St. Ninian’s recognised as centre of excellence

When twenty schools were chosen to pioneer the Scottish Government’s Schools of Ambition Programme* in 2005, St. Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch was right up there among them.

Ministers were impressed by the school’s desire to enable all pupils to achieve their full potential by broadening their ambitions and extending links with the local community.

Three years on and St. Ninian’s has delivered on that pledge and been recognised by the Scottish Government as a centre of excellence for the Schools of Ambition Programme.

Ten pupils from the school were therefore given the honour of helping to organise the National Schools of Ambition Pupil Conference at Hampden Park earlier this month and were asked to lead workshops throughout the day.

The event, attended by 29 schools from the West of Scotland, was designed to give pupils the opportunity to share their experiences of what has been happening in their schools since the Programme was launched.

Tamara Stead, an S4 pupil from St. Ninian’s has been involved in the Programme since it began and was among the conference organising group. She said, “We all enjoyed taking part in the conference and it was really interesting to hear what other schools have been doing.

Head Teacher, Paul McLaughlin believes that the school has benefited from being a part of the Programme. He said, “Extra funding from Schools of Ambition has enabled us to enhance teaching and learning across the school, improve pupil confidence and engagement in education and improve attainment, as this years SQA results demonstrate. Schools of Ambition has helped fund programmes on active learning, interdisciplinary learning, IT based modern languages collaboration with our associated primaries, laptop technology and state of the art software, all of which have been recognised, not least by HMIe in their recent report on the school. We never seem to be out of the newspapers or off the television. Long may it continue.”

* The programme aims to support schools to transform educational outcomes. It seeks to raise the ambitions of schools, instil belief and ambition in pupils, extend their opportunities and transform their life chances. Schools of Ambition will aim to stand out as innovators and leaders, providing ambition and opportunity for young people, setting an example to the whole community of what is possible in modern Scotland.