Angus must rise to the challenge of aspirational change to smash any ceiling in the way of its brightest and best youngsters, according to the area’s education chief.
Strategic director Margo Williamson’s declaration to stretch top performing pupils came after it emerged that children are doing better at the lower and middle reaches of attainment expectation, but the stars of the area’s classrooms are slipping back.
The revelation has brought a warning that a cossetting approach will not always take kids to where they are capable of being, and the director has received strong backing for the aspirational ambitions she harbours for the district’s bright young things.
Children and learning committee councillors were presented with an attainment report bulging with data and graphs charting the performance of Angus pupils by the end of fourth, fifth and sixth year.
They revealed a need for improvement in numeracy in local schools and a consistent picture of lower and middle performing youngsters punching above their weight in comparison to similar schools elsewhere in Scotland and against a virtual grouping made up of youngsters from a national database which takes into account factors such as social context and special needs.
The strategic director told councillors: “It is a concern for us in terms of our progress around numeracy.
“We have a numeracy specific officer working with the schools, a lot of continuing professional development and secondaries are sharing good practice to raise attainment.”
She continued: “We are a strange authority because there is a huge focus on pulling up the lower and middle cohorts.
“But where we are facing a challenge, not just in our schools but with our communities and parents, is being aspirational for our young people.
“It is that balance between pressure and aspiration that we must find and we have been too readily accepting that we should take the pressure off children and not allow the challenge.
“That is good for young people and the ambitious aspiration agenda is one that we have been working closely on with our schools.
“I have confidence in our teachers, and our teachers working with our children, and we need to work closely with our schools and whole communities around aspirational change,” said the director.
Arbroath councillor Ewan Smith said: “We need to support the children that need pulling up and the middle ground, but we absolutely can’t put a ceiling on higher achieving children.
“We do not know what children can achieve if they are not given the opportunities.”
