25 June 2013
Dear Parent/Carer
Cadder Primary School
Glasgow City Council
Recently, as you may know, my colleagues and I inspected your child’s school. During
our visit, we talked to parents and children and worked closely with the headteacher
and staff. We wanted to find out how well children are learning and achieving and how
well the school supports children to do their best. The headteacher shared with us the
school’s successes and priorities for improvement. We looked at some particular
aspects of the school’s recent work, including partnership working, learning that allows
children to progress at their own pace and personal learning plans for children. As a
result, we were able to find out how good the school is at improving children’s
education.
How well do children learn and achieve?
We found that children are learning and achieving well. They are friendly,
well-behaved and try hard. Children are becoming more independent in their learning.
In most lessons, teachers make sure that children are clear about what they are
learning and about how they can improve. This good practice should be shared
consistently across the school. Children contribute actively to the life of the school and
the wider community. They are involved successfully in charity work and they lead
and participate in a number of groups such as the eco group, the travel planning
committee and the pupil council. They gain financial management skills through
numeracy work, during ‘money’ week and from their piloting of a healthy tuck shop.
They are building teamwork skills through participation in sports including, football,
rugby, tennis and badminton. They are willing learners in well-planned residential
activities and in their work at the local ‘Lambhill Stables’ community resource. They
enjoy leading and participating in assemblies which regularly celebrate their
successes. Children have been setting goals for their learning through the use of
personal learning plans. Across the school, information and communications
technology is used to help children research information. This should continue to be
developed further. Children are very proud of achieving their third Eco-Schools
Scotland green flag award which recognises the school’s commendable work on
sustainability.
Children are making good progress in developing their skills in literacy and numeracy.
At the early stages, children’s ‘have-a-go writing’ is developing well and the quality of
presentation of children’s written work is developing. The school provides a very
supportive nurture room for children who need extra support in the early years. In P6,
Education Scotland
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Transforming lives through learning
children enjoy writing using a ‘story mountain’ plan to help with the organisation of
ideas and content. Children write for a wide range of purposes. Across the school,
teachers need to continue their work to develop more challenging tasks, to stretch
higher-attaining children. Children’s confidence in basic numeracy is improving. They
are making steady progress working with numbers and in written calculations. By P7,
children can describe types of graphs and charts and how they might use them to
display different types of information. Staff should continue to develop approaches to
improve children’s mental agility. Children are making good progress in health and
wellbeing. They are developing skills for life and work through opportunities to work
with school partners. At all stages, children enjoy performing in concerts, school
shows and assemblies for parents and friends. The school now needs to develop
further approaches that will track children’s progress across the curriculum.
How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
Across the school, children benefit from a very inclusive, caring and secure
environment. Staff know the children very well and provide a good level of pastoral
care and support. Children in the nurture group are very well looked after. In most
lessons, tasks and activities are set at an appropriate level of challenge. However,
there are times when tasks could be matched more closely to children’s individual
learning needs. Outside agencies, classroom teachers and support assistants work
well with children who need additional help with their learning. They provide them with
useful support plans. The pace of some lessons needs to be faster to create more
challenge for higher-attaining children. Staff provide children with a broad curriculum
taking account of Curriculum for Excellence. Children are developing skills, knowledge
and understanding in a wide range of contexts. Visiting specialists enrich learning in
health and wellbeing, sport and music. Transition arrangements for children moving
from nursery to P1 and for those in P7 moving to the local secondary are very
effective. Staff appreciate the very valuable support given by parents and others in the
local community to enhance the work of the school. The staff and children work hard
to compensate for some of the shortcomings of the school building by using the
classroom walls well to showcase children’s work. Glasgow City Council has plans to
improve the accommodation.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The headteacher is a highly effective leader with a clear determination to continue to
improve the quality of education for all children. She monitors the work of the school in
a range of ways and has a clear understanding of what is working well and what needs
to improve. She is working with staff, children and parents to ensure the school’s
vision and aims are embedded in the life of the school. The entire school community
benefits greatly from this high-quality leadership. She is supported by an able
management team of two principal teachers who support her vision for school
improvement. Almost all staff play a part in school improvement. Increasingly,
children take on leadership roles to help improve the work of the school. As a result
the school has a high capacity for continued improvement. Staff and children are
developing useful profiles to exemplify children’s achievements. All staff take part in
relevant professional development activities which help them to improve. There is
scope for staff to share their practice more widely with each other. To improve
attainment, all staff need to help children develop further the skills to evaluate their
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progress and plan clearer on-going targets. The Parent Council is a very positive
influence on the work of the school. They have assisted in the development of the
new homework programme and in taking forward more active learning strategies.
This inspection of your school found the following key strengths:
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Well-behaved, friendly children with a great enthusiasm for learning.
The strong leadership of the headteacher, principal teachers and the active
contribution of all staff to the positive climate for learning.
The nurturing climate set by staff to meet the needs of all learners.
Parental involvement and their helpful support for the life and work of the school.
The strong partnerships with outside agencies, business and the local community.
We discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to
improve the school. This is what we agreed with them.
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Continue the work in place to develop personal profiles to demonstrate children’s
achievements.
Continue to develop effective benchmarking arrangements to track and monitor
attainment across all areas of learning.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that the
school’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a result, we will
make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The local 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.
Aileen Monaghan
HM Inspector
Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations, for
your school can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/primsec/Cad
derPrimarySchoolGlasgowCity.asp
If you would like to receive this report in a different format, for example, in a translation
please contact the administration team on the above telephone number.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact us
by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail: complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
or write to us addressing your letter to the Complaints Manager, Denholm House,
Almondvale Business Park, Livingston EH54 6GA
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