St Ninian's High School: a whole school approach to personal and social development

St Ninian's High School in East Renfrewshire has a distinctive approach to education for citizenship within the context of its overall strategy for personal and social education (PSE). It emphasises the role of all teachers and all subject departments, as well as offering strong whole school leadership from the headteacher, senior management team and guidance team. 

The most unusual aspect of the school's approach is that there is no discrete course in PSE in S1-S4, but rather a carefully audited PSE programme taught primarily within subject departments. This approach within subjects is complemented in three ways: by thrice-yearly seminars for every year group, by special course inserts where appropriate, for example 'Smoking' in science, and by weekly assemblies. Seminars provide opportunities for all pupils to be involved in school self-evaluation and decision making, and assemblies are an important vehicle for whole school communication and for public reinforcement of values and attitudes regularly transmitted in smaller contexts throughout the school.