Columnist Ruth Wishart offers her thoughts after the Hermitage Academy head teacher's post was offered to Drumchapel High head Robert Williamson.

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Let’s at least agree on one thing: the few short years spent in secondary school are crucial to shaping a child’s chances and ambitions.

So those who have seen fit to comment negatively on the new head teacher seemingly bound for Hermitage Academy, before he’s even set foot in his new office, might like to ponder a few thoughts about school leadership.

For a number of years I was involved in a charity which was set up to inspire and give 'time outs' in rural Scotland to kids who, for one reason or another, didn’t have much in the way of opportunities at home. But its core belief was that the leadership of a school was absolutely key – regardless of the local environment.

Under its auspices I once went to visit a school in a pretty rough bit of London in the company of a number of Scottish headies. We were met at the door by immaculately turned out senior pupils, who proudly showed us round their school and talked about its external partnerships, which gave non-academic teenagers the chance to explore hands-on work experience.

Meanwhile the more academically-inclined fifth and sixth formers talked about their future as health professionals, lawyers or teachers.

A few years back, their inspirational head teacher admitted, many of these youngsters would have been lost to gangs or drugs.

Her mantra was that nobody was entitled to deprive these kids of the best kind of teaching and mentoring at a crucial period in their lives. And she set about telling her staff exactly that. The good ones bought into it. The time servers left.

I mention all this because the new head teacher at Hermitage has most recently been in charge at Drumchapel High, a Glasgow school with a high proportion of children from difficult backgrounds, a large percentage of whom qualify for school meals. “Is this all Helensburgh children are worth”, sniffed one commentator.

Well actually, they’re worth what every child is worth: the best shot we can give them. Robert Williamson seems to have given his troops just that at Drumchapel, the school from which the now legendary Glasgow Girls fought the good fight against Home Office dawn raids and deportations. Their exploits became an awarding winning musical play and TV drama.

Other people have flagged up the performance of Drumchapel in school league tables – surely one of the bluntest instruments ever devised to measure performance. Getting really bright pupils to reach their full potential in exams is important but arguably a whole lot less difficult than getting children with little or no home support to up their game exponentially.

I don’t know Robert Williamson, but he comes with a solid track record for leading a school, its staff and its pupils to continual improvement. If I had a kid at Hermitage I’d be pretty happy about that.