The Community School of Auchterarder

What the school says...

Auchterarder High School is a Nursery, Primary and Six-Year Secondary School, serving the community of Auchterarder and surrounding district. It is not a common type of school in Scotland, but we think it is an excellent way of providing for the education of all children in the area. The present roll is 447 pupils in the Primary Department (including 72 in the Nursery Class) and 354 pupils in the Secondary Department.

The Nursery Class caters for 40 part-time places each morning and a further 40 each afternoon of the school week, and provides a valued pre-school service of the highest order to children from age 3 in this area.

The Primary Department has the benefits of shared accommodation such as Assembly Hall/Stage, Gymnasium, playing fields, access to some sophisticated aids to learning and teaching normally found only in Secondary schools. The catchment area of the Department is the town of Auchterarder, Cloan, Findo Gask, Glendevon, Tullibardine, Strathallan and generally the rural area adjoining the town.

The Secondary Department, for its part, benefits too. Daily contact with Primary teachers affords excellent opportunities for co-operation and co-ordination of approaches and methods thus enhancing the progress of 5-14 developments. The transfer of Auchterarder pupils from Primary to Secondary is eased, and this allows us to concentrate more fully than otherwise on aiding the transfer into First Year of pupils from our other associated Primary Schools. The presence of Primary pupils in our "community" acts as a constant reminder to older ones of their responsibility to care for younger children, and provides opportunities to assist them in various ways.

The Secondary Department is a Six-Year Comprehensive, catering for pupils of all abilities. It serves the catchment area of Auchterarder and surrounding district. Its associated Primary Schools are Aberuthven, Auchterarder High (Primary Department), Blackford and Dunning schools. Its relatively small size is an advantage to our pupils. Staff and pupils are well known to each other and no-one can remain isolated and "left out". Staffing ratios work in our favour producing classes which at all stages are, in the main, smaller than one would find in a large urban school. This means more individual attention is given to pupils throughout their school careers and this is especially so from Third to Sixth Year when there can be classes of single figure size.

The range of subjects available, with skilful timetabling and use of resources, is similar to those found in other Secondary Schools. Indeed, we would claim that our provision of courses in Fifth and Sixth Year offers very wide scope to pupils. Our flexibility allows us to provide such courses as are required by individual pupils, and this can be varied from year to year. ...Read more

This is not currently a GSG-reviewed school.

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