Scottish Executive (government) data about the school can be found on the ParentZone Scotland website.
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Enter the school name in the online form to be taken to Earlston High School's section.

You will then be able to follow links to view:

• HMIE Inspection Report (2001) and Follow-Up Report (2003)
• Fourth, fifth and sixth year exam results
• Attendance and absence tables
• Staying on rates
• Leaver destinations
• Free meal entitlement statistics

EARLSTON HIGH SCHOOL

Standards & Quality Report Summary 2008-2009

This summary report gives parents and the school community an overall picture of our progress last session. It highlights our aims, achievements and areas for development.

1. What do we aim to do?

• To promote high quality teaching and learning
• To develop confident individuals, effective contributors, successful learners and responsible citizens
• To strive for continuous improvement and excellence
• To ensure our pupils are safe, happy and achieving their fullest potential
• To encourage participation in school and community
• To work collegially within the school community and all school partners
• To celebrate attainment, achievement and diversity
• To prepare pupils for life and work

2. What have we achieved this year?

EHS is an inclusive school that provides a high quality of education and encourages all pupils to achieve their potential. In session 2008/09, we achieved the following:

Attainment

• Quality assurance procedures continue to challenge departments to analyse SQA results and encourage them to seek strategies to raise levels of attainment
• Academic mentoring continues to provide targeted support for students
• Target setting and tracking is beginning to promote enhanced levels of attainment and achievement

5-14 Attainment

Key: EHS = Earlston High School

SBC = Scottish Borders average

NAT = National average across Scottish schools

Comp = Comparator schools

Level E by the end of S1

Level F by the end of S2

Our5-14 performance continues to be above SBC and comparator schools.

S4 Attainment (5+ credit level standard grades)

In 2009, SQA attainment was consistent with previous years and remains well above the national pattern.

S5/6 Attainment

Attainment is well above the national pattern, the S5 2009 results were the highest since 1999.

Achievement

• As a school we are keen to recognize wider achievement and the introduction of our ‘Hall of fame’ ’this year has helped us to move towards this goal.
• Our new system for recording participation in both school and community activities helps us to encourage those not already involved, as well as an opportunity to congratulate those that are.
• Our extra-curricular programme is extensive and continues to develop year-on-year.

Curriculum

• Pupils retain a curriculum that gives them experience of a wide range of subjects at all levels. Several new subjects have been introduced, including Higher Drama and Higher RMPS.
• Continual progress was made with our preparation for the implementation of ‘Curriculum for Excellence’, with staff and students involved in a variety of activities throughout the year. Significant curricula changes will occur in the future.

Learning and teaching

• We continue to offer and wide range of in-service and training opportunities to allow staff to develop new skills
• Sharing good practice has become a feature across the school with peer observation gaining popularity
• Our reporting procedures continue to be developed to include pupil input. Many departmental PLPs contain a section for parental feedback
• This year has seen a significant growth in self-evaluation activities across all sectors of the school. Feedback from stakeholders is now informing both departmental and the school improvement plans
• We have continued to develop Numeracy across the curriculum and will move on to literacy this coming year.
• Staff have been engaged in cross- curricular working, including work with our feeder primary schools.

Support for Pupils

• The S1 buddy system was extremely successful with the evaluation forming the basis of the training for this years sixth year students.
• The school placed a huge emphasis on ‘Anti-bullying week’ with all pupils receiving a wristband and a clear message about not bullying.
• A lot of time has been spent developing processes for more effective transitions at all stages

Ethos

• In preparation for our new school and in consultation with pupils, parents and staff- our vision, values and aims were revisited and rewritten. This was a huge piece of work but a very worthwhile one.
• Continual progress is made with Health Promotion, Eco- Schools and citizenship activities. The home coming week was particularly successful.
• Stakeholders decided on our new dress code.
• Communication and consultation with stakeholders to inform decision making has been a valuable experience throughout the session

Resources

• A significant amount of time was spent planning for the move to the new school as well as developing new ways of working.
• Electronic communication across the school has seen a radical reduction in paper use

Management & leadership

• Leadership at all levels across the school has developed with further work for 2009/10
• Careful management lead to the successful implementation of Pupil Council and Executive council who have had a very busy year; making decisions on school dress, school values, the new school and school priorities

Other successes include:

3. What is our capacity for change?

EHS continues to strive for excellence in all that it does. Teachers are committed to the school; they set high standards and provide a wealth of extra support for our young people. Pupils are keen to do well and there is a strong, inclusive community. Parental involvement is high and community links are developing well. SMT see learning & teaching as the core business and regularly review how to improve aspects of the school. Our new accommodation provides us with an excellent environment in which to embrace the curriculum of the future.

4. What do we plan to do during session 2009/10?

Through evaluation with stakeholders, we have identified a number of key areas that we think would improve our school even further.

We aim to:

• Improve Learning and teaching through mediated learning, study skills and regular consultation with pupils
• Improve pupil attainment and performance through target setting and tracking
• Involve pupils in their learning through Personal Learning Planning (PLPs) and target setting
• Design our curriculum and timetable to allow for the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence.
• Continue to develop the curriculum to include the development of vocational education
• Develop effective partnerships with our local and wider communities
• Develop the use of ICT to enhance learning experiences for all, especially ‘Glow’.
• Develop a more rigorous self-evaluation system that leads to an improvement for our young people.
• Development of the new school systems

We trust you find this leaflet helpful and informative. All our work is centred on how we can make things better for our pupils. As always, we welcome suggestions from pupils, parents and staff on how we can further improve our school.

M Strong

Headteacher (September 2009)