Closeburn House and
Maben House
Dumfries and Galloway
28 January 2014
Education Scotland inspects schools in order to let parents1 and
young people know whether their school2 provides a good
education. Inspectors also discuss with staff how they can
improve the quality of education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the
headteacher/senior managers 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 young people are involved. We also gather
the views of young people, parents, staff and partner agencies
who work with the school. 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 young
people are doing, how good the service is at helping them to
learn and how well it cares for them. We comment on how well
staff, parents and young people 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 young people. 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.educationscotland.gov.uk. Here you can find
analyses of questionnaire returns from young people, parents
and staff, and where relevant, details about young people’s
examination performance. We will not provide questionnaire
analyses where the numbers of returns are so small that they
could identify individuals.
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. Background
2. How well do children and young people learn and achieve?
3. How well does the school support children and young people to
develop and learn?
4. How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
5. What happens next?
1. Background
In November 2011, HM Inspectors wrote a report with our findings. In
the report, we indicated that we would return to the school to look at
how it had continued to improve its work. Recently, as you may know,
we visited the school again. During our visit, we talked to children and
young people and worked closely with the acting headteacher and
staff. We wanted to find out how well children and young people are
now learning and achieving and how the school was continuing to
support them to do their best. The acting headteacher shared with us
how the school has continued to improve. We looked at particular
areas that had been identified at our first visit and also areas where
the school was continuing to improve. As a result, we were able to
find out how well children and young people are now learning and
achieving and how the school is continuing to support them to do their
best. This report sets out what we found.
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2. How well do children and young people learn and achieve?
Across the school, children’s and young people’s learning and
achievement continue to improve. Children and young people feel that
the new school structure, where boys and girls learn together with
others at the same stage, is helping them to improve. Children and
young people understand what they need to do to keep fit and healthy
and most are making good progress in developing their social and
emotional wellbeing. Most young people are actively involved in their
learning and can work well with others when given the opportunity. In
most classes, children and young people are encouraged to do as
much as they can for themselves and take responsibility for aspects of
their learning. There is scope for this to take place more consistently
in all classes. Young people achieve success in classrooms and
beyond. They are developing their citizenship skills through charitable
fundraising, such as the recent whole school Pudsey Bear event. At
all stages, most children and young people are progressing well in
literacy and numeracy. Staff recognise the need to further extend
opportunities for young people’s achievements to be accredited.
3. How well does the school support children and young people
to develop and learn?
Young people benefit from a broad range of learning experiences.
The curriculum now has a stronger focus on developing young
people’s skills for learning, life and work. Staff have recently improved
the curriculum for S4 and beyond to provide young people with greater
choice and more challenging and relevant opportunities to build up
their skills for life and work. They now need to develop a clear plan to
further improve the curriculum, to ensure that children and young
people, at all stages, make suitable progress across all aspects of the
curriculum. Productive links with a wider range of partners, including
colleges, local businesses and training providers are helping to
prepare young people for moving on successfully from school.
Teachers and care staff are planning together more effectively to
address the specific health and wellbeing needs of children and young
2
people. Young people are much more involved in setting and
reviewing targets which are personal and relevant to them.
4. How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The school’s capacity for improvement has strengthened since the
original inspection. The recently appointed acting headteacher is
engaging with staff in a meaningful and evaluative way. Staff are more
involved and committed to identifying the school’s strengths and
weaknesses. They recognise that there is scope for further
improvement and are committed to improving the quality of learning,
teaching and achievement. The school still needs to ensure that the
system for monitoring and evaluating the quality of learning and
teaching is leading to improvements in children and young people’s
learning experiences and achievements. Staff would also benefit from
the opportunity to share practice across the school and with other
residential special schools serving children with similar needs. The
school should continue with its plans to further develop approaches to
assessing and tracking young people’s progress.
5. What happens next?
Since the original inspection the school has made some important
improvements. The acting headteacher has a clear vision for the
school and enjoys the confidence of staff. However some further work
remains to be done to improve the curriculum and approaches for
evaluating the work of the school to promote continuous improvement.
Our Independent Schools Link Inspector will continue to work with the
school to build capacity for improvement and will maintain contact to
monitor progress. We will make no further visits in connection with the
original inspection.
Olwynne Clark
HM Inspector
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If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go
to www.educationscotland.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 Enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
Education Scotland, 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.educationscotland.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our
Complaints Manager, at the address above or by
telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2014
Education Scotland