How one Glasgow school used new courses to open pathways for pupils
The experience with that course was largely positive. The lack of an exam at the end of a NPA was a key benefit for many, and the school found that young people taking part were more engaged because they were being permitted to focus on and pursue a really specific area of interest.
So when a new NPA in Cybersecurity was introduced in 2015, the school once again decided to give it a go.
But even with their existing experience of these courses, and a committed Computing Science department, this new programme seemed daunting, with students to be given the chance to explore areas such as data security, digital forensics and, most worrying of all, ethical hacking.
Fortunately, the department's earlier work paid off at this point when a former student now working in the field offered to work with the school to establish the programme.
'I thought it sounded really interesting,' explains George Mullin, a computing teacher at the school, 'and one of my ex-pupils had gone on to study cyber security at Glasgow Caledonian University. We were still in touch with each other so I mentioned it to him and he was really generous with his time. He was showing me the systems that the university used and I thought that looked fantastic.'
Despite the enthusiasm for developing the course, the technical logistics were still an issue – but when the university agreed to allow teachers and pupils to use their software, the possibilities really opened up.
'We became a pilot school to basically get this up and working, and obviously we had to configure that to match the needs of the NPA course that we're delivering. So there was a lot of work done around that and ironing out the kind of technical issues, but once we had that proof of concept we thought we could roll that out to other schools in Glasgow that are looking at deliver the NPA.'
CyberFirst lead teacher at Hyndland Secondary George Mullin (Image: Gordon Terris)
Today, schools across Glasgow benefit from this relationship with Glasgow Caledonian University, allowing many more young people to pursue a course that may otherwise have remained too difficult to deliver.
Mr Mullin is also keen to highlight the support of Education Scotland, which in recent years has provided access to a platform called TryHackMe.
The support they have received, combined with the hard work of staff, has helped to ensure that these new courses can offer real value for students at Hyndland:
'We could do the bare minimum and just get through the course but because we've got these toys, for want of a better expression, to play with it makes it a much richer learning experience for the kids.'
That is clearly beneficial for those completing this particular programme, but the school has also seen wider benefits. Some of those completing NPA courses in the school's Business and Computing Faculty have used them as a bridge between National 5 and Higher qualifications, and broader interest in Computing Science as a subject also seems to have improved.
And benefits go further still. The success of these innovations has helped school to develop other NPA offers and even inspired more options for BGE. One example of this work has culminated in Hyndland achieving the Gold Award in the CyberFirst programme, which has been developed by the National Cyber Security Centre in GCHQ, and coming first in Scotland for the recent Cyberfirst Girls' Competition.
According to headteacher Louise Edgerton, the success of programmes like Cybersecurity the NPA show the importance of opening up 'pathways' for students in schools, and working to ensure that as many options as possible are made available to them.
And for the computing department, the results are clear: 'We've get kids in our department now that we probably wouldn't have if we weren't offering these opportunities,' Mr Mullin says.
'That's the bottom line.'
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