Increased expectations of students, parents and staff so that they take managed risks and rise to challenges.
Increased attainment at all levels to ensure that all students maximise their chances after school, leading to improvement in numbers of students reaching preferred destination.
These outcomes were always going to be hard to evaluate in terms of the impact of the School of Ambition plan. The SELS baseline and final results indicate progress. In addition, the participation figures in the various showcases and the destination figures show more students are looking towards college and university than before. We also have to bear in mind that there has been an increased focus on attending further and higher education in the school, community and at a national level. As with a number of aspects of SoA, it is difficult to demonstrate a causal link between one set of actions and a particular outcome. The STACS, comparator and attainment figures indicate an upward trend. However, the soft, qualitative indicators help to flesh out the picture. When interviewing S6 students at their point of exit it is clear that students have raised expectations for their future. Destinations for students who fall into the MC2 or NEET categories show that most students are keen to secure a good job or positive next step. In terms of increased challenges, the introduction of Community Experience in S6 has provided a positive challenge and broadened the experience of students. Through their leadership of the school council and participation in other key groups students at all levels have shown a readiness to participate and have their voices heard. The Opening Up Learning feature on the HMIe Journey to Excellence website illustrates the way in which students are playing a key role in everything we do and that with this comes raised expectations.
The same can be said for parents and carers. As for staff, their readiness to embrace Learning Teams, A Curriculum for Excellence, Assessment is for Learning, Risk Tasks, Learning to Learn and a Journey to Excellence is indeed testament to raised confidence and expectations.
Broader personal horizons – evidence of awareness of local, national and global markets and the connections between these.
Increased positive motivation leading to greater levels of personal fulfilment and happiness, gives confidence to aspire to greater heights.
Again, destination figures show an increased number of students successfully fulfilling their aims. However, converting success in Standard Grade to success at Higher level is still an area for improvement within the school. The establishment of a curricular group including all stakeholders will examine this issue amongst others. The annual inclusion of Determined to Succeed money along with investment through SoA in some hardware which we could not have otherwise afforded, for example the CNC Router, has raised student awareness of enterprise and world markets
As far as positive motivation and greater levels of personal fulfilment are concerned, the Lime Survey Results, exit interviews and the feedback from validation visits from ELC QIOs and HMIE, and a variety of other international visitors all show positive impact.
