At St Matthew’s Academy, a six-year denominational school in Saltcoats established in 2007, we take pride in our community of approximately 1,325 young people.
Our mission remains steadfast: to provide every member of our school family with the opportunity and encouragement to achieve their full potential.
Our commitment to educational excellence is reflected in our impressive retention statistics. The proportion of S4 pupils returning for 5th year in 2023-24 stands at approximately 85%, with the S5-S6 transfer rate reaching around 75%. These figures demonstrate the continued value that our students find in our curriculum.
SCQF Ambassador programme
The SCQF Ambassador programme is thoroughly embedded throughout our school. It features prominently in both our whole-school improvement plan and individual department improvement plans.
Information on the SCQF has been provided through whole-school assemblies and classroom presentations to recruit new Ambassadors for the coming academic year. These Ambassadors can incorporate their participation as part of their Level 6 Leadership Award if they’re pursuing this qualification.
Interactive curriculum pathways
Our curriculum pathways document represents a significant innovation. This interactive resource illustrates subject pathways, with direct links to the SQA arrangements page for each course, relevant My World of Work pages highlighting example careers, and college/university course pages for selected options.
May activities programme
For pupils not sitting exams, we organise a four-week block of activities and experiences each May. Throughout the month, pupils work with different agencies and organisations such as Street League, Morrison’s Construction, Seamill Hydro and many more, to gain a raft of different experiences and to improve their skills.
Through this initiative, participants can also earn wider achievement qualifications upon completion of the programme. These carefully curated activities lead to various awards, including Youth Achievement Awards, Young STEM Leader certifications and qualifications in wellbeing and leadership.
Sixth year skills development
In 5th year, our pupils can select skills from their option choices for 6th year, where they complete two or three SCQF level 6 awards. This has become an integral component of our S6 curriculum, creating inclusive learning environments where pupils of varying abilities collaborate to achieve different level 6 qualifications.
External partnerships
We maintain robust relationships with numerous external partners, offering pupils opportunities to develop existing skills and acquire new ones. These partnerships also enable students to obtain additional qualifications that may enhance their prospects when moving into positive destinations.
Some examples are volunteering at Doon the Beach café, Learning through Landscapes, Ardeer Golf Club and Gowanbank, to name a few.
Pupils develop many different meta skills through our partnerships, including teamwork, communication, and problem solving, that they can use in their future studies and in the workplace. They also gain qualifications such as leadership, Youth Achievement Awards and Customer Service Awards.
Raising awareness with parents and carers
Beyond parents’ evenings and Twitter/X updates, we’ve created a dedicated SCQF display board and comprehensive parent information sheet showcasing all our SCQF course offerings, featuring a QR code. Parents can scan this code to access the SCQF website for additional information – a project completed by our Ambassadors.
We’ve also included the QR code on option choice sheets, enabling parents to easily access information about the SCQF.
Opportunities to succeed at St Matthew’s Academy
We seek to provide opportunities for young people to develop skills for learning, life and work. By ensuring a variety of learning pathways, we support young people to move into positive destinations. Through our desire to ensure excellence and equity for all students, we will provide a curriculum that challenges and supports all.
We are very proud to be a Gold SCQF Ambassador school and look forward to continuing to prepare young people to be adaptable, to allow them to think independently, to be creative, and move away from just having a knowledge-based skill set.
Pupil Ambassadors have their say
Olivia said: “I have a much better understanding of the different qualifications that can be studied.”
Eileen said: “I feel confident when discussing the wider qualifications and the pathways where they can lead with others.”
Useful links
Learn more about our School Ambassador Programme – https://scqf.org.uk/support/educators/school-ambassador-programme/
Watch our Powering Futures case study with St Matthew’s Academy – https://scqf.org.uk/case-studies/case-study/powering-futures-st-matthews-academy-saltcoats-2/