Airidhantuim Primary
School
Isle of Lewis
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
19 May 2009
This report tells you about the quality of education at the school1.
We describe how children benefit from learning there. We
explain how well they are doing and how good the school is at
helping them to learn. Then we look at the ways in which the
school does this. We describe how well the school works with
other groups in the community, including parents2 and services
which support children. We also comment on how well staff and
children work together and how they go about improving the
school.
Our report describes the ‘ethos’ of the school. By ‘ethos’ we
mean the relationships in the school, how well children are cared
for and treated and how much is expected of them in all aspects
of school life. Finally, we comment on the school’s aims. In
particular, we focus on how well the aims help staff to deliver high
quality learning, and the impact of leadership on the school’s
success in achieving these aims.
If you would like to learn more about our inspection of the school,
please visit www.hmie.gov.uk. Here you can find analyses of
questionnaire returns. Where applicable, you will also be able to
find descriptions of good practice in the school.
1
2
The term ‘school’ is used to include the work of the nursery
class, where relevant.
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to
include foster carers, residential care staff and carers who are
relatives or friends.
Contents
1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. Examples of good practice
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their school
community?
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?
1. The school
Airidhantuim Primary School is a non-denominational school. It serves
the villages of Ballantrushal, Shader, Borve and Galson on the Isle of
Lewis. The roll was 29, including 18 in the Gaelic-medium classes,
when the inspection was carried out in March 2009. Pupils’
attendance was in line with the national average in 2007/2008. The
headteacher also has responsibility for managing Barvas Primary
School as part of the Council’s shared leadership of schools initiative.
Evaluations in this report, except where otherwise indicated, apply
equally to the Gaelic-medium and English-medium classes.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Leadership of the headteacher and the commitment of all staff to
improving the work of the school.
•
The quality of learners’ experience in Gaelic.
•
Well-behaved children who are motivated to learn.
•
The quality of children’s active involvement in their learning.
•
Strong and supportive partnerships with parents and the
community.
3. Examples of good practice
•
Development of Gaelic learning across the school.
•
Children’s learning through real-life situations in mathematics in the
upper stages.
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Children achieve well in a wide variety of activities. They are
enthusiastic and proud of their achievements. At all stages, children
are developing effectively enterprise skills and have recently achieved
a gold award for enterprise activities. They organised a fundraising
2
day for a global charity which was attended by members of the school
community, the local playgroup, senior citizens and business partners.
As part of their whole-school topic on Lewis, children are working with
parents to produce a DVD for tourists. Children participate in a range
of out-of-school sports activities such as football, uni-hoc and
basketball. The school drama group achieved recognition in the
national and local Mod. Staff use children’s interests well to develop
children’s skills in environmental studies. For example, children used
the Internet to research the history of Lewis and made posters to
advertise areas of interest. Children at P7 show responsibility in their
work as buddies to P1 and as paired reading partners. Over the last
few years, the school has maintained high standards of attainment in
reading, writing and mathematics. Across the school, most children
are making very good progress in listening, talking, reading, and
mathematics. Their progress in writing is good and the school is
taking very effective steps to improve it further. Children read with
fluency and expression. Almost all children take care with the
presentation of their work. In writing, children write for a variety of
contexts and should now have further opportunities to write at length.
At the early stages, children are making a very good start to
developing their mathematical skills. Across the school, children take
part enthusiastically in mental mathematics. At the upper stages, they
are very skilled at solving mathematical problems through real-life
situations. Children with additional support needs are making good
progress towards their learning targets in individualised educational
programmes. Children are developing a very good understanding of
healthy eating and healthy lifestyles and the school has recently
gained a gold award for health promotion.
Gaelic-medium
In the Gaelic-medium classes, most children are making very good
progress in reading, listening and talking. Children’s literacy skills are
being developed well across a number of curriculum areas. They
listen very well to adults and each other and are confident in talking in
groups. Children write well for a range of purposes, including play
scripts, which they perform confidently to a range of audiences.
3
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Across the school, staff provide children with an appropriately broad
curriculum. Staff are developing well aspects of the national initiative,
Curriculum for Excellence. They are effective in planning learning
which uses real life situations and makes links with other areas of
learning. For example, the whole-school topic on Lewis involves
children in learning from the local community. Children are working
with the local councillor and have visited the council offices to discover
how the council works. They benefit from working with the Youth
Music Initiative to develop skills on the keyboard and guitar. Staff use
interactive whiteboards and computers to make learning more
interesting. Their personal, social and citizenship skills are also
developing very well. The school’s commitment to making children
aware of global issues is a strength of the school. Tolerance and
respect for other cultures and faiths is promoted effectively in class
and at school assemblies.
The learning needs of most children are well met. Across the stages,
tasks, activities and resources are largely well matched to most
children’s needs. At times, the rate of learning is slow and some tasks
need to be more challenging for a few children. Most children are
confident in describing how they can improve their work. Staff give
clear explanations and share the purpose of lessons with children.
They are skilled at questioning and review what has been learned at
the end of lessons. They know children well and work effectively as a
team to ensure that all children’s learning needs are well supported.
Support staff work closely with teachers and provide well-judged help
to individuals and small groups of children. Support plans for children
with additional support needs are clear, with appropriate short-and
long-term learning targets to help them make progress. Staff work
closely and effectively with partner agencies to secure good support
for children who need it. At all stages, teachers set regular homework
which is at the right level for children.
4
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Teachers have developed good working partnerships with parents.
They keep parents up-to-date about their children’s progress through
meetings, newsletters and helpful written reports. All parents feel that
they are well informed about their children’s progress. Staff have
close and effective links with a number of local organisations, including
psychological services, social workers and local businesses. These
partnerships are successful in supporting children in their learning and
wider achievements. The school has appropriate procedures in place
to deal with complaints if they arise. Children are supported very well
to make a confident and successful move from nursery to primary and
from P7 to Lionel School.
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children are successful in taking on a wide range of responsibilities.
At all stages, they play an active part in the pupil council. This helps to
take forward new developments in the school. They have been
successful in making improvements to the school grounds, playground
games, and added to their wet play games. Children have learned
how to care for the environment and understand the importance of
recycling materials and saving energy. The school has succeeded in
gaining an Eco-Schools Scotland award at bronze level. They have
developed strong links with the local countryside ranger. Staff work
very well together to improve the school. The headteacher uses a
range of ways to identify the school’s strengths and weaknesses. She
checks teacher’s plans, observes lessons and gives helpful feedback
to teachers. This thorough approach is having a positive impact on
maintaining high standards. Further improvements in tracking
children’s progress would help to ensure that all children’s learning
needs are met even more effectively. As members of school working
groups, teachers contribute enthusiastically and well to improving
teaching and learning. Staff work closely with the supportive Parent
5
Council to improve the performance of the school. When making
improvements, staff carefully consider the views of all children and
parents.
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Staff value all children and take very good care of them. They work
very well together. Children are polite and well behaved. They are
listened to and feel safe and well cared for in the school. They are
eager learners in a school which promotes involvement of all children,
whatever their needs. There are very good links with the local
churches who support the school in religious observance at
assemblies. A few children and parents would like more after-school
clubs. All teachers and support staff are confident in their knowledge
of child protection procedures. Staff encourage children to work hard,
for example, by allowing them to choose activities as rewards.
Children’s achievements are rewarded through a range of certificates
at the weekly assembly. Staff could have higher expectations of a few
higher-attaining pupils. There are good procedures in place to check
and encourage children’s attendance at school.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The school has a very clear sense of direction. The headteacher has
been very successful in developing teamwork and shared
developments between the two schools for which she has leadership
responsibility. She works successfully to promote the school, and
Gaelic medium education, in the local community. The
highly-motivated staff work effectively as a team. They provide very
good quality learning experiences in both English language and
Gaelic. Teachers have opportunities to take the lead in important
developments. As a result of the strong leadership and the quality of
teaching and learning, the school has a very strong ability to continue
to improve.
6
9. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, we will make no further visits following this inspection. The
education authority will inform parents about the school’s progress
as part of the authority’s arrangements for reporting to parents on
the quality of its schools.
We have agreed the following area for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve further the school’s approach to tracking children’s
progress.
•
Ensure that tasks are set at an appropriate level of challenge so
that children are encouraged to fulfil and build their potential.
7
Quality indicators help schools and nursery classes, education
authorities and inspectors to judge what is good and what needs to be
improved in the work of a school and a nursery class. You can find
these quality indicators in the HMIE publications How good is our
school? and The Child at the Centre. Following the inspection of each
school, the Scottish Government gathers evaluations of three
important quality indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish
schools and nursery classes are doing.
Here are the evaluations for Airidhantuim Primary School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Sadie Cushley
19 May 2009
8
very good
very good
To find out more about inspections or get an electronic copy of this
report go to www.hmie.gov.uk. Please contact the Business
Management and Communications Team (BMCT) if you wish to
enquire about our arrangements for translated or other appropriate
versions.
If you wish to comment about any of our inspections, contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you should write in
the first instance to BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm
House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA.
Our complaints procedure is available from our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can write to our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our
complaints procedure, you can raise your complaint with the Scottish
Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent
and has powers to investigate complaints about Government
departments and agencies. You should write to SPSO, Freepost
EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also telephone 0800 377 7330,
fax 0800 377 7331 or e-mail: ask@spso.org.uk. More information
about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website
at www.spso.org.uk.
This report uses the following word scale to make clear
judgements made by inspectors.
excellent
very good
good
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas for
improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education