Wallace Hall Primary
School
Thornhill
Dumfries and Galloway
Council
25 August 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
Wallace Hall Primary School is a non-denominational school. It serves
the town of Thornhill and surrounding rural area. The roll was 154
when the inspection was carried out in June 2009. Children’s
attendance was above the national average in 2007/2008. The school
uses accommodation within Wallace Hall Academy for physical
education and assemblies. A new joint campus building is being built
next to the existing school.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Children’s attitudes to and enthusiasm for their learning and wider
achievements.
•
Well-considered approaches to meeting children’s learning needs.
•
Examples of innovative learning and teaching to take forward a
Curriculum for Excellence.
•
Use of self-evaluation to improve the work of the school led by the
headteacher.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
All children are enthusiastic and proud of their achievements. They
learn well by being actively involved in tasks which encourage them to
think for themselves. Almost all children are aware of their progress
and how to improve their work. Children often work together in pairs
and groups and make helpful comments about others’ work.
Across all classes, children use information and communications
technology (ICT) very well as an important part of their learning
activities. For example, children at P7 have created their own movies
using animation and sound in a successful media topic on Hollywood.
Children at P2 are successfully learning about different homes in their
topic work. At P5 children know about the structure of plants and
leaves and can sort them by different types. Children in the upper
stages are very aware of energy conservation. Children are gaining
responsibility and increasing their active citizenship skills by taking part
in a variety of charity events and collections. They achieve well
through their involvement in after school clubs and lunchtime activities.
2
Children at P7 responded well to the challenging activities at the
recent residential experience in York.
Attainment levels in reading, writing and mathematics have varied a
little over the last two years. Most children are attaining appropriate
national levels in listening, talking, reading, writing and mathematics.
A few children are achieving national levels earlier than expected. All
children are making good progress in their learning in English
language. Children listen well to their teachers, contribute well to
discussions and speak confidently in class. At P1 to P3, children are
becoming more fluent in their reading. From P4 to P7, children are
developing a lively interest in books. Children write for a range of
purposes and do so particularly well in their topic work. At times,
children need to remember to use punctuation and present their work
more neatly. In mathematics, children are quick at mental calculations
and are accurate in their written work. At P1, children enjoy adding
and sequencing numbers in practical activities. At P3 and P4, children
can explain confidently grid references and how to make graphs and
simple spreadsheets using ICT. Almost all children have appropriate
problem-solving skills. They experience active and stimulating
problem-solving activities and can relate these to everyday situations.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Across the school staff have made a positive start to the
implementation of national guidance Curriculum for Excellence.
Teachers help children apply their skills across curriculum areas. For
example staff extend children’s understanding of health and wellbeing
and social studies while developing their literacy and numeracy skills.
Staff help children see the relevance of their learning by visiting local
places of interest and producing information leaflets. Education about
the environment includes work towards an Eco-Schools Scotland
award and activities in the school garden. The programme, “Seasons
for Growth”, helps children cope with difficult personal situations. The
school provides a variety of sports activities organised by the Active
Schools coordinator. The school is working towards providing children
with two hours quality physical education each week.
3
Across the school, tasks and learning activities are appropriate and
motivating for almost all children. Staff are consistent and effective in
the way in which they support children who need extra help with their
learning. The learning support teacher consults appropriately and
works successfully with children, staff and parents to meet the learning
needs of individuals. Learning assistants provide well-targeted help
within classes. Staff meet regularly to review targets for children’s
learning. This ensures that children are making good progress. Staff
use a variety of questions and approaches to develop children’s
learning. They use feedback consistently well to help children
improve. Children have regular and varied homework.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff have formed helpful partnerships with agencies and individuals
outside the school to help all children progress in their learning. The
Parent Council provides good support and is working with staff to
improve progress reports for parents. Children with their parents take
part in activities to encourage healthy lifestyles. Staff in school consult
parents about sensitive issues. The school deals appropriately with
complaints. Children about to start P1 take part in a well planned
induction programme to help them settle into school. Children at P7
are supported well by the school’s “Moving On” programme when
transferring to Wallace Hall Academy.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children enjoy taking responsibility across the school. Almost all are
developing a sense of citizenship and speak enthusiastically about
taking part in the pupil council and the health and eco club. Children
at P6 enjoy being part of the paired reading scheme with P2 and
acting as playground buddies for younger children. The headteacher
has encouraged staff to visit other classes to learn from each other.
4
His strong focus on self-evaluation is helping staff to improve teaching
and learning. The headteacher and staff need to collect information on
children’s attainment more thoroughly to track and support their
progress. The headteacher and staff have identified those areas
where further improvements are needed. Staff have used the school
improvement plan to help them to take forward Curriculum for
Excellence.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Children are proud of their school. Children, parents and staff have
recently helped to decide the school’s vision and values. Children
welcome visitors warmly and are keen to share their achievements.
Older children have created a target system to help measure their
progress and successes in reading. Children are well behaved and
courteous to each other and staff. They feel they can share their
concerns if they are worried or upset. Staff treat all children fairly and
equally, and develop their understanding of different cultures. There
are appropriate opportunities for religious observance. Staff use
regular assemblies and attractive wall displays to celebrate children’s
achievements both within and outwith the school. All staff have an
appropriate awareness of child protection procedures. Office staff are
vigilant in taking appropriate action if children are absent from school
without explanation.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has a clear sense of direction. He has correctly
identified areas for improvement in the school and takes a strong lead
in curriculum development. He has focussed on improving the quality
of learning experiences. The principal teacher carries out her work
effectively and is a good support to all staff. Staff work very well to
improve the school. They are increasingly successful in evaluating
their own practice and in adapting their teaching to improve learning
for children. The school is well placed to continue to improve.
5
8. What happens next?
The school’s self-evaluation is leading to improvements in children’s
learning. As a result, the inspection team was able to change its focus
during the inspection to help the school plan to improve even more.
The school provides a very good quality of education. Therefore 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.
•
Continue to improve the tracking of children’s progress.
6
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 Wallace Hall Primary School
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Elizabeth Paterson
25 August 2009
7
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