Education chief dismisses call to learn from transformed Scottish school as not 'particularly helpful'

A recently published study by the Reform Scotland think-tank highlighted the turn-around at Berwickshire High at Duns after the school put “knowledge” back at the heart of the curriculum.

The school is said to have gone from being described by inspectors as “weak” and “unsatisfactory”, to being sector leading, in only four years.

Attainment also improved dramatically, with the percentage of students attaining five or more Level 5 qualifications, such as National 5, in S4 going from 44 per cent in 2018 to 64 per cent in 2023. The percentage of students attaining five or more Level 6 qualifications, such as Higher, in S5 went from 21 per cent to 41 per cent in 2024.

At a meeting of Edinburgh City Council’s education committee on Wednesday, Conservative member Christopher Cowdy moved an addendum asking officers to investigate what best practice, or other learnings, could be taken from the school in the Scottish Borders.

He said: “The report came out highlighting very significant achievements and improvements in this school, so I thought it would be very good for us to have a very specific look at that school, and see what learnings we can get from it, and bring it back to committee.”

Councillor Cowdy added: “Just the stark achievements being found in Berwickshire High School were, I think, well worth investigation. It would be very interesting to get feedback and to come back to committee with some specific ideas of what they did and how we might be able to learn from them in Edinburgh.”

However, the committee voted overwhelmingly by nine to two against the proposal.

Committee convener Joan Griffiths was among those rejecting the idea, saying: “Officers constantly look at other schools, other authorities, for best practice.

“And to restrict ourselves to doing something in one school, in one area ... I’m quite sure if we looked at other schools in the Borders you would get a different picture.

“So I think to hone in on one school, I don’t think is particularly helpful. I think it is giving additional work to officers when they already do work across education authorities for best practice.”

The role of knowledge in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence has been under the spotlight since a sample of 15-year-olds recorded the nation’s worst ever scores in the OECD’s Pisa tests, published in December 2023.

The Reform Scotland report was written by Lindsay Paterson, professor emeritus of education policy at the University of Edinburgh, and Bruce Robertson, the director of Next Level Educational, education author and head teacher of Berwickshire High School.

Mr Robertson said: “We took a curriculum which had, in effect, very little clear content, and in which the intended outcomes were vague and ambiguous, and redesigned it for the betterment of teaching and learning.

“We did it at Berwickshire High. It can and should happen all over the country.”

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has said the role of knowledge is to be considered as part of a “curriculum improvement cycle”.