Two local authorities located in the Central Scotland area gave permission to conduct the research in the schools within their area. The two local authorities are in the mid-range of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), where Local Authority 1 (LA1) is slightly better than the national average while Local Authority 2 (LA2) has slightly higher levels of deprivation (Scottish Government, 2012). The percentage of pupils registered for free school meals in LA1 was lower than the national average while that in LA2 was slightly higher. In the three years from 2010 to 2012, according to the Education Scotland website, the average S4 examination results3 and pupil attendance rates in LA1 schools were better than the national average while on average LA2 schools had lower by a few percentage points in S4 examination results and pupil attendance rates than the national average (Education Scotland, 2014). S5 and S6 staying on rates in LA1 was higher than the national average while LA2 had similar rates to the national average. Pupils in LA1 schools mainly leave for higher education while the leaver destinations in LA2 schools followed a similar pattern to the national average.
Two schools from each local authority were recruited for this study, giving four schools in total, namely schools B, C, H and W. Schools B and W are within LA1 and schools C and H are within LA2. All these schools are state funded, co-educational and non-denominational integrated community schools. All schools except for school C have recently been inspected by HMIe and will not be inspected in the near future. All schools
3 S4 examination results are used as comparison instead of S5 and S6 examination results since they were affected by S5 and S6 staying on rates.
to a different degree were actively participating in a range of competitions, extra-curricular activities and a number of citizenship initiatives, such as establishing a partnership with an African school, Eco-school, Fair Trade School and organising charity events for their local community as well as for global issues. Other than that, all schools pursued the RRSA voluntarily.
School B had about 600 pupils and 64 full-time equivalent teachers in September 2012, according to the Education Scotland website. About 20% of the pupils were registered for free school meals, which was higher than the national and local authority averages. The S4 examination results, attendance rate and leaver destinations generally followed the national average. The S5 and S6 staying on rates were higher than the national average but lower than the local authority average. The pupils’ ethnic background was not very diverse, as the RRSA inspection report stated that 98% pupils identified themselves as white Scottish (UNICEF UK, 2014). In addition, 28% of the pupils required additional support and 4% of the pupils were Looked After and Accommodated by the Local Authority. The school received good and very good categories for the quality indicators in the HMIe inspection report published in 2008. The school started implementing the RRSA 2 years ago and by the time of interview, the school had just received the Level One RRSA recently. Other than that, school B underwent recent changes in the SMT, introduced school blazers and a new merit scheme which rewards pupils for regular attendance.
School W had about 900 pupils and 70 full-time equivalent teachers in September 2012. About 13% of the pupils were registered for free school meals, which was higher than the local authority average, but lower than the national average. The pupil attendance rate, patterns for leaver destinations, S4 examination results and S5 staying on rate were similar to the local authority average, while the S6 staying on rate was similar to the national average. According to the school handbook for the academic year 2014/15, ‘[t]he school […] attract[ed] a number of placing requests, mainly from the City of Glasgow. [The] students […] include an ethnic minority population of some 25%’ (p.5). The school received very good and excellent categories for the quality indicators in the HMIe inspection report published in 2011. The school achieved the Level One RRSA two years before I visited the school. The school is the first rights-respecting secondary school in the local council area.
School C was recently merged in 2007 and that gave rise to about 1,400 pupils in total and 120 full-time equivalent teachers in September 2012. Extensive consultation with
the pupils and the wider community was conducted before the school was established to decide the school name, vision and values. As mentioned in several interviews and as stated in the RRSA inspection report, there were a lot of problems when the school was just merged since the pupils were divided according to their original school. The situation was resolved recently due to various reasons which will be discussed in later sections. More than 20% of the pupils were registered for free school meals, which was higher than both the local authority and national averages. The S4 examination results were similar to the local authority average. The S5 staying on rate was slightly higher than the local authority average but the S6 staying on rate was similar to the national average. The pupil attendance rate was better than the local authority average but lower than the national average. The school had been working on the RRSA for 5 years and achieved the Level One RRSA a year ago. The school is the first rights-respecting secondary school in the local council area and kept a close contact with the local council to act as an example of a successful RRSA implementation. The school is currently pursuing the Level Two RRSA and actively taking up an ambassadorial role to increase awareness of the UNCRC in local communities and to share the ideas of the RRSA implementation with other schools within the local authority as well as in some universities and educational events.
School H is based in a century-old building and has recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. There were about 1,300 pupils and 100 full-time equivalent teachers in September 2012. The percentage of the pupils registered for free school meals was similar to both the local authority and national averages. The pupil attendance rate was similar to the national average. The school leaver destinations and S4 examination results were slightly worse than the local authority average while the S5 and S6 staying on rates were similar to the local authority and national averages. The school received good and very good categories for the quality indicators in the HMIe inspection report published in 2009. The head teacher and some teachers commented that pupils’ behaviour was a challenge to the school which needed to be focused on. Nevertheless, teachers and the head teacher were in agreement that there were a lot of global citizenship activities that were led by the pupils and some of them were high profile when compared to the other schools. By the time of my field work, the school was preparing for the Level One RRSA inspection and by the time of data analysis, the school had achieved the Level One RRSA successfully.