Great report for Burnhouse Skills Centre

Burnhouse Skills Centre has received a positive report from Inspectors at Education Scotland.

The centre supports young people with a wide variety of additional support needs by removing barriers and using targeted interventions to enable them to succeed.

The specialist staff work with young people in a variety of settings including schools, our own Skills Centre and West Lothian College.

The inspection team found a number of strengths in the school’s work including wole school community involvement in improving the work of the school and caring and supportive relationships across the school leading to young people who feel safe when learning.

Another strength was young people’s involvement in exploring their wellbeing and being able to express views on their progress including contributing to their next steps in learning.

There was also a strong understanding of the needs of young people and their families. Senior leaders and staff provide equitable support to ensure that the cost of the school day is not a barrier to wellbeing or pupil participation in activities.

The inspectors also noted a number of areas for improvement and these have been discussed with the headteacher and West Lothian Council. These include continuing to improve the consistency of learning and teaching, ensuring all activities are motivating and well matched to the needs of young people.

Staff should now improve the curriculum to ensure that they widen all young people’s experiences, leading to better learning and work towards improving young people’s attendance to raise attainment across all areas of the curriculum.

Headteacher Andrew Miller, said: “We are really proud of our learners influencing positive change in our school and our caring and supportive culture across the school.

“We are working hard together to make a difference to the most disadvantaged secondary aged learners in West Lothian and we are in a strong position to continue to improve - noted in our strengths.

“This year has been a challenging one, however, we had made a number of key improvements to address the areas for improvement and we will continue to do so and move forward in the right direction for the young people at Burnhouse.”

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