East Ayrshire school pupils have been praised for their resilience during the unprecedented impact of covid on their schooling.
In her annual Standards and Quality Report, deemed 'remarkable' by one councillor, education chief Linda McAuley-Griffiths highlighted a number of key areas in a year dominated by the pandemic.
Graham McGinn, strategic education manager at EAC, said he wanted to pick out a number of elements of the report, including 'congratulating the children and young people for their resilience and outstanding achievements during a very challenging school year'.
Among the other highlights cited in the report were:
- The response to Covid-19
- The move to digital remote learning
- Support for families with the greatest levels of need
- Improvements to the school estate — including the opening of the Barony Campus in Cumnock
- The introduction of the school counselling service
- The opening of a new employability hub.
- Almost 95 per cent of school leavers going on to positive destinations.
Conservative Councillor Ian Grant praised the work of the council's education department.
But, citing the Chinese proverb 'may you live in interesting times', Cllr Grant said: "I'm sure for the education department, they would like it to be a bit less interesting as we go forward.
"I would like to join the others in congratulating everyone. From the headmasters and headmistresses to the children, the cleaning staff, everybody who has had an extra workload this year. and has had extra responsibility and has in many ways made it tougher for them.
"This is a remarkable report in view of those circumstances."
The report revealed that almost 95 per cent of young people found a positive destination after leaving school, whether employment, further education or training. Over 75 per cent went on to university or college, with just under 15 per cent finding a job on leaving school.
It stated: "In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and with school closures from March 2020, this is a significantly positive outcome and testament to the commitment and dedication of schools and partners to ensure that young people who were leaving an East Ayrshire school were provided with a suitable post school destination offer.
The report continued: "The education service transformed overnight to provide remote delivery of education when remote learning was announced in March 2020. This required a huge effort from education staff and IT colleagues to mobilise devices for staff and learners and to set up new platforms for learning and for communication.
"Through the Scottish Government school digital inclusion grant we purchased 2,592 devices and 120 wifi units to
ensure young people across East Ayrshire have access to a device at home.
"The priority now is to ensure that schools and centres continue to develop their use of digital technology to support learning and that we are well-prepared in the event of any future event which could lead to the temporary closure of a school to provide continuity of learning through these means."
The council also introduced school counselling support available to all pupils aged 10 and over.
The service is able to provide 1-1 counselling, group work sessions, and wider support for schools and families with capacity building training for staff planned ahead. Of those pupils who used the service, 90 per cent said they found it helpful.
"The focus is to provide psychological support to children and young people with the aim of improving the overall resilience and psychological wellbeing of the young person and where appropriate, the whole family," the report added.
"Counselling has been made accessible to children and young people with additional support needs, has involved a more in-depth discussion with those requesting the support, and adapting sessions to ensure that they meet the needs of each young person.
"Benefits of counselling reported by children and young people include feeling better about themselves, being more able to deal with their problems and manage their feelings, improved relationships and improved ability to concentrate on school work."
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