SQR 2016-17

1. Standards and Quality
Report 2016 / 2017
Each year we have a duty to report on the work of the school, outlining the
developments and progress we make to improve the quality of teaching and
learning for all in Stronsay Junior High School.

2. About our School
Stronsay Junior High School provides education for the island’s children from pre-
school at age 2 to the end of compulsory schooling at 16. Pupils can then transfer to
Kirkwall Grammar School, if they wish to do so, or move on to further education,
training or employment. Pupils transferring to Kirkwall Grammar School stay in the
Papdale Halls of Residence, and supporting our young people at this time of transition
presents an additional challenge for the school.
The timetable for the primary and secondary sector is in part dependent on the day
specialist teachers arriving and Loganair’s timetable. Itinerant teachers generally
spend less time in school during the winter as the planes cannot land in darkness. The
number and length of time each itinerant teacher is on Stronsay is decided centrally by
the Authority.
The number of pupils on the school roll in 2016/17 was:
Nursery 5
Primary Sector 19
Secondary Sector 14
The learning and teaching team is ably supported by a committed group of non-teaching
staff, including a secretary/office auxiliary, support for learning assistants, janitor
and kitchen staff. Cleaning roles are contracted out.
Vision Statement
Together our vision is to ensure that everyone achieves their full potential and enjoys
being part of a caring learning community.
Aims
Effective Contributors
To motivate everyone to participate with enthusiasm in the school community and wider
world, to be well organised, dedicated and open-minded.
Responsible Citizens
To encourage everyone to take care of the community and wider world. To do the best
they can in an honest and respectful way.
Confident Individuals
To inspire within everyone self-confidence, tolerance and high expectations.

3. Successful Learners
To develop a life-long enthusiasm for learning; to have the confidence and ability to
work independently or with others whilst knowing when to ask for help.
Cultural Identity
To see our island as a benefit not a barrier; to embrace and enrich our unique
resources - friendliness, community spirit, heritage, landscape, traditions and culture -
to help maintain and develop the island as a great place to live.
‘Proud to belong’. ‘Proud to be a Limpet’.
Vision and Aims – Key words
Respect
Trust
Honesty
Responsibility
Kindness
Manners
Positivity
Sensibility
Inclusion
Successes and Achievements
Strengths
The school aims to produce a learning environment which meets the needs of the
learners in its care. We evaluate their progress using a wide range of methods. The
following are demonstrations of our progress:
 The SQA results for 2016-17 were generally as expected or above expectations
 We provide additional support as identified through our self-evaluation of
learners’ progress in order to help them achieve their very best. This has
included a range of support packages, including providing 1:1 support to meet
social/emotional needs as well as providing additional learning support.

4.  The Director of Education, Leisure and Housing has introduced attainment
reviews for Junior High Schools to raise attainment. This has been enhanced by
the introduction of more School Improvement Officer visits to continue to
provide support and challenge all schools within Orkney.
 Middle Years Information System data shows that the value added by the pupils
through the secondary sector is in line with the national normal expectations.
 The school has embraced the Curriculum for Excellence and adjusted the
teaching to fulfil the ethos behind the initiative. Our planning is in line with the
experiences and outcomes, and departments have continued to develop ways of
assessing and recording in line with this. The primary sector has developed a new
four-year rolling programme to ensure effective coverage of the Experiences
and Outcomes, and uses the benchmarking materials to support this.
 The school nursery had an inspection by the Care Inspectorate in September
2016. All areas inspected were graded Very Good. This was clearly the highest
grading achieved since the current inspection system has been established.
 Learners’ evaluations show they are engaged meaningfully with their learning,
and this was reinforced when their views were surveyed for a second year by an
independent visiting Head Teacher of a primary school in Orkney.
 The school and the community of Stronsay work hard together to provide a wide
range of opportunities to broaden achievements and these include:
o Music lessons on a range of instruments, enhanced by opportunities on
the island, with musical events in school and in the community to
entertain and celebrate their efforts, including a pantomime of Dick
Whittington and his Cat.
o Sporting activities, including after school clubs and athletics training,
which were supported by the Stronsay Development Trust.
o The development of interdisciplinary projects/ activities, which have
enabled learners to embrace new ideas and skills and have resulted in a
real enjoyment of learning. This year interdisciplinary activities have
included the Jutland Commemorations, a community communications
project and Upper and Lower primary classes undertaking joint projects
which support transition.
o Stronsay Parent Council’s continued support of Stronsay Junior High
School through applications to the Stronsay Development Trust, allowed
secondary pupils to visit Norway in the first week of the academic year.
Details of events from the Norway trip are available on the school blog.
o The Parent Council’s active participation in the development of the school
through involvement in self-evaluation exercises of Quality Indicators to
assess the progress of the school and to determine the next steps.
o Community learning projects, developed by the school which have been
welcomed by members of the community. These have included

5. qualification courses in English, Cake Craft, Biology, Geography, and Art,
and non-qualification courses including computing and an evening quilting
course. The aim is for the school to become a hub for learning in the
community.
o The Parent Council’s work with the Community Council and other bodies on
the island to ensure travel arrangements for pupils and itinerant
teachers are appropriate to the needs of the school, pupils and
community.
o Having a member of the Pupil Council attend Parent Council meetings and
feed back to the Pupil Council of decisions made. Pupils have a voice
within the Parent Council and their views and opinions are carefully
considered and respected.
 The final phase of the development of the school site has occurred during this
academic year, which consisted of the insulation of the school exterior walls,
the replacement of boilers and the upgrading of the internet connection to the
school. The staff and pupils throughout the last few years have worked hard to
minimise the disruption to the life of the school. The continued good academic
progress of the learners in sometimes difficult circumstances is a credit to the
hard work of all involved.
 The continued development of staff and learners’ expertise in the use of glow
sites has ensured the minimum disruption possible for learners when itinerant
teachers are unable to travel to Stronsay. We are the third-largest users of
glow within Orkney Schools.
As a small school on a small island, we know our learners extremely well and aim to
support them as fully as possible. Our learners enjoy being at school and have reported
that they have very good teachers. Learners feel that their teachers and support
assistants really know them well: this makes the learners feel that teachers and other
staff will give them appropriate support. Learners are able to make good progress and
have their strengths and areas for development identified. The school team works hard
to ensure that all pupils’ needs are met and effective support is given.
Summary of progress made on the 2016/17
School Improvement Plan
Priority 1 To continue to develop the Curriculum for Excellence.
How well do young people learn and achieve?
Quality Indicators
2.1 Curriculum
2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment
How good are we at improving outcomes for all our learners?
3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equity and achievement

6. 3.2 Raising attainment and achievement
3.3 Increasing creativity and employability
Strengths we have achieved include the following:
 The secondary staff have developed their knowledge of the Understanding Standards
documentation for each subject area, including changes to key mandatory course
content. These further changes to the qualification courses were implemented, and
verification by SQA proved that assessments met their requirements.
 Courses were further changed and developed to meet the guidance received for
students undertaking the examinations in 2018.
 New courses were developed to meet the individual needs of the S4 cohort. This
included the introduction of National 5 Cake Craft and National 4 Physical Education,
and Life Skills Maths.
 Support strategies were put into place for the S4 students who were undergoing a
range of qualifications, ensuring all their needs were met.
 Students achieved qualifications in the Princes Trust Achieve programme (please see
blog for more details), which was run for the very first time at a qualification level.
 The timetable was continually adjusted to ensure that students in S3 and S4 had a
personalised curriculum, meeting their individual needs and responding to changes in
their circumstances.
 The introduction of Spanish as the third language in the school was piloted with P6/7
children.
 The school continued to be actively involved in the development of the Orkney Offer
and enhancing the opportunities via the College for vocational courses. A vocational
experience was also offered at the college for all S3 and some S4 students.
 Across the school, a tracking and monitoring system has been further enhanced and
embedded into the monitoring of children’s individual attainment and progress across
the school. The revised system allows staff to access the information in a confidential
manner both at school and when at home to allow effective planning that meets the
needs of the individual learner.
 The primary department has continued to develop strong links with Sanday School,
which has resulted in joint moderation and training opportunities. The focus of these
events has been on moderation of literacy, maths progression by the effective use of
the benchmarking tools.
 Collaboration between schools has also led to joint planning/peer observation visits by
staff to each school.
 The primary sector has also developed a joint planning approach between the Lower
and Upper Primary classrooms to develop a holistic approach to topic work within the
Curriculum for Excellence, which has led on to highly effective team teaching.
 The primary staff have developed their knowledge of holistic assessments and how to

7. use them to effectively determine a learner’s level.
 The school continued to have a focus on maths development, including joint in-service
with Sanday School for both primary and secondary staff. We have embedded maths
GL assessment to individually assess a learner’s understanding as a tool to refine
teaching by addressing an individual, class or whole school need. At the end of the
academic year, after much research and with support from the Stronsay Development
Trust, the school purchased Heinemann Interactive Maths. Also in the secondary
sector, a problem-solving maths kit was purchased to address issues raised through
the feedback from the GL assessment.
 Number Talks, a strategy to develop the children’s mental maths ability, has also been
introduced across the school as has the development of thinking skills.
 Community courses have been developed in line with the school policy. This has led to
greater involvement of the community with the school, which in turn has led to pupils
within the school seeing learning as a lifelong experience. It has also further
developed the expertise of the staff within the school.
Impact on learners:
 The school provided bespoke learning pathways to S4 students, focusing on their
strengths and interests. These were valued by the students and met their individual
needs.
 The piloting of the Princes Trust Awards has provided learners in the secondary
sector with the opportunity to broaden their skills and experiences, and has also
provided them with the opportunity to gain a qualification in a wider curriculum area.
 The school has continued to use GL maths and literacy assessments to monitor
learners’ progress. Through this support, programmes have been developed to meet
the needs highlighted by these assessment tools and have resulted in a raising of
attainment.
 The close working relationship between Stronsay and Sanday Schools has resulted in
accurate moderation of writing tasks and a review of numeracy, ensuring verification
of Curriculum for Excellence levels and a joint understanding of the next steps in
learners’ progression. This has led on to joint training on holistic assessment, which
provides a more meaningful mechanism to measure children’s progress.
 The development of team teaching has led to a greater depth and breadth of teaching
across a range of experiences and outcomes, and the more effective use of limited
support. The pupils have fed back that this approach leads onto enjoyable learning
experiences and gives them more opportunities for them to gain leadership
opportunities.
 Primary 6 and 7 students have developed a wider base of language ability with the
introduction of Spanish, which complements their learning of the French language.
 Two students in S4 have decided to take up the option to undertake vocational
courses at Orkney College, further enhancing their learning pathways.

8. Next steps:
 To pilot vocational courses at Orkney College as part of the Orkney Offer.
 To continue to develop individual learning pathways for pupils, which will include the
introduction of Higher courses where appropriate for S4 and community students,
initially focusing on Music.
 To continue to broaden the range of courses on offer in the school as part of the
Orkney Campus, including the use of e-learning to enhance students’ opportunities.
 To continue and embed the development of the Princes Trust Award.
 To continue to develop the expertise of staff in the moderation of levels, the use of
benchmarking, and the formation of holistic assessments to determine accurately the
progress made by the children and their next steps in learning.
 To enable staff to jointly plan for the effective implementation of Heinemann
Interactive Maths through the primary sector of Stronsay School. (Supported by
Pupil Equity Funding, a government initiative to close the attainment gap ).
 To continue joint training with Sanday School to continue with the development of
mental maths teaching, including the use of Number Talks and online training using
Active Maths resources.
 To participate in Authority training on maths teaching during the October in-service,
investigating the latest research on effective maths and numeracy teaching.
 To develop the staff’s expertise on the new Scottish National Standardised
Assessments, leading onto their implementation in April /May 2018 and the effective
analysis of each individual child’s results.
 To introduce the authority-wide Early Literacy Project, to raise standards of
literacy across the authority.
 To implement the Jigsaw program to support personal development as part of an
Authority pilot scheme.
 To induct our new English teacher into the Orkney learning community.

9. Priority 2 Continued development of self-evaluation across the school
Quality Indicators
Self-evaluation for self-improvement
2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment
We have achieved the following:
 As a school we have self-assessed against How Good Is Our School 4 (school self-
evaluation guidance produced by HMIe). All staff have been involved, as have
members of the parent council.
 In the Nursery we have used How Good is our Early Learning and Child Care to
evaluate the effectiveness of the provision.
 A self-evaluation calendar is used to monitor a wide range of processes within the
school. This calendar is evaluated on an annual basis.
 The school has continued to refine target setting to ensure it has impact on learning
and all children are actively involved in learning discussions.
 All children continue to use profiles following the Orkney Isles format.
 The school has continued to refine the tracking and monitoring system within the
school, which now allows itinerant staff secure access to information when they are
off isle; this also includes fields for support needs and to make comments focusing on
the individual needs of the children.
 Additional evaluation of children’s attitudes to learning and the effective
implementation of learning targets was undertaken by a local independent primary
head teacher.
 The Authority has introduced Junior High attainment reviews to ensure students are
making appropriate progress in line with Orkney expectations. Regular visits by
School Improvement Officers monitor the effectiveness of the school’s self-
evaluation processes.
Impact on learners
 Teacher planning shows effective coverage of Experiences and Outcomes across the
school with all teachers taking appropriate account of literacy, numeracy and health
and wellbeing. This is providing learners with a progressive, broad, balanced
curriculum.
 The analysis of assessments, including the benchmarking tools, shows that in general,
children are making very good progress in literacy and good progress in numeracy.
 Regular assessments of reading and spelling ages have resulted in effective
intervention strategies being developed and marked improvements in reading and
spelling ages by the end of the academic year. In some cases, children have improved
their reading and spelling ages by over 2 years in an 8-month period.
 Moderation of literacy and numeracy jointly undertaken with Sanday School has
resulted in a clear understanding of the Curriculum for Excellence working levels for

10. children and of their next learning steps. Staff have a clear understanding of the
benchmarking tools for each subject and have started to include this information
within their planning and assessment.
 Lesson observations have shown effective use of Assessment for Learning techniques
across the school. They also showed that the majority of children are engaged in their
learning and eager to learn.
 Views from parents and children show that learners enjoy attending Stronsay School,
feel their learning needs are met and feel appropriately challenged.
 Secondary pupils feel that the revised target setting system has value and that their
views have been listened to.
 A review of pupil profiles has shown that the children would prefer an alternative
format, as the present format is becoming stale.
Next steps:
 To continue to use How Good Is Your School 4 to evaluate the effectiveness of the
school, with a greater emphasis on pupil input into the process. This will be supported
by using a pupil-friendly version of this document when published.
 To continue to use How Good is our Early Learning and Child Care to evaluate the
effectiveness of the nursery provision, and to get more parental involvement in the
process.
 To continue to use the school’s self-evaluation calendar to ensure self-evaluation
processes are embedded into all we do.
 To develop e-portfolios that can be updated easily, with a focus on next steps in
learning and skills development.
 To embed the tracking and monitoring systems in line with Orkney Education guidance.
 To continue to embed target weeks in both primary and secondary sectors.
 To review with parents the most effective mechanism to feedback on their child’s
learning and progress.
 To review the effectiveness of support for children with additional support needs.
 To continue to use neighbouring head teachers for self-evaluation/critical friend
 To continue to work with Sanday School in order to build/refine our effective self-
evaluation processes and outcomes.
 To publicise the Standards and Quality Report in sections on the school blog to make
the document more accessible to all.

11. Priority 3 Development of Leadership skills across the school
Quality Indicators
Leadership and Management
1.2 Leadership of learning
1.3 Leadership of change
1.4 Leadership and management of staff
Strengths
We have achieved the following:
 Within the nursery setting, the Care Inspectorate deemed the quality of leadership
and management to be very good, with staff actively involved in self-evaluation and
strong working relationships.
 The Head Teacher, working in partnership with other Heads, keeps abreast of
national and local education policy, and continues to ensure staff are fully aware of
developments.
 Stronsay School continues to work in partnership with Sanday School and has shared
a number of in-service days/twilights with Sanday Junior High School.
 Pupils are continually given opportunities to take on leadership roles across all sectors
within the school. These have included Princes Trust Achieve programme, undertaking
roles during residential trips (Norway), fundraising, Junior Road Safety Officers,
primary learners organising the book fair and interdisciplinary days e.g community
Fairtrade event.
 All staff undertake a Professional Review and Development programme and where
possible, support is given to meet their targets for development. As part of a
teacher’s GTCS registration and update, all teacher’s keep up to date records of
continuing professional development.
 All staff have undertaken the authority i-Learning programme of online training,
which includes child protection, health and safety training, internet and data security.
 Staff continue to develop their leadership skills through professional updates, peer
support, developing and refining examination courses, building links with other
schools, developing expertise in the moderation of Curriculum for Excellence levels
and the use of the benchmarking materials.
 The continued development of community learning at the school, as we move towards
becoming a community learning hub, has enhanced the professional development of all
staff.

12. Impact on learners:
 The nursery staff have a full understanding of the strengths and areas for
development which is used to continue the progression of learning within the nursery
environment.
 Staff are kept fully abreast of educational developments and use this to refine their
practice and ensure that learning is current and results in the majority of children
making good to very good progress
 The continued opportunities for pupils to develop their expertise has enhanced their
ability to work as a team and enhanced confidence in undertaking tasks.
 The learners see that the skills of leadership and of learning are valued within the
staff and also by the adults involved in community learning, which enhances their own
views on learning.
Next steps:
 To continue to develop opportunities for pupil leadership, including the
development of vocational courses at Orkney College for Senior Phase students
and the development of a pupil parliament.
 For staff to continue to be involved at an authority level, including the use of
ICT in teaching, verification processes and being mentors for new staff within
the authority.
 The appointment of a Principle Teacher within the school to support the head
teacher and the staff to further develop the school.

13. Priority 4 Continued development of Support for Learning to meet the needs of all
learners across the school.
Quality Indicators
Learning Provision
2.4 Personalised Support
2.7 Partnerships
3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion
Strengths:
We have achieved the following:
 Tracking systems continued to be used within the school to identify individual
learner’s needs, and appropriate interventions occurred, which, through further
tracking and the continued review of Child Plans, resulted in those needs being met
and children making appropriate progress.
 The school continued to work closely with multi-agency teams to meet the needs of
the children within our care and continued to build the capacity of staff to deal with
complex issues.
 This year, support staff had training on
o Emotional resilience (whole school in-service)
o Managing Challenging Behaviour
o Concentration and Impulsivity & ADHD
o Support for Learning Assistants Networking
o Executive Function & Autism in Girls
o Reviewing ways to make playtimes work more effectively
 The school worked closely with parents to ensure the needs of the children were met,
adjusting learning pathways to suit individual learner’s needs.
Impact on learners:
 Appropriate levels of support were provided to learners with additional needs, which
impacted positively on their health and well-being and also on their attainment,
increasing the confidence of the learners and raising attainment.
 Child Plans allowed a more coherent support package to be developed for children
with support needs where a range of multi-agencies were involved.
 Close working relationships with parents enabled support to be dovetailed whilst the
child was at home and at school, this close partnership has resulted in increased
confidence in children and a raising of attainment.

14. Next steps:
 To continue to work closely with the educational psychologist and multi-agency teams
to meet the individual needs of the children within our care.
 To develop an induction programme for the new highly experienced Support for
Learning teacher into the Scottish and Authority processes.
 To continue to develop and enhance the expertise of teaching and non-teaching staff
to meet the ever-changing needs of the learners in our care. This will include a
greater use of the wellbeing indicators and the impact of emotional, social and
behavioural issues on learning and how best to support children displaying these
issues.
 To meet the needs of the children highlighted through the government’s Pupil Equity
Funding Scheme to continue to close attainment gaps highlighted through our self-
evaluation/ tracking system.
 To implement the Jigsaw Scheme for personal, social development of the children
through the primary and secondary sectors (authority project).
 To introduce the Daily Mile as part of a whole school health and wellbeing target on
developing the physical and mental health of children.
Priority 5 Continue to develop the Nursery provision
The Nursery has its own Self-evaluation support document titled “ How Good is Our
Early Learning and Childcare?”
Strengths:
We have achieved the following:
 The school had an unannounced inspection of the School Nursery in September 2016,
the school achieved the following grades;
Quality of Care and Support Very Good
Quality of Environment Very Good
Quality of Staffing Very Good
Quality of Management and Leadership Very Good
(The full report can be seen on the School Blog.)
 The school has developed expertise and resources to accommodate 2-year-olds
within the setting and has been granted, by the Care Commission permission, to have
2-year-olds within it. This has included extra staff to ensure the correct ratio
between staff and children when 2 year olds are present within the facility.
 The Early Year’s Practitioner continues to work closely with the Lower Primary
teacher and regularly undertakes joint planning and evaluation of learning.
 The Early Year’s Practitioner regularly undertakes training, either through a nursery
teacher visiting the setting, or by undertaking courses based in Kirkwall.

15.  With support from the Local Authority, the setting continues to develop its self-
evaluation techniques to ensure the quality of provision.
 Enhanced resources have been developed for the nursery, including a mud kitchen,
which was built by the Janitor and the Early Year’s Practitioner and money was also
spent on a new climbing frame and pirate ship.
Impact on learners:
 Children are clearly very happy in the nursery and are making progress appropriate
to their age and development.
 Staff training is up to date and thus the children within the nursery are given
learning experiences which take account of the latest training avaliable.
 The continued development of the nursery, including the outdoor area, has enhanced
the learning experiences of the learners within its care.
Next steps:
 To continue to develop and embed the self-evaluation using “How Good is Our
Early Learning and Childcare?” for all areas within the nursery and to produce
an action plan to meet areas for development.
 To continue the training of the Early Year’s Practitioner and to provide
training for relief staff who may be required.
 To develop closer links with parents to encourage them into developing a closer
partnership with the school to aid their child’s development and learning.
 To continue the development of the outdoor learning environment.
Priority 6 To ensure that the facilities of the school are fit for purpose and meet
the needs of the learners in our care
Quality Indicator
How Good is our leadership and approach to improvement
1.5 Management of resources to promote equity
Strengths:
We have achieved the following:
 The internal alterations to the school site were finished during this academic year,
with the development of the focus/bright room and changes to LED lighting through
the majority of the school.
 The school has had an improved internet connection to the school, which has
increased the speed of the connection.
 The school has also had significant changes to the heating system and to the external
insulation of the site.

16.  The Stronsay Development Trust has supported the development of learning during
the academic year by providing the following grants:
o Sensory Needs for All,
o Support for the Norway trip
o Music Theory Grant
o Enhanced Learning Grant
o Purchase of an exterior case for the defibrillator assigned to the school
In total, these grants have provided an additional £19,800 support to the school.
Impact on learners:
 The enhanced lighting of the site has significantly improved the learning environment
within the school and has had an enormous impact on the health and wellbeing of
students and staff within the winter months.
 The internet speed has increased and the reliability of the connection seems to be
good. However, there are still issues around the connectivity of Video Conference
technology.
 The enhanced learning environment has resulted in enhanced positive attitudes
towards learning and self-worth for the staff, pupils and parents.
 Enhanced resources and music tuition has resulted in greater enjoyment of learning,
and has given students the opportunities to significantly widen their cultural
awareness of the world around them.
 An issue arose around digital projectors which were donated from the old Kirkwall
Grammar School. These proved to be defective and continue to take time to resolve.
Next steps:
 To continue to develop the resources within the school to meet the needs of
the learners within our care.
 To continue to develop resources with the Development Trust to allow the
school to become a hub for learning in the community.
 To use the Pupil Equity Fund to close the attainment gap for children
highlighted through our self-evaluation processes.
 To increase the fiddle tuition for pupils from once a fortnight to weekly.
 To continue to develop the ICT infrastructure and training to allow for
alternative models of teaching to enrich the curriculum to be piloted.
 To plan for the effective use of the Pupil Equity Fund to close the attainment
gap.
 Purchase from the school building maintenance budget of new digital projector
bulbs to resolve issue of donated from Kirkwall Grammar School.
 Embed Heinemann Interactive Maths resources into primary teaching

17. Priorities for future development
The school, through the evaluations it has undertaken, has produced a School
Improvement Plan. Due to the wide number of changes within education at the present
moment, this is a one-year plan. However, during the year, we will aim to convert this to
a three-year strategic plan which will dovetail government and local authority
initiatives.
The School Improvement Plan for 2017/18 links to the National Improvement
Framework Priorities including:
 Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy, closing the
attainment gap between the most- and least- disadvantaged children.
 Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing.
To do this we have four school priorities which are
 Raising attainment in maths
 Raising attainment in literacy
 Enhancing knowledge of attainment and the continued development of
partnerships between children, parents and staff to inform next steps in
learning
 Improving physical and mental wellbeing.