1 About our school / centre / Saint Roch’s is a Roman Catholic; co-educational school which is part of Saint Roch’s learning community serving the north area of Glasgow.
Our school, situated in the Royston area of Glasgow, was established in 1928. It is a red sandstone, three storey building. Although the school is at the heart of a very close community with many parents and grandparents being former pupils of the school, the local area, and consequently the school intake, truly reflects the cultural and ethnic diversity of modern Glasgow.
In addition to normal classrooms, all of which come equipped with a projector, classroom computer and frequently a Smart Board, premises include: six newly upgraded ICT suites; six science rooms; two Home Economics kitchens; a fabric room; four Technical rooms; an EAL base; a Library; a Learning Support Base; an assembly hall; and a social area with dining room. PE facilities include a newly refurbished swimming pool and two gyms. Saint Roch’s Secondary school also incorporates the Hearing Impairment Unit, an interdenominational unit which caters for secondary aged deaf young people. The school is the major centre of deaf education in the north of Glasgow.
The school roll is currently 546 pupils with approximately 45% of pupils in our school community entitled to Free School Meals.
The school is surrounded by a mixture of rented accommodation and owner-occupied housing.
2 Our vision, values and aims / Vision for our school
“To work together to improve the life chances of all in our school community by ensuring that all are safe, healthy, well cared for and have access to the highest quality of learning and teaching”
Values to support this Vision
Hard Work Inclusion Tolerance Respect Justice Compassion
Aims of promoting the above values
We aim to ensure that all in our school community value learning
We aim to ensure that we improve attainment and provide opportunities for all to achieve
We aim to provide opportunities for all to take responsibility and display leadership
We aim to develop the skills of all in our school community and to celebrate success in achieving this aim
We aim to develop knowledge of, and respect for, other faiths and cultures
We aim to help all others in and outwith our school community
What outcomes have we achieved?
Improvements in performance (Quality indicator 1.1)
The overall quality of improvements in performance is very good
o Improvements in Performance
o In the BGE most pupils are making very good progress with planned learning in the eight curricular areas. At a classroom, departmental and whole school level staff track young people’s progress carefully. All staff contribute to the pupils’ development of Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing skills. Staff have been working together to develop further assessment of Literacy and Numeracy in order to further support young people’s developing skills across the curriculum. Information about young people’s skills in Literacy and Numeracy through Cognitive Abilities Testing is shared with all staff. All departments contribute towards the overall assessment of the young people in Numeracy and Literacy conducted by the Maths and English departments. Pastoral Care and SMT are involved in tracking individual pupil progress. These measures allow for appropriate support to be provided to individual young people when appropriate and to ensure that prompt intervention by PT/ FH/ PC/ SMT where appropriate, resulting in young people making sustained progress.
o In the Senior Phase tracking of pupil progress continues. This takes the form of one to one interviews with the young people conducted by SMT; regular tracking reports from departments; and formal meetings which include PTs/ FH, SMT and Pastoral Care which are held after the pre-lim diet. These measures allow Pastoral Care and SMT to have a comprehensive overview of individual progress and consequently appropriate interventions are put in place to support young people. As a result, most pupils made very good progress and achieved planned and challenging targets.
o In S4 almost all pupils gained a good set of basic qualifications, with the majority of pupils achieving at SCQF 4 or 5.
o In S5 very good progress has been made with 43.6% of young people achieving at least one Higher and an increase in those young people achieving at least 3 or 5 Highers.
TABLE 1: S4 Performance Indicators
(Source for all tables STACS)
By the end of S4, the percentage achieving
2011
Post-appeal / 2012
Post-appeal / 2013
Pre-
appeal
5 or more at level 3 or better / 103 / 98 / 95
5 or more at level 4 or better / 69 / 73 / 70
5 or more at level 5 or better / 15 / 22 / 24
The results for 2012/13, reflect the new benchmark which has been set in the last six years. 5@ Level 5 or better are the highest the school has seen in the five year cycle. A slight drop in the 5 @ level 4 will likely become at least in line with the previous year in the post-appeal figures.
TABLE 2: S5 Performance Indicators
By the end of S5, the percentage achieving
2011
Post-appeal / 2012
Post-appeal / 2013
Pre-
appeal
1 or more level 6 or better / 23 / 32 / 44
3 or more level 6 or better / 9 / 8 / 13
5 or more level 6 or better / 4 / 5 / 4
5 or more at level 5 or better / 25 / 25 / 41
All results follow the improving trend of the last six years or are maintaining the new benchmark set by recent improvements. With three of the four indicators at the highest levels in the five year cycle. The 1% drop in the 5@ level 6 or better is likely to come at least in line with the previous year in the post-appeal figures. Particularly impressive is this year’s figures for young people who are achieving 5@ level 5 or better by the end of S5.
TABLE 3: S6 Performance Indicators
By the end of S6, the percentage achieving
2011
Post-appeal / 2012
Post-appeal / 2013
Pre-
appeal
3 or more level 6 or better / 23 / 13 / 18
5 or more level 6 or better / 12 / 8 / 9
1 or more at level 7 or better / 4 / 2 / 3
All of the indicators have improved on the 2011-12 figures. In particular, the improvement in 3 or more at level 6 or better on the preceding year’s uncharacteristically low result indicates that the responsive measures put in place were effective.
Attendance and Exclusions
Overall Attendance
Attendance has been consistently around 90% for four sessions, and for the past two years an improved focus on attendance, and the excellent work of our ELO and PC team, has resulted in a dramatic improvement in attendance. In the last 5 year cycle to school has consistently been above the Glasgow average.
TABLE 5: Overall Attendance (%)
/ 2009/10 / 2010/2011 / 2011/12 / 2012/13
School (%) / 90.1 / 90.1 / 92.1 / 94.1
Glasgow (%) / 89.8 / 89.6 / 90.8 / 91.2
Exclusion Incidents and Openings Lost per 1,000 pupils
TABLE 6: Exclusion incidents and openings lost per 1,000 pupils
School / Glasgow
Session / Openings Lost / Exclusion Incidents / Openings Lost / Exclusion Incidents
2008/09 / 1259 / 156 / 873 / 145
2009/10 / 521 / 63 / 615 / 111
2010/11 / 774 / 82 / 508 / 100
2011/12 / 242 / 33 / 374 / 81
2012/13 / 304 / 50 / 309 / 70
Both our openings lost and our exclusion incidents are below (with exclusion incidents significantly below) the Glasgow average. We continue to keep improving behaviour a priority and in session 2013-14 will be implementing the new pupil support and promoting positive behaviour policies developed as a result of work of a staff working group in the 2012-13 session.
Leavers’ Destinations
Most pupils continue to progress to positive destinations after leaving school.
TABLE 7: % Entering positive destinations
School / Glasgow
2009 / 88 / 82
2010 / 88 / 84
2011 / 86 / 86
2012 / 83 / 88
TABLE 8: % of pupils with FME
Session
/ 2011 / 2012 / 2013School
/ 44.5 / 35.9 / 42.0Glasgow Secondary Schools / 29.3 / 29.3 / 27.3
Our percentage of FME is significantly higher than the Glasgow average.
Achievements
The school enables young people to succeed in a wide range of activities and celebrates this through award ceremonies, newsletters, assemblies, tannoy announcements, school displays and a variety of press publications.
A number of individuals and groups have achieved at local, national and international levels.
Leadership
The school is very good at providing leadership opportunities for all young people. An illustrative selection of the activities our young people take part in are given below:
o S6 pupils - Front of Foyer - welcoming visitors and guests to the school and directing them to correct department
o Buddy system with S1 pupils and P7 pupils at the ‘Literacy Across Work Day’
o Pupil Voice Group and Focus Groups allow young people to help lead change in our school.
o Pupils in all year groups have opportunities to act as prefects and guides at various school events.
o PE Pupils achieve Sports Leaders award and gaining the school ‘Academy’ status as a result. As a consequence of this work we have
o started our own community sports club on a Tuesday night 5pm-7pm for youngsters in the Royston area in P5-7. Offering coaching in badminton, table-tennis, rugby, dance and basketball. This is run by the sports leaders themselves. S5/6 pupils lead assemblies in the local primary schools to promote this club.
o S4 have organised an S2 football competition.
o S5/6 have organised an S1 badminton tournament.
o All S3 sports leaders were involved in the coaching of 120 pupils from St Mungo’s and St. Fillan’s providing football Sports Leaders coaching clinics and tournament at Toryglen.
o Our sports leaders coach and manage various school teams
o S5/6 pupils Community Involvement programme – range of responsibilities met by pupils throughout the local community – helping with lunches at St Mungo’s Day Care Centre and responsibility for organising the Pensioners Christmas Lunch. Playground, buddying support at local Primary schools.
o Variety of charity fundraising activities led and encouraged by pupils in all year groups.
As a consequence of this very good programme of activities the majority of our young people are accessing opportunities which allow them to enhance their leadership skills and confidence.
Citizenship
Citizenship is a particularly important aspect of our school life, especially given that our intake comes from such a culturally diverse variety of backgrounds. Consequently our young people are involved in a wide range of citizenship activities – an illustrative selection of which are listed below:
o 3rd year personal development involvement with the Youth Philanthropy Initiative.
o Through Community Involvement pupils offer excellent support throughout the local community and in particular with St Mungo’s Day Care Centre, local primary schools and nurseries.
o Fair trade fortnight is very high profile within the school.
o Youth Bank – this initiative is now completing its second year in the school.
o Namibia School Partnership – this programme has been running for two years in the school now and has resulted in the Namibian Ambassador visiting our school twice and, at the end of this year, a group of staff and young people travelling out to Namibia to visit and work in our partnership school there.
o Classroom Connexions programme: St Roch’s Secondary through this programme work with a number of schools across Europe including Bosnia Herzejovina, Poland, Spain, Catalonia. The pupils embark on joint projects and communicate with each other by letter, e-mail and the internet.
o Staff involved in designing both Community Involvement and Personal Development courses for senior pupils have the opportunity to work in partnership with local community organisations to plan suitable programmes and support the young people of St Roch’s
o All S1 – S3 Personal Support classes involved in fundraising for SCIAF at Christmas time.
o Staff members, part of Pastoral and Liturgical activities, assist in planning whole school events.
o The pupil Voice groups play an active role in the life of the school. School Captains and Vice – Captains co-ordinate the work of S5/6 prefects who contribute enormously to the ethos of the school. S4 and in turn, S3 Prefects, take on the responsibilities of the S5/6 Prefects when they are unavailable – for example during SQA examinations. The school captains host (MC) the Senior Awards Ceremony.
o This year two of our senior pupils attended the Lourdes pilgrimage. In order to achieve this the whole school united in our fundraising efforts.
The result of this very good and wide ranging programme is that almost all of our young people’s awareness of citizenship issues raised throughout the year, while the majority actively take part in these activities and their promotion. Consequently, our young people are very aware of the issues which can affect others locally, nationally and internationally. Through these activities they develop their sense of responsibility as citizens of Scotland, the UK and the world.