Scotland’s independent think tank
Scotland’s independent think tank

High Dunoon: How one Scottish school empowered its staff and pupils

Reform Scotland has published a new paper – High Dunoon: How one Scottish school empowered its staff and pupils, and transformed a community  – written by educational leader and former teacher Gillian Hunt.

The paper explains how Dunoon Grammar School, under the leadership of its headteacher David Mitchell and with the support of the local authority, has created its own ecosystem within the current education system. The school has placed its focus on young people and the desire by all in the community to be part of enabling them to thrive.

Mr Mitchell, a former Dunoon Grammar pupil, returned as headteacher in 2013. Since then, the school has collaborated with a large number of organisations including Apps for Good, Argyll Holidays, the Dunoon Film Festival, Police Scotland and the Wood Foundation, ensuring that its pupils leave school with a wider experience of the world outside, ready to make their contribution to it. The school is also involved with a company set up to develop Dunoon as an adventure capital of Scotland, and provides a junior board to the company.

The school and its head, having already won the T4 Education World’s Best School prize for Community Collaboration, have been nominated for other awards. Dunoon Grammar is one of four UK schools nominated for the Community Award at the Education Business Awards in London, and David Mitchell has been shortlisted for Headteacher of the Year at the Scottish Education Awards next week.

“Dunoon Grammar embodies what community means. The school is at the heart of the community and people recognise that.

“The school has created its own ecosystem within the current education system. The focus is on young people and the desire by all in the community to be part of enabling them to thrive. But it’s also about Dunoon itself thriving and one cannot be done without the other, so there is a recognition that everyone is in it together. There is an incredible feeling of belonging.

“They are doing this without additional resources or any special measures. The DGS ecosystem is a model for the future of Scottish schools – we just have to have the desire to do it.

“If I was still a teacher, this is where I would want to work. If I were a parent, this would be where I’d want my children to go to school.”

Gillian Hunt, education consultant & report author

“The current financial situation makes it even harder to provide a wide range of opportunities for young people

“In Dunoon Grammar School we are lucky that our partners, community and parents and carers all want to join together to ensure our young people’s needs are met. Our partners provide great opportunities that allow our young people to connect with professionals in areas they are interested in.

“It is definitely the way education needs to move. We need to be open to much more collaboration.”

David Mitchell, Headteacher, Dunoon Grammar

“There is much focus, in the media and elsewhere, on what is wrong with Scottish education. That is to be expected and is important: you can only fix problems when you acknowledge they exist. But it’s also important to talk about the success stories – those projects from which others can learn and benefit.

“At Dunoon Grammar School, teachers are encouraged to think for themselves, and take an “outward looking” approach to their job. External partners in the public, third and private sectors have become part of the DGS family. At the heart of all this is head teacher David Mitchell, who emerges from this report as a local hero.

“Empowered heads like David and schools like Dunoon are exactly what Scottish education needs if the problems within our system are to be replaced with solutions.”

Chris Deerin, Director, Reform Scotland

Attachments


High Dunoon: How one Scottish school empowered its staff and pupils