Ceremony honours successful students

KEY areas of the curriculum which define students learning experience were to the fore when Buckie Community High School gathered to honour their prizewinners. Rector Neil Johnson used the occasion to reflect on the changes which have affected the school, not just over the past year, but also over a longer timespan. Turning first to attainment, Mr Johnson had good news on this front, despite staff shortages and funding cuts. He said: “Young people who leave Buckie High in S4 and the majority of S5 last year attained qualifications beyond that of the local, national and virtual comparators that schools are now judged against. “Attainment in literacy in the senior phase continues to outstrip comparators and in the broad general education is well beyond the 85 per cent who are expected to achieve level three by the end of S3. Numeracy is an improving picture – last year we were only one per cent below the 85 per cent benchmark in S3 and early indications are that this year we will comfortably exceed this figure.” With regard to inter-disciplinary learning, Mr Johnson said that this continued to be rolled out beyond the senior phase, with many initiatives, including the Youth Philanthropy Initiative and projects conducted with local employers, were ongoing success stories. Putting something back into the community remained a major priority, he continued. Student involvement in a raft of schemes, from prefects and buddies through to sports coaching, Bucks4Buckie and running the P7 transition evenings were, he told the audience, all concrete signs of a flourishing sense of commitment.

See full story on Banffshire Advertiser on 25th June 2019