Exclusive:Exam results Scotland: East Lothian school Preston Lodge High using pipes and drums to close attainment gap
Preston Lodge High has been the subject of a new study into its piping programme.
An East Lothian school may have found a novel new way of closing the education attainment gap - learning the pipes and drums.
A study of pupils from Preston Lodge High tracked young people who play in the school’s piping programme for ten years. The research found teenagers who learned a traditional Scottish instrument outperformed their classmates in exams.
Pupil players were more likely to earn Highers and Advanced Highers and go on to university than their non-musical peers. The effect was not only prevalent for young people from middle-class homes, but included those from more disadvantaged backgrounds.
The piping scheme at the Prestonpans secondary is supported by the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust (SSPDT).
“One of the most encouraging things to come out of this study is the fact that even youngsters from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are flying high too,” SSPDT chief executive Lindsay MacKenzie said.
“It is proving beyond doubt that pipe bands at school can really help bridge the attainment gap at a time when national statistics show the gap to be widening.”
Preston Lodge High has had a turbulent few years with the challenges of dealing with significant disruption due to building problems. The school was found to have been built with the lightweight concrete, reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) - a material that can easily crack and crumble.
Education Scotland assesses schools on four quality indicators. The school’s most recent inspection report, from January, showed Preston Lodge received two “weak” ratings from watchdogs and two “satisfactory”.
Yet the young people in the school band have far exceeded the national average in exam attainment. All 78 pipe band members between 2014 and last year were tracked from final exams through to higher education and employment and all of them have had better outcomes than their peers.
Some 52 per cent of pipe band members attained five or more Highers, compared to 39 per cent nationally and 27 per cent overall at Preston Lodge. A total of 41 per cent left school with one or more Advanced Highers, compared with the national average of 18.7 per cent.
For pupils from the two most deprived social groups, the impact was significant. Research shows 45 per cent achieved three or more Highers, compared to 38.2 per cent nationally and 40 per cent attained one or more Advanced Highers, compared to just 10.5 per cent nationally.
Head teacher Gavin Clark said the impact of the school’s three pipe bands was “impossible” to over-estimate.
“Our pipe band has grown significantly over the past two decades from a tentative group of new players in 2007, into the flourishing figurehead of our school and its community it is today,” Mr Clark said.
“While we’ve always known that our young people of all ages and abilities, across the primary and secondary sector, have benefited immeasurably from the skill development and self-esteem building that piping and drumming can provide, we now have evidence which indicates that pipe band participation has also had a significant impact on their attainment at school.”
Roderick Paisley, a piper himself and Professor of Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen, said the effect could be explained by the maturity and hard work necessary to learn the instruments.
He said: “Pipers and drummers are often more mature, dedicated and hard-working than their peers and they gain personal confidence enabling them to take on difficult tasks and to deal with other people of all ages.
“The best thing about participation in a pipe band is that all this is learned in an enjoyable way and it sets up pipers and drummers for life.”
Preston Lodge was among the first schools in Scotland to benefit from the SSPDT pipe band programme. The high school now has two full-time and one part-time pipe band tutoring staff and runs development, novice juvenile and juvenile pipe bands, with pupils competing in major national and international competitions.
The Trust is now encouraging pipe and drumming tutors nationwide to collect similar data to further validate the research findings.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.