% 67%

By the end

of S5


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Feedback of our Standards and Quality

We are very keen to receive you comments and feedback to help us toimprove our report for next year. If you could take a few minutes to completethe questions below we would be most grateful.

1. Did this report have information that was useful to youabout Larbert High School?

2. Was the report written in way that was easy to read andunderstand?

3. Was the examination information easy to understand?

4. Please give any comments that you feel would be usefulfor us to consider when designing next years report

Yes No

Please return to: RectorLarbert High SchoolCarrongrange AvenueStenhousemuir FK5 3BL

www.larberthigh.com Twitter: @LarbertHigh



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ANE FOR A'

Larbert High School

Carrongrange Avenue Stenhousemuir Larbert FK5 3BL

Telephone: 01324 554233 Fax: 01324 503551Email: [email protected] Web: www.larberthigh.com

Twitter: @LarbertHigh PrintedbyFalkirkPrintworksTel:01324501490Fax:01324501491Email:printworks

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