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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.
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