A FEW years ago Hyndland Secondary in the west end of Glasgow was given something of a rap over the knuckles by school inspectors.

Despite a positive report overall, the school was urged to raise standards for some pupils after inspectors found performance at Standard Grade was lower than expected.

But the report went on to praise the leadership of headteacher Maura McNeil and acknowledged that improvements were already being made to tackle underperformance.

Nearly five years later, the school is celebrating one of its best sets of exam results with nearly half of its pupils achieving the benchmark of five or more Highers by the time they leave school.

The results are particularly impressive because, although the school sits in a middle class suburb, some 38 per cent of its pupils are from the most disadvantaged areas of Scotland.

Mrs McNeil believes that, rather than impacting on the school's results, the comprehensive nature of the catchment area is a catalyst for success.

She said: "True comprehensive education brings diversity and we foster a very strong and caring ethos here where people support each other irrespective of their backgrounds or race."

Another important part of the school's success is the attention paid to supporting nearly one third of pupils who come on placing requests from outside the immediate catchment area and feeder primaries.

"With 60 pupils coming from elsewhere it is about making sure they are involved in the life of the school from the start and not just working hard in their classes, but also buying into the ethos of the school through the wide range of extracurricular activities available such sport and music," said Mrs McNeil.

"For us the school ethos is about finding pupils’ individual talents when they come to us and giving them confidence to develop these.

"High quality teaching and learning is crucial because without that they are not going to attain, but what is also important is staff, pupils, parents and other agencies all working together to develop individual talents and skills.

"We track their progress rigorously and that is not just about their attainment it is also about their health and wellbeing and participation in the wider life of the school. What is important is that pupils know their strengths, but also what the next steps in their learning are."

The school has also introduced some innovative practice in recent years around exam time where senior pupils who have already sat Highers pass their experiences on to younger pupils.

Mrs McNeil said: "Peer support has also been key to success. Our S6 pupils deliver study sessions to our S4 and S5 pupils which has been hugely powerful for both groups of pupils.

"We got the S6 pupils to reflect on what had made them successful in each of the subject areas and then they passed their hints and tips on to the younger pupils. It has really worked."