Renfrewshire knows about disadvantage; it also has some of the highest performing schools in Scotland. The challenge is to help all areas achieve their best, writes David Henderson.
Affluence and poverty exist side-by-side in Renfrewshire, with high-performing schools producing some of the best exam results in Scotland and below average results in some of the most disadvantaged communities.
In national performance tables, that social mix places it a fraction above the average. Unsurprisingly, the ninth largest Scottish authority has set itself ambitious aims to raise all-round achievement and work assiduously on what it calls inclusion and social justice.
The authority is the seventh poorest in Scotland. Almost a fifth of its people live in one of the 11 social inclusion partnership areas. Child poverty is significant and the authority has one of the highest rates of heart disease. Areas of Paisley, Johnstone, Linwood and Renfrew know all about disadvantage.
Achievement in reading in the partnership areas is 7 per cent lower in 5-14 tests than in the rest of Renfrewshire but Shelagh Rae, director of education and leisure, points out that early intervention strategies have stopped the gap widening.
Extra funds from the Scottish Executive over the past three years have allowed the Labour authority to focus on increasing attainment. Its education spending has risen by 25 per cent to more than pound;126 million and it has topped up central allocations for new community schools.
Since 1999, performance in 5-14 reading has leapt 11 percentage points to 83 per cent, meeting the target; in writing attainment is up from 61 to 74 per cent; in mathematics the rise has been from 75 to 83 per cent. Secondaries have enjoyed similar progress in S1 and S2 performance.
“These are good solid improvements,” Mrs Rae says.
“The one we are really pleased with is at Standard grade, where 36 per cent of pupils now get grade 1s and 2s. That’s 3 per cent above the national average. We were 1 to 2 per cent above before.”
Driving up Higher passes is proving more difficult, with only a 1 per cent improvement over the same period.
“We have been looking at the underachievement of boys and spent a lot of money and effort on it. Last year we narrowed the gap, but this year it has widened again slightly.
“We are looking at boys’ preferred learning styles, ensuring that reading material is geared to their interests and looking at aspects that will encourage boys to write. We are half way through our three-year programme for raising the achievement of boys and are now looking at schools where things have worked,” Mrs Rae explains.
Additional staff development by experienced markers has helped to ensure that teachers are more familiar with the standards demanded of students.
Headteachers’ concerns about the impact of pupils’ daily and weekend jobs on performance prompted a study of S5 and S6 pupils by researchers at Paisley University. They discovered a correlation between the number of hours worked and Higher passes achieved. Between five and 10 hours of work a week had a positive effect but beyond that it was detrimental to school work.
The Scottish Executive’s educational maintenance allowance scheme should eventually ease the necessity for students to seek paid work.
Research is showing that early intervention strategies that begin in nursery schools and include extra staff in areas of deprivation are preventing any widening of attainment gaps between children in poorer and more affluent areas. “The children are performing much more at the average for their age,” Mrs Rae says. “We now have to see how it pans out into the upper stages of primary.”
As part of the new community schools initiative, a Parents as Educators programme is helping parents to understand their children’s schooling and home-school workers support each school cluster. By next August, all schools will have joined the community school approach, with its health schemes, extra P6 to S2 sports and arts initiatives and individualised education programmes.
“It makes a huge difference having the community involved in children’s learning,” Mrs Rae says.
Renfrewshire has retained community education, lifelong learning, libraries and leisure services within the education structure. That umbrella helps in targeting child care to ensure women can make the most of opportunities. It has helped to provide vocational courses at Reid Kerr College, improve links within the Renfrewshire Learning Alliance and set up a network of community learning centres.
“It’s unbelievable the number of adults who have come back into learning,” says Mrs Rae.
