Netherburn Primary School
and Nursery Class
South Lanarkshire Council
1 December 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects schools in order to
let parents1, children and the local community know whether their
school2 provides a good education. Inspectors also discuss with
school staff how they can improve the quality of education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the headteacher and
staff about the strengths of the school, what needs to improve,
and how they know. We use the information they give us to help
us plan what we are going to look at. During the inspection, we
go into classes and join other activities in which children are
involved. We also gather the views of children, parents, staff and
members of the local community. We find their views very helpful
and use them together with the other information we have
collected to arrive at our view of the quality of education.
This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the
quality of education in the school. We describe how well children
are doing, how good the school is at helping them to learn and
how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff,
parents and children work together and how they go about
improving the school. We also comment on how well the school
works with other groups in the community, including services
which support children. Finally, we focus on how well the school
is led and how staff help the school achieve its 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 from children, parents and staff. We will
not provide questionnaire analyses where the numbers of returns
are so small that they could identify individuals. Where
applicable, you will also be able to find descriptions of good
practice in the school.
1
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers,
residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.
2
The term ‘school’ includes the nursery class or classes where appropriate.
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
Netherburn Primary School is a non-denominational school with a
nursery class. It serves the village of Netherburn, near Larkhall and
the surrounding area. The roll was 88, including 24 in the nursery,
when the inspection was carried out in October 2009. Children’s
attendance was in line with the national average in 2007/2008.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Children’s confidence and enthusiasm for learning.
•
Strong staff teamwork and their commitment to children’s care,
welfare and development.
•
The broad range of experiences across the curriculum to enhance
children’s achievements and develop their talents.
•
Development of active learning.
•
Innovative leadership of the headteacher and staff in taking forward
school improvements.
3. Examples of good practice
•
Enterprising learning.
•
French across the nursery and school.
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Across the school, children are very enthusiastic and well-motivated
learners. In the nursery, they are happy and settled and enjoy taking
part in a wide range of learning experiences. They are learning to
cooperate and take turns. At the primary stages, children have a very
positive attitude to their learning. They have many opportunities to
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lead and take responsibility. They are actively involved in their
learning both in and out of class. They are developing a very good
understanding of what they are good at and how they can improve.
At all stages, children are developing very effective citizenship and
enterprise skills. They are achieving a high level of success in helping
to improve their school and caring for the environment. The nursery
and school have achieved a gold award in health promotion. Children
take part enthusiastically and confidently in the wider life of the school.
For example, they helped to plan and lead a French day. They benefit
from a wide range of out-of-class activities. Older children are
developing their leadership skills in helping to lead these activities for
younger children. Children are developing their fitness and
understanding of leading a healthy lifestyle through the support of the
Active Schools coordinator and a wide range of physical activities. At
all stages, children are developing very good skills in speaking French.
In the nursery, the majority of children listen well in group activities and
can follow simple instructions. Most are aware of some letter names
and sounds and can recognise their name. The majority can count to
ten and are beginning to recognise numbers and shapes when playing
games. At the primary stages, most children attain appropriate
national levels in listening, talking, reading and mathematics. The
majority do so in writing. In recent years, the school has raised
standards in reading and is taking appropriate action to improve
attainment in writing. At the early stages, most children attain levels
earlier than might normally be expected. However, for a few children,
this progress is not sustained as they move through the school. Most
children talk well and can give informed opinions during group
discussions. A few do not always listen sufficiently well. Most children
are enthusiastic readers. They read fluently and with expression. The
majority of children write well. They should now be given more
opportunities to write for a wider range of purposes and audiences and
also at length. In mathematics, most children can carry out
calculations well and have a good understanding of money and
measurement. They know quick ways to calculate mentally. Across
the school, children have a good understanding of two- and
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three-dimensional shape. They can use a range of graphs and charts
to display information. Children have a good understanding of
problem-solving strategies and can use them in real-life situations.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff have made a very good start to developing and implementing
aspects of Curriculum for Excellence. Staff are making learning more
meaningful and relevant. In the nursery class, staff provide a broad
range of play activities and take good account of children’s interests in
planning learning. They should now continue as planned, to develop
the tracking of children’s progress and achievements. In the primary
classes, the curriculum is very well developed. Children benefit from
well-planned activities which include learning about enterprise, health,
citizenship and sustainability. The school provides all children with two
hours of high-quality physical education each week.
Across the school, staff know children and their families very well.
They provide a very high level of care and support to children. In the
nursery, staff are very sensitive to individual children’s needs and
interests. They provide a range of activities that are matched to the
age and development stage of children. At the primary stages, staff
match tasks and activities well to the learning needs of most children.
They now need to ensure that for a few children, the pace, depth and
level of difficulty of tasks is consistently appropriate. The school is
effective in identifying, supporting and monitoring children who need
extra help with their learning. Staff work with other professionals to
help plan well-targeted support. They consult with parents and
children to set appropriate learning targets. As a result, children with
additional learning needs are making good progress with their
learning.
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5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
The school has very effective links with parents and the local
community. Parents are very positive about the school. The Parent
Council and Parents, Friends and Staff Association are very supportive
of the school. They work closely with staff to enhance children’s
experiences. For example, they raised funds to help buy an interactive
white board and new library books. Newsletters provide helpful
information to parents about the work of the school. Nursery parents
can comment on the work of the nursery through the ‘Netherburn
Natter’. Parents are also kept well informed about their children’s
progress. Staff consult parents appropriately about all aspects of
school life, including sensitive health issues. The school is well
supported by the school chaplain. The school provides very helpful
open events where parents can learn about the curriculum and how to
support their children’s learning. The school deals appropriately with
parental concerns and complaints.
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children are very proud of their school and are very keen to work with
staff to help improve it. They feel valued and respected. The pupil
council plays a very active part in helping to improve aspects of the
school. For example, members planned a recent health event and
decided which charities the school should support. Children have
many opportunities to take responsibility in the school, for example as
buddies, junior road safety officers and on the eco committee. They
have also used their own interests and leadership skills to lead
lunchtime clubs for other children. Across the school, staff work very
well together and are strongly committed to improving the school.
Support staff contribute very well to the life and work of the school.
The headteacher has a very good understanding of the strengths and
areas for development in the school. Staff regularly look closely at
their classroom practice and how they can improve children’s
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experiences. The headteacher engages teachers very well in
evaluating their work and in tracking children’s progress. Staff have
recently begun ‘Learning Walks’ with groups of children to look for and
share good practice across the school.
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
There is a strong culture of achievement and improvement in the
school. Staff set high expectations of children’s achievement and
learning. They now need to ensure that expectations of attainment are
consistently high. Staff celebrate children’s achievements through
assemblies and through class and school awards. Children are
friendly, polite and very enthusiastic about their learning. They feel
safe, happy and well cared for in school. Staff are clear about their
responsibilities for child protection and support children’s personal and
social development very well. Effective procedures are in place to
deal with any instances of bullying. Children feel they are treated
equally and fairly. They have a good understanding of other cultures
and faiths and of global issues such as poverty in the world. They are
very proud of their support of ‘Fairtrade’.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher is a highly-effective leader and is held in very high
regard by parents, children and staff. She has worked very effectively
with children, staff and parents to share her vision for the school. All
staff successfully carry out a range of leadership roles and work very
well alongside the headteacher to improve the school. Working with
staff and children, the headteacher has focused appropriately on
improving children’s learning and has achieved considerable success.
She knows the school very well and it is very well placed to keep
improving.
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9. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, we will make no further visits in connection with 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 areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Continue to raise attainment, particularly in writing, through
ensuring appropriate depth and challenge in children’s learning.
•
Continue to develop the assessment and tracking of children’s
progress in the nursery.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class five
recommendations were made, all had been addressed.
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 Netherburn Primary School and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Lesley R Brown
1 December 2009
8
very good
very good
When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our
readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.
excellent
very good
good
means
means
means
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
means
means
means
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas
for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a
different format, for example, in a translation, or if you wish to
comment about any aspect of our inspections. You can contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business
Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. This is a service
for deaf users. Please do not use this number for voice calls as the
line will not connect you to a member of staff.
You can find our complaints procedure on our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Where the school has a nursery class, you can contact the Complaints
Coordinator, Headquarters, Care Commission, Compass House,
Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4NY, telephone 0845 603 0890.
Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education.