Fairview School
and Nursery Class
Perth
Perth and Kinross Council
5 May 2009
This report tells you about the quality of education at the school1.
We describe how children and young people 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 and young people.
We also comment on how well staff, children and young people
work together and how they go about improving the school.
Our report also describes the ‘ethos’ of the school. By ‘ethos’ we
mean the relationships in the school, how well children and
young people 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 and details about young people’s
examination performance. Where applicable, you will also be
able to find descriptions of good practice in the school and a
report on the learning community surrounding the school.
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2
The term ‘school’ is used to include the work of the nursery
class and primary and secondary departments.
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. Examples of good practice
4. How well do children and young people learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support the learning of
children and young people?
6. Are staff, children and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children and young
people?
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?
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1. The school
Fairview School is a non-denominational school with a nursery class.
The school opened in March 2008 bringing together Cherrybank and
Glebe schools to form one all-through school for children and young
people aged two to 18. The school is located on a shared campus
with Viewlands Primary School and Perth Academy. It serves the
whole of Perth and Kinross. The roll was 57 when the inspection was
carried out in February 2009, including eight children in the nursery.
All children and young people have additional support needs.
Attendance was well above the national average in 2007/2008.
Exclusions are well below the national average for special schools.
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The very high levels of interest and involvement that children and
young people have in their learning.
•
The highly motivated and enthusiastic staff who have successfully
become one team following the recent amalgamation.
•
The outstanding leadership of the headteacher, the strong senior
management team and the leadership of all staff across the school.
•
The exceptional quality of the learning environment.
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3. Examples of good practice
•
Enabling young people to achieve through the residential
independent living programme.
•
Developing attitudes and approaches to inclusion within a joint
sector campus.
•
Developing teams through leadership.
4. How well do children and young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Across the school, children and young people enjoy their lessons and
carefully planned trips to the local community. They are developing
their communication and physical skills through outdoor play, rebound
therapy using trampolines and sensory sessions using touch, taste,
and smell. In the nursery, almost all children are engaged in their
learning. Most participate well through careful positioning and the use
of appropriate materials. They respond very well to key adults. Young
people show very clear enjoyment in their new and stimulating
surroundings. The fun and curiosity they experience are helping them
to learn. Young people have many opportunities to make choices and
take responsibility. Examples include working on the school
newspaper, snack time responsibilities, running a tuck shop and
sorting out problems with each other. Young people organise events
and are confident when expressing their views. They have very
positive relationships with staff, are treated with dignity and respect
and feel valued. Senior pupils act as very effective advocates for
younger pupils in the school council. All young people feel safe, well
cared for and included. Learners from all the campus schools develop
friendships while working together on literacy and art projects. Young
people from the primary and secondary schools act as buddies and
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attend Fairview School for particular subjects, joint projects or
additional support. Young people from Perth Academy and
Fairview School belong to a weekly girls’ group and talk about a range
of health issues. Leavers from Perth Academy and
St Columba’s High School learn about the world of work together
through a very successful business enterprise project.
Across the school, children and young people achieve success in a
wide range of areas. A few children have returned to their own
community nurseries following an initial shared placement. Young
people are developing their confidence in relating to others and
tolerating difficult or new situations. In the secondary department,
young people are becoming more independent through a very
successful weekly residential programme. They are working towards
gaining ‘independent living’ awards. They also achieve well through
art, music, drama and physical education. Their achievements are
proudly displayed and they are very keen to show them to others.
They would like opportunities to go to clubs and activities after school
hours.
Children and young people across the school have successfully
achieved their personal learning targets in early literacy and numeracy
skills and mathematics and language as appropriate to their stage. In
the nursery, children are developing early communication skills and an
understanding of their environment. At the primary stages, children
understand the meaning of stories they listen to. A few are able to
tackle mental mathematics. At the secondary stages, in
session 2007/2008, young people achieved a broad range of units at
Access 1 and Access 2. These units included mathematics, language,
art and design, vocational awareness, personal hygiene, daily
organisation, computing, and healthy living. A small number achieved
physical education units at Access 3 and an Access 2 unit in cooking.
Some young people are working towards an Access 3 unit in
construction at Perth Academy. Children who are looked after by the
authority are making very good progress with their learning targets.
The school is aware that it needs to develop its approaches to tracking
achievement and extend the range of awards.
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Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The curriculum is based firmly on national advice and guidelines. It is
being developed imaginatively in response to Curriculum for
Excellence. In the nursery, the curriculum is delivered through themed
projects which promote an understanding and enjoyment of the world.
It needs to take into account the choices and interests of children and
parents and provide more opportunities for learning through active
play. Children enjoy the well-designed outdoor play area and need
more opportunities to use it for learning. In the school, young people
are encouraged to be curious about their learning and explore different
experiences across curricular areas. They can choose to study topics
in greater depth, for example, media studies or music. The
development of their skills needs to be carefully planned and tracked.
Information and communications technology is used well across all
areas of the curriculum. All young people receive two hours or more of
high-quality physical education. Across the school, health and
wellbeing is given a very high priority. Teachers help to prepare young
people for independence in the future. Young people are developing
skills in working with others, leading healthy lives and making informed
choices about healthy eating. Staff plan flexibly to help young people
transfer successfully between stages and when they leave school.
Across the school, learning activities and teaching approaches are well
matched to the needs of almost all learners. Almost all individual
learning targets are appropriate and targets in coordinated support
plans reflect young people’s broad learning needs. In the nursery,
children need more activities where they can explore natural materials.
Almost all staff are highly skilled at developing children and young
people’s communication skills and responding when they see young
people are trying to communicate. This very good practice should be
further developed across the school. Young people are encouraged to
be active in their learning. Staff use every opportunity to help them to
learn. Learning assistants provide very high levels of support to all
young people. They promote their independence and develop their
skills and understanding at all times. The new accommodation has
been purpose built to meet the learning and care needs of all children
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and young people. It is of an exceptionally high quality and staff make
very good use of it to support young people’s learning.
5. How well do staff work with others to support the learning of
children and young people?
The school has very strong partnerships with parents. Almost all
parents feel that communication is very good. The Parent Council is
looking for new ways to involve parents. Parents help to set their
children’s learning targets and participate fully in progress reviews.
The school uses the authority’s complaints procedure and deals
effectively with any concerns that arise. The school has excellent
relationships with external agencies and works very effectively with
youth services, Careers Scotland, social work services and a range of
health therapists. Speech and language therapists track young
people’s progress in language. Staff in the residential provision work
very closely with school staff to ensure they are all using similar
approaches. In particular, residential staff help young people from the
school to develop their independence. The school’s location on a joint
campus with mainstream schools enables all three schools to work
closely together. The three headteachers are keen to see their
establishments as learning resources for all young people. They are
beginning to plan together more formally to meet the needs of their
extended learning community. Staff at Fairview School regularly offer
training to other establishments in Perth and Kinross.
6. Are staff, children and young people actively involved in
improving their school community?
Staff and young people feel their views are listened to and valued. All
young people are involved in improving the school through making
choices in class. They contribute to the school council, the
sustainability group and a rights-respecting group involving pupils from
Perth Academy and Viewlands Primary School. Young people have
influenced the design of the school, school dress and the names of the
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houses. They are highly committed to recycling. All staff reflect on
their practice and regularly share their views through meetings and
improvement groups. Staff, parents and young people are fully
involved in evaluating the quality of education and identifying aspects
for improvement. Senior managers make visits to classes and
playrooms and discuss planning with staff. Senior managers and
nursery staff should evaluate children’s learning to broaden their
experiences.
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children and
young people?
All staff have a ‘can-do’ attitude to their work and encourage learners
at all stages to achieve as well as possible. They have very high
expectations. The school has a very positive and purposeful ethos
where everyone is valued equally. School leaders, staff, parents and
young people have worked very well together to become one strong
team. Young people communicate very well with visitors. Any
behavioural difficulties which may arise are handled sensitively. The
pastoral care of young people is very good. Risk assessments are
used to ensure their safety. The school has appropriate arrangements
for religious observance. The personal and social education course
covers important aspects of equality and diversity. Young people treat
each other equally and consider the needs of others. Achievements
are celebrated at every opportunity and through regular assemblies
and house meetings. The achievements of staff are also recognised.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
School leaders and local authority officers have worked closely
together to shape the future of the new school. The headteacher
provides very strong leadership, and is highly respected by both the
school community and wider community. All staff are motivated to see
themselves as leaders in learning and are enthusiastically committed
to improving the school. Teamwork among senior managers is highly
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effective. They provide very good support to the headteacher and
staff. Staff morale is very high. The school has considered its aims
and is now ready to express its overarching vision. All staff are clear
about the direction of the school and its key strengths and areas for
development.
9. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, 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 areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Continue to develop the curriculum and approaches to tracking and
recognising the achievements of young people.
•
Develop approaches to planning for improvement which are
specific to the nursery.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there were
no requirements.
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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 Fairview School and Nursery Class.
School
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
excellent
very good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Angela Edwards
5 May 2009
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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