A high school teacher working with both primary and secondary pupils is one of the innovative ideas which is helping Bathgate Academy boost pupil performance.
The high school hired a maths teacher with a remit to work across primary and secondary classes - a first in Scotland- to improve the numeracy skills of pupils coming up from the cluster primaries into the academy.
Headteacher Grant Abbot told West Lothian Council’s Education Quality Assurance Committee that the academy was one of the first in Scotland to appoint a middle years maths teacher to work with children from P4 to S 3 in the cluster.
“It has had a significant impact on attainment and confidence from the pupils and within the maths department,” Mr Abbot told the meeting.
He added that the department worked on a front-loaded policy to boost confidence in numeracy and maths among the first two years.
Work has been ongoing since an HMI report in 2019 recommended greater focus on teaching and learning across some subjects. Since then staff issues have been ironed out. MrAbbot said staff had worked with each other to improve across subjects as well as working with principal teachers from across the county toimprove perfromance in certain subjects.
The school has appointed a depute head to focus on improving learning and teaching across departments.
He said a collegiate approach across the school and involving the parents had brought “robust and on the whole positive feedback.”
Mr Abbot said:“We are looking at delivering high quality classroom teaching and believe that we can replicate that remotely. Covid has had a significant impact. The school is facing a number of challenges but I believe we are in a strong position as we move into the new year.”
Local councillor Charles Kennedy described the Maths initiative as exciting and hoped it would be something that could be replicated across the county.
He said: “It’s good to see such an encouraging and positive report. Well done.”
