St Mary’s Primary School
Larkhall
South Lanarkshire Council
31 March 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. How well do children learn and achieve?
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their school
community?
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
8. What happens next?
1. The school
St Mary’s Primary School is a denominational school. It serves the
town of Larkhall and surrounding areas. The roll was 101 when the
inspection was carried out in February 2009. Pupils’ attendance was
above the national average in 2007/08.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Polite, friendly and confident children who are keen to learn.
•
The development of Spanish across the school.
•
The school’s approaches to encouraging children’s physical fitness.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Children are developing a good understanding of citizenship by
fundraising for charities and their work with the local senior citizens
group. They understand the importance of being healthy and of
keeping themselves safe. The school has been accredited with a
silver Health Promoting School award. The school has good links with
the local church. Staff are taking some steps to help promote
children’s wider achievements. As a result, children’s personal and
social skills are developing well. Children are developing confidence
through taking part in special events such as school shows and
assemblies. The range of opportunities provided for children now
needs to be developed further. Whilst standards of attainment had
been high in recent years, they had dipped last session. Overall, most
children are making good progress in reading, writing, and
mathematics. They need to develop further their skills in listening and
talking across the curriculum. Higher-achieving children are not
always given work which is challenging enough. Across the school,
most children enjoy reading and read confidently. Most write well for a
variety of purposes and audiences. In mathematics, most children are
accurate in mental calculations and written number work. They can
confidently discuss features of a range of shapes. They do not make
enough use of information and communications technology (ICT) in
mathematics and have not yet learned to use databases and
2
spreadsheets. Children have a good understanding of problem
solving. They now need opportunities to apply these skills in all areas
of their learning.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff provide children with a broad curriculum. The school is at the
early stages of developing the curriculum in line with the national
initiative, Curriculum for Excellence. From P1 to P7, children are
developing confidence and enthusiasm in learning Spanish. They are
developing their physical fitness through two hours of good quality
physical education each week. They also have opportunities to take
part in additional activities such as judo and golf. Staff do not yet
provide ways for children to use their literacy and numeracy skills in
other areas of the curriculum. Children are enthusiastic when given
opportunities to learn together. At the early stages, staff have begun
to engage children in more active learning. Children at P5/6, have
been working together to make puppets which had resulted in a
successful puppet show which was performed to the rest of the school.
Those at P6/7 have enjoyed a project where they worked together well
on digital film-making. Overall, however, learning activities rely too
heavily on the use of textbook and worksheet exercises. As a result,
activities are not stimulating enough to motivate all children. Staff now
need to make better use of ICT to support children’s learning across
the curriculum.
Overall, staff ensure that the level of difficulty in learning activities is
matched to the needs of the majority of pupils, particularly in reading
and mathematics. They know most children well as individuals.
However, there are important weaknesses in the school’s approaches
to supporting the needs of potentially vulnerable children, including
those who are looked after and traveller children. The school does not
yet have systems in place to identify, assess and plan to meet the
needs of a significant number of pupils who require additional support
with their learning. Staff require training on legislation to help them
understand their responsibilities for children who need help with their
learning. Targets within individual education plans do not always
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focus sufficiently on meeting specific learning needs. Staff now need
to ensure that targets are reviewed regularly by staff, other
professionals, parents and children. Most children are confident and
eager to learn. They are well behaved and carry out tasks as
instructed. Teachers share the content of lessons with children and
most use questions appropriately to check their understanding. They
now need to make sure that children understand the purpose of
lessons and review with children what they have learned. Across the
school, children are not given enough chances to work independently
or to take responsibility for their learning. Homework is set regularly
but children would benefit from more varied and demanding tasks.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff work with other professionals, for example, speech therapists and
the educational psychologist. They now need to develop further their
links with a wider range of professionals and share information more
effectively. The school works well with staff from Holy Cross High
School to support children’s transfer from primary to secondary.
Children at the upper stages benefit from working with staff from the
education authority’s Financial Education and Advice team to learn
about finance and saving. The school does not yet communicate well
enough with parents. Newsletters have only recently been introduced
and parents do not receive information about what their child is
learning and how they can support their child at home. The school
does not have a Parent Council or parent-teacher association. A few
parents support school staff as helpers in the school. School events
are usually well attended. The school now needs to ensure it records
and monitors complaints effectively.
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5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children respond well to opportunities to take on responsibilities within
the school. Older children act as buddies to younger ones. The pupil
council has begun to influence aspects of school life, for example, in
suggesting improvements to the playground. Staff now need to ensure
that children have regular opportunities to suggest improvements to
learning in a regular and meaningful way. Staff work well together and
are very supportive of each other. While they are committed to the
school, they now need to have a more focussed approach to improving
its work. Teachers need to be more meaningfully involved in
evaluating the work of the school. They discuss areas for
development informally but now need to be more involved in agreeing
priorities for improvement in the school. The improvement plan needs
to focus more clearly on improving outcomes for children in order to
make a positive impact on children’s experiences. The headteacher
has discussed the work of the school informally with staff and the pupil
council. She now needs to ensure that the views of parents, children
and staff are gathered systematically and used to improve the school.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The school is welcoming and children are happy and settled. They are
polite, well behaved and keen to learn. Staff have positive
relationships with children and have had training on child protection
policies and procedures. The headteacher now needs to ensure that
information is shared effectively and appropriately with staff to help
them meet children’s individual needs. Around the school, displays
are used well to celebrate children’s achievements. At assemblies,
children are rewarded for good work and behaviour. There is scope to
develop this further in order to celebrate and reward children’s wider
achievement. Staff now need to raise their expectations of what
children can achieve. Children feel safe and well cared for. The
school has taken positive steps to tackle aspects of discrimination, for
example, through the Larkhall anti-sectarianism project. It should now
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celebrate cultural diversity in a more planned and systematic way.
Children feel their opinions are listened to and valued. Children
regularly take part in religious observance. The school Chaplain is a
regular visitor to the school and supports it well, for example through
preparation for the Sacraments. Children also regularly attend Mass
at the local church.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher, working with staff, children and parents, now needs
to establish a clear vision for the school. She has recently begun to
observe lessons and discuss children’s attainment with staff.
However, there are important weaknesses in the school’s
arrangements for evaluating its work. Approaches to self-evaluation
have not yet had any significant impact on improving children’s
learning experiences. Teachers are enthusiastic about taking leading
roles to develop further aspects of the school, such as active learning
and health. The headteacher should build on this positive platform
and develop clear remits for all staff, including the principal teacher,
which are focussed on improvement. The school and the education
authority need to work together to ensure that improvements take
place.
8. What happens next?
We will carry out a follow-through inspection visit within one year of
publication of this report and will report to parents on the extent to
which the school has improved. Following that visit, we may
continue to check the improvements the school has made. We
may also carry out a second follow-through inspection within
two years of the original inspection report. If a second
follow-through inspection visit is necessary then it will result in
another report to parents on the extent of improvement that the
school has made.
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We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve how the school meets the needs of all learners,
particularly the most vulnerable.
•
Improve self-evaluation to ensure improvements for all
learners.
•
Develop communication with parents and opportunities for them to
be involved in their children’s learning and in the life and work of
the school.
•
Improve leadership for learning amongst all staff to ensure
consistently high quality experiences for children.
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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 St Mary’s Primary School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
satisfactory
satisfactory
weak
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Lesley R Brown
31 March 2009
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good
weak
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