1. The school should address the curricular issues noted in the report.
The school had made good progress towards meeting this recommendation.
The school had strengthened its curriculum planning links with its associated primary schools. However, a number of departments needed to build further on pupils’ primary school experience. The desired move to a 30-period week was being negotiated with the education authority. It involved plans to extend the coverage of religious and moral education and to introduce rotation in the social subjects at S1/S2. The school had revised the programme for personal and social education in S5/S6.
2. The school should increase its provision for religious observance, in line with national guidance.
The school had not met this recommendation.
The school’s attempts to address this issue through securing a chaplaincy from a local church had not yet been successful. Meantime, the school should investigate further the possibility of increasing religious observance from within its own staff resources.
3. With a view to raising standards of attainment, national testing should be introduced in English language and mathematics and teachers should review current approaches to teaching, learning and assessment.
The school had made very good progress towards meeting this recommendation.
The school will complete the introduction of national testing in English language and mathematics during the current session. Raising attainment was now a clear focus of the school development plan and departments had adopted a range of approaches for achieving this. These included: higher expectations of pupils’ achievement; improvement and differentiation of course materials; a stronger focus on homework; greater challenge for higher-attaining pupils; a focus on the attainment levels of boys; and the provision of