DUNOON GRAMMAR School has hailed “another positive and productive year” in a report to go before local councillors.
The school’s A-C pass rate beat the local and national averages at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher levels during the 2023/24 academic year.
But the school’s management team has pledged a “concerted effort” to raise the number of A passes and Higher presentations in the years to come.
The report will go before Argyll and Bute Council’s Bute and Cowal area committee at its meeting on Tuesday, June 3.
The report said: “The S4 National 5 A pass percentage in 2024 was down by 7.33 per cent when compared against that of 2019.
“In aim of raising the A pass percentage going forward, the study support offering has been made more formal, with a formal record of attendance and incentives for pupils being introduced.
“Additionally, teaching staff are developing an increased awareness of learner performance across the curriculum through effective whole school tracking and monitoring – empowering practitioners as a tool to increase pupil accountability/drive learners to perform in their subject.
“Moreover, introduction of formal assessments at the end of S3 to provide pupils with experience of ‘exam setting’ to raise resilience and robustness so they are better prepared to undertake National 5 study in S4.
“Though S5 Higher presentations per pupil rate remains above 2.5 (at 2.58), it has fallen when compared with the previous year (high of 2.89) and is currently below the local authority figure (2.68). Movement towards three Higher presentations per pupil is desired.
“Therefore, there has been greater focus on maximising initial presentations at Higher for 2024/25 by ensuring course choices are more heavily based on/ reflect predicted S4 National 5 achievement.
“Presentations in S6, both at National 5 and Higher, have declined since 2020, with Higher presentations being 0.17 below that of the local authority.
“This will be in part a result of increasing the number of pass/fail qualification offered at L5 and L6 in the senior phase and Advanced Higher presentations per pupil rising from 0.44 to 0.59.
“However, a concerted effort must be made to ensure S6 pupils are selecting Highers during the options process and that they are ultimately presented for the final exam.”
The document added: “Dunoon Grammar School has had another positive and productive year. The school continues to develop confidence in our young people and ensure and develop them both academically and socially.
“We continue to work with our community partners on a number of projects [including] Dunoon Burgh Hall, Dunoon Film festival, our local primary schools, Dunoon Museum, Historic Kilmun, Learning Centre activities [and] The Dunoon Project.
“We continue to work with our national partners, The Wood Foundation and Apps for Good. We continue to offer a wide range of extracurricular activities and school trips.
“A group of our young people took part in a trip to Tanzania this session. This is our third trip to Tanzania. This year we have invited to staff from Tanzania schools to visit Dunoon Grammar School.
“We are also planning to organise an adult trip this year. This will involve school staff, parents/carers and members of the community.
“We continue to offer our exchange programme to France and Germany.”
