Journey To Excellence
The school in its community
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'The school has several international links. Pupils correspond in Scottish/Irish Gaelic with pupils in Ireland. The school's Gaelic choir has performed in Canada and the football team has had fixtures in Spain.' Headteacher
| A school is good to the extent that… | A school is excellent to the extent that… |
|---|---|
| Links with the community provide experiences which enhance young people’s learning and help them to develop positive relationships. | Work with other establishments, organisations and businesses is used to broaden and deepen young people’s learning and to enable them to achieve success in wider contexts. |
| Staff make effective use of local facilities and organisations when planning learning activities. Such activities focus on developing a wider awareness of the world beyond school and encourage young people to perceive and use the community as a resource. | Staff take advantage of opportunities for community involvement which help them to improve their work with young people, provide innovative approaches to learning and address new challenges. Community-based activities are used to develop young people’s self-esteem and creative skills, meet individual and group needs and prepare them for their future roles in society. They also enable young people to make positive contributions to the experiences of other people. |
| Young people participate in activities and learning experiences within the community that are designed to develop skills in problem solving, decision making and making informed choices. | Staff draw on community resources to develop young people’s leadership skills. All pupils participate in enterprise activities, community involvement, work placements and shadowing, sports leadership awards or similar activities. |
| Both staff and pupils contribute to local projects and engage actively in the wider life of the community. Members of the local community make use of school facilities. | Staff demonstrate a highly developed understanding and awareness of the needs of their communities. Members of the community see the school as central to community life. |
| Classes undertaking specific curricular programmes have access to community-based activities. Staff and young people make productive contacts with groups beyond the school as part of projects or activities or through out-of-school activities such as music and drama. | All staff and young people expect to be actively involved with the local community in some way and at some time. Individual staff and pupils, classes and groups have strong and sustained links with groups elsewhere in the UK or abroad. They share interests with them and provide and receive information, expertise or enrichment. |
| Staff call on the services of partners, agencies and community groups which they know can provide relevant and high quality additional experiences, to contribute to programmes in specific curriculum areas. | Staff actively seek out and enter partnerships which are productive in helping to provide imaginative contexts, learning experiences and opportunities for personal development. Teachers build such contributions into the curriculum to improve learning and meet identified needs. |