Gold For Alness Academy

Alness Academy has been presented with a Gold Award for SHAW (Scotland’s Health at Work), the first school in the Highlands and only the fifth in Scotland to achieve this top award.

Chairman of the Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee, Councillor Bill Fernie made the presentation at the Education Culture and Sport Committee meeting in Inverness today (Thursday 17 January).  Before handing over the award, he congratulated everyone involved for their hard work and great achievement.

Head teacher of the 508 pupil school, Ken MacIver, was accompanied by principal teacher of Physical Education, Jill Sharp.  He said: “Participating in the scheme gave us a great target to aim for and provided clear direction for the whole school to focus on.  It highlighted the fact that if our staff are happy and feel involved in the life of the school, this positively benefits all the pupils.  Meeting the strict criteria for the Award has involved a lot of hard work with plenty of challenges.  We have previously been awarded a Bronze and then a Silver Award, so getting Gold is the best prize for the whole school.”

Cromarty Firth ward Highland Councillor, Maxine Smith added her congratulations to Alness Academy for their excellent efforts and said: “The staff of Alness Academy have shown resilience and motivation in rising to challenges that have arisen in their school.  They have successfully involved the students, parents and teachers in an ‘across the board’ effort to implement something of real value to their everyday lives.  I commend their efforts and hope that other schools will look to them as a guiding light showing what can be achieved with a little ingenuity, team effort and in house competition, but most of all a growth of understanding between the different peer groups within the work place.  Well done!”

One important development at the school under the award scheme has been the development of SNAG – a School Nutrition Action Group.  Made up of a team of staff, canteen workers and pupils, this group meets regularly to discuss ways of improving and promoting healthy lifestyles nutritional values. One of the events it successfully organised was a Ready, Steady Cook night featuring healthy menus.  The group has also run a concerted publicity push promoting the healthy meals available at the canteen.  This has already led to an increase in the up-take of school meals.

The School has also introduced a House system which pupils and staff have embraced.  This motivates pupils and builds up team spirit right across the whole school.  House reps are elected and take on special responsibilities, learning new social development skills and acting as role models for their peers.

Principle Teacher of PE and co-ordinator of the scheme, Jill Sharp said:  “Taking part in the Awards has been very positive and we have seen a marked improvement in the behaviour of pupils throughout the school. Now we have set up a House system, more events are organised, so the school is enjoying increased participation in activities, such as the very successful St Andrew’s Ceilidh we had.  Pupils feel that they have a say in their school and that they are listened to.  It’s all about encouraging young people and staff to be proud of their school and to take responsibility for their health.”

Keeping staff and pupils informed of all the developments is a challenge. The school Prefects produce a newsletter each term for pupils and information is sent out to staff via an Intranet, regular bulletins and staff meetings.
 
In November the school had a HMIe Good Practice visit to recognise the rapid progress made in health promotion. The successful visit focussed on healthy eating with the inspection team interviewing staff, prefects, sports leaders and groups of pupils.

Future developments the school would like to see is the setting up of a system of  ICT display boards, connected up around the building to provide up-to-date bulletins and to publicise the school successes.

Jill Sharp added:  “Although the SHAW scheme has now ended and has been replaced by Healthy Working Lives which concentrates more on health and safety issues of the workplace, Alness Academy will be continuing along the lines of SHAW, using feedback from pupils and staff to shape future developments.”