A vision for all
Dear Parents and Carers
On Thursday, 31st August at our annual Mass of Welcome we had the marvellous opportunity to pray for the care and wellbeing of our young people during the academic year, 2017-18. Thank you to the many young people, parents and family members and staff who were able to be present for Holy Mass. It was a beautiful occasion. Through the homily of Monsignor Monaghan, the address of our Head Girl, and the prayer of Dedication of Studies offered by our Head Boy on behalf of our young people, we reminded ourselves of the vision we have for all young people in our school.
The vision of education for young people in Saint Ninian’s is to assist in the fullest possible development of all of the God-given talents of each individual person as a member of the school community. The success of that education is measured not simply in terms of the academic performance of students but in terms of the formation of young people ensuring the fullest possible development of each person’s individual capacities at each stage of their journey through school, joined to the willingness of our students to continue this development throughout their life and the motivation to use those developed gifts for others.
In partnership with parents, the first educators of their children, we offer an education that aims to form young people of compassion, conscience, competence and commitment, who develop their talents, engage in life-long learning, work with others to transform the culture in which they live and work, and put their faith into action for social justice.
The pursuit of academic excellence remains a key dimension within the framework of human excellence. However, we do not define excellence within a narrow utilitarian context of examination results. If we did we would be unfaithful to the Gospel of Our Lord, which provides the raison d’etre for the catholic ethos of our school. This narrow perspective reduces the ‘fullness’ of education to only one dimension.
The four ‘Cs capture the true meaning of excellence which seeks the development of the gifts and capacities with which each young person is endowed, thereby enabling them to offer their talents in the best possible service of others in our schools and local community. This is what we believe, it provides a framework for our teaching, and it is also what we see each day though the work of our young people and staff.
It is vital that we acknowledge the hard work and success of our young people across the academic aspects of school life and, in particular, to applaud the young people and teaching staff for their hard work and notable success in the recent national SQA examinations and for their generous commitment across all dimensions of school life – sport, music, expressive arts, and so much more.
The attached file provides a short summary of the headline SQA figures for 2017. More details will follow once we have the ERC Exam analysis and the data from the national Insight toolkit.
Thank you for your continued support and may our young people continue to flourish through 17-18.
With every best wish
John Docherty, Head Teacher.
