Education Scotland’s report on Peebles High School published

During their visit in October last year, inspectors talked to parents/carers and young people and worked closely with the head teacher and his staff.

The Inspection team found several key strengths in the school’s work:

• Almost all members of the school community continue to show resilience in responding to the ongoing challenges caused by previous periods of significant disruption.
• Strong relationships between almost all staff and young people result in positive learning experiences, and staff are working well together to improve learning, teaching, and assessment.  The majority of young people are polite and eager to learn.
• Staff in the enhanced provision were found to have developed a caring and positive learning environment and they support young people well to make effective progress in their learning.
• Staff have maintained high levels of attainment for most young people in the senior phase. Senior leaders and staff are beginning to implement approaches designed to raise the attainment of all learners.

The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the head teacher and a representative from ourselves:

• Senior leaders and staff need to improve the planning of learning, teaching, and assessment in the Broad General Education. They need to develop approaches to ensure that all young people make appropriate progress in their learning.
• Staff should develop a clear understanding of how to identify and respond to all young people’s individual learning needs.
• The strategic leadership of the school requires improvement. Senior leaders should monitor and evaluate the work of the school more effectively to identify priorities for improvement. They then need to evaluate how well these priorities are making a difference to improving outcomes for young people. This is especially important for the safeguarding of and raising the attainment and achievement of all learners. 

As a result of the inspection findings, the school will receive additional support and time to make necessary improvements. Education Scotland will return to carry out a further inspection of the school within twelve months of the publication of this report.

Ellie Johnstone, Peebles High School Parent Council Chair

“The Parent Council is keen to play its part in addressing the key areas highlighted by the report. We continue to work closely with the school, to ensure that all young people have a positive experience and achieve the best possible outcomes." 

Kevin Ryalls, Interim Headteacher at Peebles High School

“I am looking forward to working with the school community so that, together, we can build on our strengths and deliver the improvement priorities identified by Education Scotland to further improve the outcomes for our young people."

Mr Ryalls takes over from Headteacher Campbell Wilson, who recently took up a new position in Dumfries and Galloway and who after a period of handover to Mr Ryalls was given a rousing send off from the school on Friday, with good wishes coming from colleagues past and present across the region.

The report is available from the Education Scotland website.