Stewarton Academy Cairnduff Place Stewarton KA3 5QF

Telephone No: 01560 482342

Email: Stewarton.Academy@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

School Blog: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ea/stewartonacademysite2016/

Twitter: @stewarton_Acad

School App:

Denominational Co-educational, non-denominational, six-year comprehensive secondary Status (if any): establishment.

School Roll: 777 (age 12-18)

Further www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk/schoolhandbooks information:

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Dear Parent/Carer,

As Head Teacher of Stewarton Academy, I am delighted to introduce the school handbook for session 2020/2021. It contains a wide range of information about the school, which I hope you will find useful and interesting.

It is a privilege to be entrusted with the leadership of a school that values high academic standards alongside the wellbeing of its young people, staff and wider community. We work collaboratively with the school community to ensure that all of our young people achieve their full potential and experience a curriculum rich in opportunity, pace and challenge from the Broad General Education through to the senior phase.

In dealing with the consequences of COVID-19 last session and this year, we have faced the same significant challenges as schools across the country. I remain extremely proud of our school community’s response, working together at all times and keeping our young people and the health and safety of staff, pupils and our wider community at the forefront of all decision making.

Within the handbook, you will see our teaching and non-teaching staff’s commitment to embedding the needs and aspirations of our young people and keeping them at the heart of planning and day-to- day practice.

I look forward to continuing our work together to ensure the continued success of our young people. We will work together to continue shaping and delivering a shared vision of excellence for Stewarton Academy, and to ensure that the school is valued as a hub and source of pride at the heart of its community. I trust that this handbook will provide you with a real sense of our school and give you all of the information you require. I want to thank you for your support through a very challenging first year in post last session and urge you to contact us if you have any further queries or questions.

Ryan Miller Head Teacher

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School context

Head Teacher: Ryan Miller

Catchment Area: Stewarton, Kilmaurs & Dunlop

Stewarton Academy is a non-denominational school which serves a rural area of East Ayrshire. It has 4 associated primary schools – Dunlop Primary, Kilmaurs Primary, Nether Robertland Primary and Lainshaw Primary School. The school has a roll of 777 with 7% of our pupils coming from deciles 1/2 (most deprived areas), 24% from deciles 3/4, 13% from deciles 5/6, 35% from deciles 7/8 and 20% from deciles 9/10 (least deprived areas) and 1% non-defined. We have 62 teachers and 7 classroom assistants delivering the curriculum and supporting our young people. The schools national exam performance is above the national average and many measurements are above our virtual comparator

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Stewarton Academy

‘Working together creating opportunities for achievement and success’

We strive to ensure our pupils feel valued and respected at all times. Young people are encouraged to achieve their full potential whilst taking responsibility for their own learning now and throughout their lives.

Opportunities are available for staff, pupils, parents and the wider community to work together to achieve this aim whilst making a positive contribution to society and building a better future together

School Values Determination Don't settle for less than your best and show the determination to be all you can be. Have the strength and self-discipline to overcome obstacles.

Fairness We treat people with fairness and welcome ideas different to our own. Everyone has the opportunity to achieve regardless of their starting point on the learning journey.

Respect Respect for self, respect for others, respect for school environment, respect for our community.

Responsibility Take responsibility for your learning. Make good choices for yourself and others, think about what is right and wrong.

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We will strive

to develop the four capacities for pupil/young →  successful learners

person set out in a curriculum for excellence  confident individuals  effective contributors

 responsible citizens

through the eight indicators of well being  Safe →  Healthy  Achieving  Nurtured  Active  Respected  Responsible  Included

by demonstrating the ten dimensions of  high quality learning activities excellence →  focus on outcomes

 common vision pupil/young person, staff and parents

 values and empowers staff and young people

 develops culture of ambition and excellence

 promotes well-being and respect  reflects on own work – thrives on challenge  partnership with agencies and communities  working with parents

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 high quality leadership

We all agree that there is an unacceptable gap in attainment and achievement between children from our most and least advantaged backgrounds and that gap is wider than in some comparable European countries. The average tariff scores on leaving school of young people from areas of most disadvantage is still less than half that of those from areas of least disadvantage. This is not a new issue for Scotland, it has been with us for decades. At Stewarton Academy we are committed to ensuring that young people get an equal chance at education. We will support our children and young people to fulfil their full potential. Education is about where you are going, not where you are from. At Stewarton Academy we recognise that, as educational attainment increases, pupils much more likely to be employed, earnings are likely to be higher and pupils less likely to live in poverty. We are committed to working towards the ‘Children & Young Persons collaborative’ Stretch Aims -

S1 – S3 By 2020, at least 85% of children, within each SIMD quintile will have successfully achieved CfE Third level literacy, numeracy and are progressing in health and wellbeing as evidenced by SHANARRI indicators by the end of secondary 3

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THE SCHOOL DAY (Please note that the school day details may change)

Current Roll (as at August 2020)

S1 157 S2 124 S3 162

S4 129 S5 120 S6 85

Total 777

MONDAY, TUESDAY, THURSDAY WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY

Period 1 8:45 – 9:35 Period 1 8:45 – 9:35

Period 2 9:35 – 10:25 Period 2 9:35 – 10:25 BREAK 10:25 – 10:40 BREAK 10:25 – 10:40

Period 3 10:40 – 11:30 Period 3 10:40 – 11:30

Period 4 11:30 – 12:20 Period 4 11:30 – 12:20

Period 5 12:20 – 1:10 Period 5 12:20 – 1:10

LUNCH 1:10 – 1:55 LUNCH 1:10 – 1:55

Period 6 1:55 – 2:45 Period 6 1:55 – 2:45

Period 7 2:45 – 3:35

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ASSOCIATED PRIMARY ESTABLISHMENTS

Lainshaw Primary School Kilmaurs Primary School Kilwinning Road Sunnyside STEWARTON KILMAURS Ayrshire Ayrshire KA3 5AS KA3 2RY Telephone: 01560 483653 Telephone:01563 538388 Headteacher: Mr. J. Johnstone Headteacher: Mrs. M. Bradley

Nether Robertland Primary School Dunlop Primary School Pokelly Place Main Street STEWARTON DUNLOP Ayrshire Ayrshire KA3 5PF KA3 4AN Telephone:01560 482035 Telephone:01560 484098 Headteacher: Mrs. S. Wilson Headteacher: Mrs. P. Wilson

Education Group Stewarton Education Group work together to improve outcomes for young people. We have an Education Group Improvement Plan.

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ACCOMMODATION

A map is provided. There is a lift available for those who cannot access the stairs.

Facilities for community use: to let any part of our accommodation during the evening or at weekends, please contact:

East Ayrshire Leisure Community & Recreation, Letting, Western Road, Kilmarnock KA3 1LL

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The following security measures have been adopted in Stewarton Academy to help ensure the safety and well-being of our pupils and staff.

 All pupils wear school uniform. This helps us to identify strangers quickly.  All staff should wear an identity badge.  The school has a security access door and all visitors should access the school through this.  All visitors should report to the school office and sign in. They will be issued with an identity badge. Anyone in the building not wearing an identity badge should be challenged politely.  Security cameras have been installed in and around the school building.  The cafeteria and allocated areas around the school is available to pupils during severe weather conditions.

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HEAD TEACHER - Mr. Ryan Miller

The Head Teacher, Mr. Miller, is responsible to the Depute Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer for the overall management of the school.

Depute Head Teachers - S1/S2 Mrs. Y. Ward (Mon-Thu) & Mrs. M. Taylor (Fri) - S3/S4 Mr. F. Hardie - S5/S6 Mr. G. Johnston

The Depute Head Teachers have particular responsibilities for certain year groups, overseeing the educational experience of their pupils, including the curriculum, guidance and discipline.

Mrs. Ward and Mrs Taylor are responsible for S1/S2, Mr. Hardie for S3/ S4 and Mr. Johnston for S5/S6 and adult students. The Depute Head Teachers, together with Pupil Support Staff, play a vital role in the partnership between home and school, and will welcome contact from parents on all matters of concern.

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List of faculties/departments and Staff

Design (Art & Technical) Modern Languages Mr. D. Dodds Faculty Head Mrs. E. Verneau- Principal Teacher (Technical) Conlan

Ms. S. Cooper PT Curriculum Ms. J. McCrone (Technical)

Mr. J Bradley Mrs. A. Gardiner (Technical)

Mr. M. Reilly (Technical)

Ms R. Beattie (Art & Design)

Mrs. S. Hitchman (Art & Design)

Mrs. I. Cartwright (Art & Design)

Mr. A. Pauley Technician

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List of faculties/departments and Staff

English & Drama Music

Mrs. C. Gillespie Principal Teacher Mr. G. McGuire Principal Teacher (0.8)

Ms. H. Biddiscombe Mrs. L. Watson Principal Teacher (0.2), teacher (0.6)

Mr. M. Fitzsimmons Mr. K. Gordon

Ms. P. Jannaway Mrs. H. Mallan (0.4)

Mr. R. Miller Head Teacher Physical Education & Home Economics

Mr. I. Reid Mr. M. Renny Principal Teacher

Mr. R. Stratton Mr. E. Alexander

Mr. C. Young Mrs. C. Cardosi

Mrs. E. Munro 0.6

Ms. E. Vallance Principal Teacher of Pupil Support 0.6

Mr. R. Morgan NQT

Ms. L. Finlay Home economics

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List of faculties/departments and Staff

Maths, Computing & Business Science & the Environment

Mr. A. McLean Acting Faculty Head Mr. L. Hendren Faculty Head (Maths & Computing) (Chemistry & Biology)

Mrs. Caddis Ms. M. Taylor Principal Teacher of (Maths) (Chemistry) STEM and World of Work Mrs. B. Hudson Mr. G. Smallwood (Maths) (Chemistry)

Mr. I. Pettigrew Mrs. S. Beattie Principal Teacher of (Maths & Computing) (Biology) Pupil Support

Mrs. A. Mohsin (0.4) Mr. McCormack Principal Teacher of (Maths) (Biology) Pupil Support

Ms. T. Seery Mrs. A. Smith (0.6) (Maths) (Biology)

Ms. K. Donnelly (NQT) (Biology)

Mrs. M. Smillie Mrs. A. Barbour Principal Teacher of (Maths) (Physics) Pupil Support

Mr. N. Watt Mrs. C. Sneddon (0.8) (Maths) (Physics)

Mrs. C. Chester Mr. D. Burrett (Business) (Physics)

Mr. D. MacLean Mrs. J. Strachan Senior Science (Computing Science & Technician Business)

Mr. F. Hardie Depute Head Teacher (Computing Science) 15

List of faculties/departments and Staff

Mr. R. Ross (Computing Science)

Mr A Lind (NQT) (Computing Science)

Social Studies & RMPS Library & Resource Centre

Mrs. P. White Faculty Head Dr. J. Redgate Librarian (Geography)

Mrs. L. Robertson (0.6) Office (Geography)

Ms. B. MacBain Principal Teacher Pupil Mrs. M. Andrews AFO (History) Support (0.4)

Mr. J. Kyle Mrs. M. Madigan (History)

Ms. R. Hogg Mrs. L. Tait (Modern Studies)

Miss G. Dunsmuir Mrs. E. Wigfull (RE)

Mrs. V. Wilson Mrs. C. Whitehill (RE)

Mrs. L. Wilson

Pupil Support (Pastoral) Technicians

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List of faculties/departments and Staff

Mrs. A. Barbour Stewart Mrs. J. Strachan Science

Ms. B MacBain Cunningham Mr. D. Mauchlen ICT

Mrs. S. Beattie Montgomery Mr. A. Pauley Technical

Mr. M. McCormack Boyd

Mrs. E. Vallance Stewart

Pupil Support (Support for Learning) Day Cleaner

Mr. J. McDowall Principal Teacher Mrs. J. Foy

Ms. M. Murphy Campus Police Officer

Classroom PC F. Lynch Assistants

Mrs. M. Devlin Home Link Worker

Mrs. C. Findlay Mr. D. McIntyre

Ms. M. Kirkby

Mrs. M. McGhee

Mrs. S. Smith

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List of faculties/departments and Staff

Mrs. W. McWilliam

Mrs. J. McFadyen

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The National Improvement Framework

In 2017 the Scottish Government published the National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan for Scottish Education to help us deliver the twin aims of excellence and equity in education. In practise for us this means developing a broad range of skills and capacities, whilst supporting our pupils to thrive, regardless of their social circumstances or additional needs.

Excellence through raising attainment: ensuring that every child achieves the highest standards set out within Curriculum for Excellence levels, and the right range of skills, qualifications and achievements to allow them to succeed.

Achieving equity: ensuring every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

National Improvement Framework – Key Priorities

 Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy

 Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children

 Improvement in children’s health and wellbeing

 Improvement in employability skills and sustained positive school leaver destinations

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1. Staff Cover

Staff should inform HT; at the earliest opportunity should they require release. (SQA markers’ meeting; hospital Appointments etc.)

For emergency absence, staff should inform the school office by 8.20am on the first day of absence and indicate their likely return date. If the return date alters, the alternative date should be notified to DHT. (Sickness Absence Management Policy – Employee guidance – East Ayrshire Council)

On first day of sickness absence, you must notify the educational establishment/school etc. as soon as practicable. If you are unable to do this due to illness, some other person may act on your behalf. You/they should, if possible, indicate the date of your return to work.

Where the relevant Manager is not available then you should leave a contact number to enable the Manager to contact you later that day, whenever practicable or as soon as possible thereafter. Emails or texts messages are not accepted as an appropriate method of communication other than you will be advised of the appropriate managerial contacts for you to telephone on your first day of absence.

When you contact your Manager, you should provide the following information:-

 The nature of y our illness, or other reason for absence;  How long you expect to be ill/absent;  An estimated date of return;  Your intentions e.g. going to doctor, hospital etc.;  Where appropriate, advise of any work appointments that have been made, attendance expected at meetings, training courses, important work etc. so that alternative arrangements can be made in your absence;  Your telephone number or personal contact point (this is needed in case your Manager needs to contact you).

If you do not return to work by the third calendar day, then on the fourth calendar day of absence you are required to contact your Manager and should intimate a likely return date.

For an absence of seven calendar days or less, you must submit a self-certificate form and submit it to your Manager on the day you return to work unless a Medical Practitioner has issued a Statement of fitness for Work from day one that covers the absence.

For an absence continuing for more than seven calendar days, in addition to completing a self- certificate, which will have been previously sent to your home address, you must consult a Medical Practitioner and obtain a Fit Note. These documents must be forwarded immediately by you. If the absence is likely to continue beyond the date shown on the fit Note you should consult your Medical Practitioner again and submit additional medical certificates timeously to cover the absence.

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You must keep your Manager informed of your progress with an indication, if possible of a return to work date.

You are responsible for ensuring that Statements of Fitness for Work are submitted timeously to ensure continued certification of your sickness absence and that all periods of sickness absence in excess of 7 calendar days are covered.

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USING SOCIAL MEDIA

Many of us now use social networking and file sharing sites like Face book, Twitter and YouTube. They’re great for staying in touch and creating communities and for most people, joining in is trouble free and fun. But it can be easy to blur the lines between your personal voice and your professional life as a registered social service worker.

First of all, exactly what is “social media”?

It’s really just a set of online tools for us to use to communicate and engage with people and includes things like:

 writing a blog or commenting on people’s blogs  micro-blogging e.g. Twitter  a personal profile page on one of the social or business networking sites e.g. Linkedin, Facebook  product or service reviews on retailer sites, or customer review sites  taking part in online votes and polls  taking part in conversations on public and private web forums (message boards).

And while there are lots of benefits from taking part in social networking there are things that it’s important to look out for and think about in your role as a professional social service worker.

Remember that as a registered worker you must work to the SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers e.g. Code 5 says that you must “uphold public trust and confidence in social services whether you are in work or outside of work”.

Both personally and professionally, you need to follow the same standards in online activities as you would in any aspect of your life. The same professional expectations and guidelines for interacting with people apply online as in the real world.

To friend or not to friend? “Friending” or allowing a person who uses services or their carer to be your online friend or follower is not acceptable for a registered social service worker as it creates a personal relationship outside of your workplace. And it leaves both workers and people who use services open to allegations from comments they might post.

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No comment!

Be responsible for the way you behave and for what you post and use common sense and judgement. As a social service worker you should always be respectful of the privacy and feelings of others. You should not use it for attack or abuse, to make malicious comments, to air concerns about issues at work or provide privileged and confidential details about work or individuals as this could be a breach of the SSSC Code of Practice.

How you behave online can have an impact on you professionally as well as personally. Anything that is posted online could leave you open to scrutiny from the public and people who use services and this could be viewed as misconduct.

Is private really that private?

Be aware that anyone can search for information about you online, just as they do for any service or product or to find out who was number 1 in the charts in 1999.

Privacy doesn’t exist in the world of social media even though all social networking sites have “privacy settings”. No matter how private we think we are, once you’ve put something out there, it’s out there. That said; make the most of the privacy settings. Keep an eye out for updates from the host site as they continually change the settings which then get applied to everyone and you then have to choose to opt out.

The internet is not anonymous, nor does it forget. Everything written on the internet can be traced back to its author very easily and there is a permanent record.

Search engines are extremely sophisticated. Information is backed up often and posts in one forum can be replicated in others through reposts and references. Try Googling yourself to see how well protected your personal online presence really is!

Top Tips

1. Check your personal security settings. To keep your accounts private choose settings that mean only the people on your “friends”, followers or contacts lists can see your information, photos, videos and posts. And check that location tracking services are turned off unless you need it turned on. 2. Don’t allow people who use services and their carers to be your online friends as it creates a personal relationship and it can leave you open to allegations regarding comments they may make online. 3. Avoid putting personal information up on your page e.g. where you work, your phone number etc. 4. Be responsible about what you post. 5. Find out about your “web shadow” – search for yourself online and see what comes up. You’ll be surprised how much could be online even if you’re not in the public eye. 23

GIRFEC

The Getting it right for every child approach

The Getting it right for every child approach is about how practitioners across all services for children and adults meet the needs of children and young people, working together where necessary to ensure they reach their full potential. It promotes a shared approach and accountability that:

 builds solutions with and around children, young people and families  enables children and young people to get the help they need when they need it  supports a positive shift in culture, systems and practice  involves working better together to improve life chances for children, young people and families

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CHILD PROTECTION PROCEDURES – STANDARD CIRCULAR 57

The protection of young people is the responsibility of everyone.

Staff must immediately report an allegation or suspicion of child abuse to the Head of Establishment or Service Line Manager if there are grounds for concern about the possibility of abuse. Any concerns about a child’s welfare should be reported to the Head or line manger immediately. If he/she is not available the person deputising must be contacted.

Definitions of abuse:

 Physical abuse  Sexual abuse  Emotional abuse  Neglect

What to do if a child tells you something has happened

Do

 Stay calm  Listen to the child  Keep any questions to a minimum  Reassure the child they were right to tell  Tell the child what you’re going to do next  Write down in the child’s own words what has been said and note the date and time  Act promptly and immediately report to your line manager or designated child protection officer

Don’t

 Ask too many questions  Make any false promises or promise not to tell anyone  Express shock or anger at what is being said to you  Interpret what the child is saying to you – just record and report  Delay listening to the child or passing on your concerns  Carry out an ‘investigation’ into the allegation

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