‘Community support is vital’ for Keith Grammar as Acting Rector spells out bold vision for the school
The Friendly Town has been living up to its name for the Acting Rector at the local secondary school.
Sean Duffy has taken over the reins at Keith Grammar School (KGS) on a temporary basis while rector Alan Bruce takes a career break.
He joins the team at Keith after having been Acting Rector at Buckie Community High School (BCHS), which he joined in 2018 as Deputy Rector.
Mr Duffy has received a warm welcome back at the school, having previously covered the rector’s role.
He said: “When I was at Buckie, I covered here as Acting Head in 2023 for a short time and I really felt a connection to the community, I felt it's a school that I could make a positive difference in.
“I was really welcomed by the community both times, it’s a very good school and this is the right part of my career to be here.
“I’ve absolutely loved my time at Buckie and if I go back there, that’d be great, too - they gave me a very warm welcome.”
Community - and KGS’s place in it - is very much at the forefront of Mr Duffy’s vision.
He continued: “The first term has gone really fast.
“As I said, the whole community, both inside and outside the school have been very welcoming and it’s really been appreciated - I’m delighted to be here.
“There’s a lot of work to do - we’re starting to look at a curriculum review and what we can offer young people. I want us to share the success we have not just within the school but with the wider community.
“I'd like to see us being an ambitious school, where we get the learning right for the young people. That's where I want to focus on, ensuring that we are the best we can be in the classroom for the kids, and that we have built a curriculum that links with the community and beyond, to make sure that we're offering young people the opportunities in life, but also that makes them have value to the school and to the community. It's about creating an inclusive and welcoming school for everybody.
“I’ve been asked what my vision is and I would say that I would want us to be a small school that has a big heart and big ambitions; a small school gives a lot of chances to have those really positive relationships, a compassionate place where we include everybody and where we really kind of push kids forward to do their best, to be the best that we can be.”
Mr Duffy went on to say that KGS was continually and actively exploring ways to create and build upon greater links with the wider community in all its forms.
He continued: “The wider community is vital, I mean it's absolutely vital.
“We don’t exist as an island - Keith Grammar School is part of the community and has so much to offer, just as the community has so much to offer us.
“It’s a partnership we’re determined to build on. We’ve got our 60th anniversary coming up and we’re looking at planning those celebrations with the community - like I said, there’s a lot of opportunity there.
With a roll of around 350, KGS comes in at less than half the size of BCHS’s 800 or so kids, the former school also serving a predominantly agricultural setting.
This poses its own challenges - and opportunities - when it comes to guiding the school forward, Mr Duffy reflected.
“In some respects it's very different, in some respects it's very similar.
“The community makeup is different, but the teenage issues are still there.
“There's an awareness of where they are and who they are, and our job as a school is to try and make that relevant in the curriculum. For example, if they are interested in agriculture, then give them that opportunity to explore that. However, the fact is, we've got kids who want to go on to university, to college, to study medicine, dentistry, etc so it's getting that balance right
“That is more difficult and more challenging in a smaller school. It's not impossible, but it just takes a bit of a different approach, which is something I'm hoping that we'll bring.”
He added: “The school’s had a low profile publicly for a long time, and part of what we’ll be working to do is trying to raise that profile, to try to spread the positive.”