Keith Grammar School follow-up inspection report

A Moray secondary school has made ‘important improvements’ since significant shortcomings were highlighted in an inspection report 15 months ago.

A follow-up visit has found that staff at Keith Grammar School showed a high level of commitment to improving outcomes for young people.

However, Education Scotland inspectors said that staffing changes – which they had previously identified as hindering progress in raising pupils’ attainment – were likely to continue to slow down further improvements.

The original report in November 2015 evaluated five areas of performance within the school and ranked three as ‘satisfactory’ and two as ‘weak’.

The latest report, published today, said the school had reviewed interdisciplinary learning in S1 and S2 with the aim of providing more opportunities for pupils to apply their knowledge and develop skills for life and work, while in S3 new courses were available in areas such as science, modern languages and technology.

“Staff are continuing to make important improvements to the curriculum to support young people to make better progress in their learning,” said the report.

“Young people now have the opportunity to experience learning to an appropriate level in all areas of the curriculum. This is providing a wider range of pathways into S4 and courses leading to qualifications.”

The report said young people at Keith Grammar were now more engaged with a life skills programme which was providing increased relevance and depth to their learning.

It continued: “The school has an appropriate improvement plan for the current session. Across the school staff are working to take forward aspects of this plan. They show a high level of commitment to improving outcomes for young people. However, staffing changes are likely to impact negatively on this work.”

The inspectors found that important steps had been taken which had led to improvements in attainment, including raised attainment in S4 and in literacy and numeracy for all those leaving school.

However, improvements in attainment were still needed in S5 and S6.

“The school needs to continue to improve aspects of its work, including the consistency of the quality of learning and teaching in order to raise attainment for all young people,” added the report.

It concluded: “The school has made progress since the original inspection and taken forward some important improvements. The school now needs time to evaluate these changes to ensure outcomes for young people are continuing to improve.”

Moray Council area stretches from Tomintoul in the south to the shores of the Moray Firth, from Keith in the east to Forres in the west. The council and its 4,500 employees respond to the needs of 95,510 residents in this beautiful part of Scotland, which nestles between Aberdeenshire and the Highlands.

Famous for its colony of dolphins, fabulous beaches and more malt whisky distilleries than any where else in Scotland, Moray is a thriving area and a great place to live.

Headquartered in  Elgin, the administrative capital of Moray.