Having been a popular figure in the Elgin community, Kyle Scott has taken what could be considered a risky move in becoming head teacher at Kemnay Academy.
The former Highland League footballer called time on his 14 years at Elgin Academy – including six as head teacher – in March.
But although the 41-year-old has embarked on a new start, in a sense he’s coming home.
Born and bred in Banchory, Mr Scott still lives in the Aberdeenshire town. So although he’s left behind a school which has a “big place” in his heart, he’s also left behind a morning commute which began as early as 3am.
And in a wide-ranging interview with The P&J, the self-confessed “rainbows and unicorns guy” said he was “incredibly confident” of Kemnay Academy’s bright future.
We sat down with Mr Scott six weeks into his role as head teacher at the school. He told us about:
- Being “blown away” by the welcome from the Kemnay community
- The “nonsense” of school league tables
- Leading Aberdeenshire’s most overcrowded school
- “Scary” teacher shortages
- What he owes to Elgin Academy
- His message to parents
Why did you move to Kemnay Academy after 14 years at Elgin Academy?
“Ultimately it was to be closer to home.
“I grew up in Banchory and still live here. To commute to Elgin I was leaving the house between 3am and 5am every day.
“I already feel like I’ve been given all this extra time, and time’s what we all want, isn’t it?
“And my father’s health hasn’t been great recently, and my mum’s getting older as well, so it’s being close to family and a bit more present for them.”
How have you settled in to life at Kemnay Academy?
“It’s been amazing, really.
“The welcome I’ve received from the people here has been quite incredible, to be honest, the warmth from the school community towards someone coming in who they don’t know.
“The pupils have been amazing, the staff have been amazing, and the parents have been great.
“So I feel like I’ve settled in incredibly quickly, just because of how hospitable and how warm people have been.”
First impressions of Kemnay Academy?
“That it’s a very special place. There’s a lot of really good things about this school.
“I was very lucky – the school was inspected by HMIe in December, and the report was published a matter of days before I started.
“As a head teacher that’s a bit of a gift, because you get a real flavour for that external scrutiny in the school.
“What I’ve seen, coming in, is that being validated.
“First impressions are that young people here are fantastic. The staff are absolutely incredible in terms of their willingness to drive forward improvements. They’re so committed.
“And as I say, I’ve been blown away by the whole school community. I’ve had lovely messages from people, and met lots of people from the community, whether it be business links, the chaplains and what have you.”
Kemnay Academy came 12/17 in Aberdeenshire in our school league tables. The percentage of leavers gaining five Highers is 32%, down 9% on the previous year. Thoughts?
“School league tables are a nonsense, to be honest. They’re a thing of absolute fiction.
“They take one incredibly narrow lens to look at one factor of school life.
“In my opinion, it’s the wrong factor, because it’s pigeon-holing a very small number of our pupils, and making a benchmark of a small cohort of young people.
“That being said, it is a true factor, I mean we can’t argue that on that factor we’re 12th out of 17 in Aberdeenshire. It is a reference point that we look at as a school.
“Ultimately, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at data and one thing at Kemnay Academy that we really want to look at is the quality of passes in S5 and S6.
“The staff were already on that journey when I came in, and I’ve listened and learned and looked at things.
“That said, it’s worth noting that we had very strong attainment in S4 last year. And by August, the data that you’ve just given me will already be outdated. We’ll have a new cohort of young people and our position may very well be different.
“But attainment is a key driver in Scottish education, and it’s definitely something we need to look at.
“We’ve got great young people at Kemnay. My vision is to push the envelope, get more out of them and continually improve. We can always get better.
“I just think league tables always need to come with a very, very strong caveat. They shouldn’t be the benchmark against which we measure schools.
“There are so many other things we need to consider, as important as attainment is.
“One thing I’ve learned about Kemnay Academy is that we have an incredibly diverse range of young people that come through the door every morning.
“What success looks like for these young people will differ, based on their level of need for example – a range of different factors.
“I believe our job as educators is to equip young people with the skills they need to sustain a positive destination in the future. For some of them it’ll be university and further education, for others it’ll be employment.
“We need to be accountable in preparing them for the world that lies ahead of them. That to me is the real measure of ‘have we got it right?’ If we do that, we’re doing something right.”
Kemnay Academy is the most overcrowded school in Aberdeenshire, with a school roll currently 134.5% of capacity. How does the school cope with that?
“Being brutally honest, I can take no credit whatsoever for this, but the school deal incredibly well with it.
“They’re being incredibly creative and I would say quite strategic in how they’re using this building as best they possibly can, and maximising the spaces we have.
“We’ve converted cupboards into offices, we’ve converted classrooms into multi-purpose spaces.
“We did have an extension built reasonably recently, which has helped a little bit.
“But there’s no two ways about it, the school is still a very crowded place, and overpopulated.
“Even in the six weeks I’ve been at the school, I’ve been in a lot of discussions around other developments we can make to the building to maximise even further the space we’ve got without growing it. But at the same time recognising that budgets are tight.
“It’s about creativity, and making sure we provide our young people with the best building to learn in. And the learning that goes on in this place is incredibly rich, and that’s credit to our young people and our staff.
“I’m always looking at the place, I’ve spent a lot of time just walking around, looking at what we might be able to do to improve things.
“We’re already looking at next year’s timetable: ‘What classrooms are we not using as much? Could we repurpose that space?’ And these conversations are ongoing.
“Having met with the parent council, I know they’ve spent a lot of time talking about the building and campaigning for better use of space.
“Young people are telling us that, particularly at breaktimes and lunchtimes, there’s a real issue around social space. So we’re looking into covered outdoor spaces for them, and we’re getting prices for shelters.
“I’m a big believer in a ‘you said, we did’ culture. It’s their school. They don’t want to be like sardines.”
The director of education Laurence Findlay told me recently that teacher shortages are reaching crisis point in every Aberdeenshire secondary school. How are they affecting Kemnay Academy?
“I’ve come from Elgin Academy where recruitment and teacher shortages had a bigger impact, I would say.
“At Kemnay, I’ve spent a lot of time in the first six weeks looking at staffing.
“We’re looking at next year’s timetable and we need to staff that timetable. Summer’s naturally a time when some people retire or move on, but actually, looking ahead at August, we look like we’ll be fully staffed.
“That’s not always been the case at Kemnay Academy, and I think that’s credit to the school’s reputation.
“But it will always be a factor. The thought of a home economics or design and technology teacher leaving does scare me. Because they just don’t exist now. I’m sure Laurence would have said the same.
“What I think Kemnay Academy has done over the years is reframe the narrative of the curriculum.
“You know, why do we continue to try to find three design and technology teachers that don’t exist? PE and art teachers are easier to recruit, so instead of kids sitting doing wordsearches, could we be creative in how we timetable to meet the needs of pupils? And I think there’s a lot of things been done at Kemnay to creatively timetable.
“In terms of teacher shortages at the moment, I’m touching every piece of wood I can find, but we’re looking in good shape for August.
“We’ve got a few vacancies live just now which we’ll just have to hope return applicants. But yes, I’m reasonably optimistic. Things are looking good.
“I suppose coming to Aberdeenshire from Moray, my glass is half full because I’ve come from an authority where it was perhaps even more challenging.”
What lessons have you taken from Elgin Academy?
“Lots.
“Elgin Academy’s got a big place in my heart, it’s a very special school. It taught me so much.
“I started there as a principal teacher of PE, I became a depute head teacher there and then a head teacher. So I owe all of my professional development to that school, really.
“I’ve taken a huge amount of lessons from there. There’s very operational and practical lessons – how to run budgets, how to staff, how to deliver timetables. And then there’s the softer side of learning to be a leader. Developing relationships, how to work with parents, how to build external links.
“One of the things we always talk about in teaching is that there are no training courses – you get the job and you sink or swim.
“When you become a head teacher there’s no ‘go away and do this immersion course for three months and then you’ll be prepared’. It’s just ‘you’ve got the job, now do it.’
“I think I learnt through doing it at Elgin Academy, I learnt so much from that school.”
What’s the biggest challenge in being a head teacher at a secondary school?
“The biggest challenge, well there’s lots of challenges…that’s a loaded question, ha ha.
“I mean it would be really difficult to identify one. My job is to lead and inspire and manage people. And by people I mean young people, most importantly. I mean our staff, our parents, our partners.
“That is the biggest challenge, and within that there are lots of little challenges. But our main output is to get it right for young people.
“That’s what motivates me to come to work every single day.
“The challenges are about managing the people to make sure the output is successful. We mentioned earlier positive destinations, but yes, getting it right for our young people.”
What is rewarding about the job?
“Oh, it’s amazing, I mean literally.
“Don’t get me wrong, the job is hard, I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat things. As much as I probably am a rainbows and unicorns guy and a very positive person.
“The job is very challenging. But the most rewarding part, without a shadow of a doubt, is the young people.
“I feel very fortunate in my job that if I come across a challenging situation, whether it be a difficult conversation or whatever it might be, I can walk out of my office or wherever I am, and have, say, three interactions with young people that fill my bucket.
“Absolutely the most rewarding part is watching young people grow in front of your eyes.
“We can do it as parents, but I effectively get to be in loco parentis through the day to 980 young people and watch them grow.
“In a couple of weeks we’ll have our Sixth Year prom. Obviously that’s new for me because I haven’t been here for six years at Kemnay Academy. But I’ve been there at Elgin, and you sit back at that prom, and you look at young adults who you remember as children coming in six years earlier.
“Seeing that growth is a privilege. And that growth is so different for different people, and that variety is probably the best part of our job.
“For some it’s quite a straightforward journey through school, for others they have their ups and downs.
“There are so many rewards of the job, but it’s the young people and my interactions with them that fill my bucket.”
How confident are you that the school has a bright future? What would your message to parents be?
“I’ve been here for six weeks, and I’m incredibly confident.
“The young people are our core ingredient, and they are fantastic. So the starting point is already incredibly high.
“What we then have on top of that is a really positive inspection report, which isn’t necessarily very commonplace at the moment.
“We’re under increased scrutiny and the benchmark has been raised. But we have everything in place.
“We’ve a staff who are incredibly committed to the young people, and also incredibly committed to continual improvement.
“My message to parents would be that at no point are we resting on our laurels here at Kemnay Academy.
“Coming in new, I’m able to give that perspective and that challenge and say, ‘right, we need to get better and better and better.’ I’m a big believer in being better tomorrow than we were today.
“Even in my short time here, and perhaps seeing things with a fresh pair of eyes, I’ve found some things that I think can be quick wins for us.
“Things like structures, use of space, supporting our staff, attainment gaps, and, to be quite honest, behaviour – though to be fair that’s a national problem.
“But our long-term goal will always be about continual improvement. That’s what I want my legacy to be, for people to say after I’m gone, ‘that guy never sat still, he never got complacent.’
“My message to our school community would be that I want them all to be involved in that.
“I don’t want to be that guy who jumps in straight away and changes everything.
“One of the things I’ve learnt is that when you come in to a new school, it’s really important to take time to listen, look and see where we want to go.
“Because there is so much good already at Kemnay Academy.”
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