HM Inspectors deliver verdict on Perth Grammar School

Jul 4 2008 by Jenny Wood, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

PERTH Grammar School barely scraped a pass in a recent inspection by the government.

Among problems highlighted at the secondary school were issues with discipline and attendance.

In eight out of 17 evaluation categories, inspector Grant Mathison found strengths just outweighed weaknesses and in one other area, improving performance of third and fourth year pupils, he found “important weaknesses”.

The biggest areas of criticism were the state of parts of the school’s buildings, attendance levels of third and fourth year pupils, and the quality of pupils’ learning and performance.

Even questionnaires filled in by parents, staff and pupils revealed their concerns about issues at the school.

The majority of staff had worries about levels of indiscipline and around two-thirds of the pupils felt the behaviour of their peers could be better. While a third of parents had concerns about the condition of school buildings.

HM Inspector Mr Mathison praised the large numbers of hard-working and co-operative students but, in compiling his findings, he reported: “Pupils’ attendance was well below the national average.”

He explained there was a “significant proportion” of pupils in third and fourth years who were absent for more than a fifth of the school year.

And looking at Perth Grammar pupils’ development as a whole, Mr Mathison said: “Overall, pupils did not have enough opportunity and support to enable them to work independently and to take appropriate responsibility for their own learning.

“In a small minority of lessons, pupils were poorly motivated and did not take their learning seriously enough.

“The progress of a significant minority of pupils, especially in S3 and S4, was being adversely affected by poor attendance.

“Overall,” he added, “strengths just outweighed weaknesses in the quality of pupils’ learning experiences.”

In particular he singled out pupils’ “learning experiences” in modern languages as weak.

The English, maths and physical education departments came in for high praise from the inspector, who noted successes by pupils in the sporting and music fields.

However, he was not so impressed by the state of the school’s buildings.

He branded the condition of pupils’ toilets and changing facilities in the PE department as “unsatisfactory”. Something Perth and Kinross has pledged to improve by the end of the summer.

And the inspector’s criticisms continued: “There were insufficient social areas for pupils. A number of corridors were narrow and poorly ventilated.

“Improvements to the to the building’s security arrangements were progressing, but not yet complete.”

New head, John Low, had won the inspector over during the visit in March. In his report Mr Mathison said: “The inspection found Perth Grammar School to be an improving school.

“Since the recent appointment of the headteacher, initially in an acting capacity, the morale of pupils and staff had risen.”

But the inspector conceded “there was much still to do”.

Reflecting on the report, Perth and Kinross Council’s lifelong learning convener, Councillor Liz Grant, said: “HM Inspectors have found a range of key strengths at Perth Grammar, and the headteacher and his staff are to be praised for their commitment to building on these and developing the school’s capacity for continuous improvement.

“We will work closely with the school in relation to the report’s recommendations and keep parents informed about progress in this respect,” she vowed.