Balivanich Primary School
and Nursery Class
Isle of Benbecula
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar
25 May 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects schools in order to
let parents1, children and the local community know whether their
school2 provides a good education. Inspectors also discuss with
school staff how they can improve the quality of education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the headteacher 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 children are
involved. We also gather the views of children, parents, staff and
members of the local community. 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 children
are doing, how good the school is at helping them to learn and
how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff,
parents and children 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 children. 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.hmie.gov.uk. Here you can find analyses of
questionnaire returns from children, parents and staff. 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. 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
Balivanich Primary School is a non-denominational school with a
nursery class. It serves the village of Balivanich and the northern end
of the Island of Benbecula. The roll was 124, including 24 in the
nursery and 27 in Gaelic medium classes when the inspection was
carried out in March 2010. Children’s attendance was in line with the
national average in 2008/2009.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The inclusive and welcoming ethos within the school.
•
The positive impact of Gaelic culture on the school.
•
Children are happy, motivated and confident in school and are
progressing well.
•
The leadership of the headteacher and the effective teamwork of all
staff in improving the school.
•
The productive links made with the local and wider community.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Most children are achieving well across the curriculum. In the nursery
class, children are happy, relaxed and enthusiastic participants in
learning. They have formed friendships and have very good
relationships with staff. The nursery makes good use of outdoor areas
to enhance children’s learning. Staff need to involve children and their
parents further in planning children’s learning. In the primary classes,
almost all children are happy and confident in school. They are
treated fairly and with respect. The school has made good progress in
making children’s learning more meaningful and based around real-life
situations. For example, most children were involved in planning a
school Show Day to which the local community was invited.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is very well used
throughout the school. Almost all primary children are becoming more
confident in knowing their strengths and identifying their next steps in
learning.
2
In the nursery, children are motivated by and developing personal and
social skills through their involvement in creative play, indoors and
outdoors. Nursery children are developing a very good understanding
of the two languages in their community by learning English and
Gaelic songs and rhymes. They are using ICT well to develop their
numeracy skills. In the primary classes, most children are progressing
well and becoming increasingly successful in their learning. They take
the lead and show initiative in their lessons and learn very well from
each other. They respect and support one another. Across the
school, children are developing a strong commitment to looking after
their environment. The eco committee provides a clear lead and the
school has achieved the Eco-Schools Scotland silver award.
Children in the nursery are progressing very well with their learning.
Almost all listen well to instructions and can hold conversations with
adults and other children. They can recognise their written name in
different areas within the nursery. A few children can write their own
name. They are developing their understanding of mathematical
language and concepts through their play, for example, when playing
with sand and making models. In the primary classes, most children
are achieving appropriate national levels in reading and mathematics.
The majority achieve these levels in writing. The school needs to
improve further its monitoring of individuals’ progress against national
levels. Most children listen attentively. Almost all are developing well
their skills in speaking when presenting. Older children are gaining
skills in debating and persuading. Most children have success in
reading. By P7, children can use books and the internet to research
topics. The majority of children write well for a variety of purposes and
produce good standards of writing. The school needs to continue with
its plans to develop further the teaching of writing skills and the range
of writing taught. In the Gaelic medium classes, listening and talking
are very good. Children listen well to adults and other children. They
work closely in pairs and groups using good-quality talking skills. Most
children are achieving national levels in reading and almost all are
doing so in writing. They use their reading skills very well to find
information and can write for a variety of different purposes and
audiences. Staff need to improve the consistency in the quality of
3
children’s writing in Gaelic. In mathematics across the school, most
children are accurate in mental and written calculations. Children can
collect data and make graphs. For example, children in P7 recorded
their performance in physical education using graphs to track their
progress. Most children are able to select and use with confidence a
range of problem solving strategies. All children are responding
enthusiastically to the school’s increasing use of real-life mathematical
contexts for learning.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school has made a very positive start to improving the curriculum
taking account of Curriculum for Excellence. In the nursery class, the
curriculum is based on learning through play and being active in
learning. Staff need to be included more in developing the curriculum
to ensure greater consistency in implementing change. In the primary
classes, teachers are becoming more effective in making
cross-curricular links and reinforcing literacy and numeracy skills. The
school makes good use of the outdoors to enhance the curriculum.
For example, to support the ‘Eileanan’ topic, the entire school walked
to the top of the local hill to view the island from its highest point. All
children benefit from two hours of high-quality physical education each
week. The school needs to review the amount of teaching in English
for older children in the Gaelic medium class.
Across the school, staff meet the learning needs of children very well.
Nursery staff are now beginning to involve children in setting their own
targets for learning. They recognise the need to involve parents more
fully in this process. In primary classes, all children are well supported
in their learning through appropriate planning and well-pitched tasks.
In most primary lessons, tasks and activities are appropriately
challenging for children. Children requiring additional support with
their learning have their needs very well met. The support for learning
teachers and the headteacher work closely with class teachers and
pupil support assistants to provide effective, well-targeted support for
them. Across the school, homework is regular and tasks are varied
and challenging.
4
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
The school links closely with other agencies and a range of
professionals to ensure that children’s learning is well supported.
Plans for children who require additional support are reviewed
regularly with parents and partner services. The school values highly
the support it receives from the Parent Council. Regular newsletters,
open events, a well-developed website, and detailed written reports
keep parents well informed. Parents and the local community are very
supportive of school events such as the performance of Cinderella last
Christmas. The school responds appropriately to the very few
complaints it receives and consults parents fully on matters relating to
health education. All children moving from home to nursery, into P1
and from P7 to Sgoil Lionacleit settle well because of the high-quality
support they receive as they move.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community ?
Staff and children have improved aspects of their school community.
They are rightly proud of their accreditation as a Health Promoting
School. The pupil council has had success in the past with
improvements to the school such as updating the school uniform. The
eco committee has developed a series of ‘lazy beds’ in the field beside
the school and all classes grow vegetables there. All older children act
as ‘buddies’ for all younger ones. Children have contributed to a wide
range of local and national charities. Teachers have made a good
start to sharing good practice with each other and this is helping
children to learn actively and achieve higher standards. They are
aware that they need to continue to improve attainment and the
consistency of learners’ experiences. The headteacher evaluates
learning in classrooms and provides helpful written feedback to
teachers. The frequency of these visits needs to be increased to have
greater impact. The school improvement plan has had a positive
impact on many aspects of the work of the school.
5
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The school has a very positive ethos. Highly-attractive displays of
children’s art work and class work, labelled in both English and Gaelic,
enhance the environment for learning. Children enjoy coming to
school. They behave well and are polite and respectful of each other
and towards adults. Children know who to go to if they are worried or
upset and have confidence that almost all issues raised through the
‘Bubble Box’ will be dealt with appropriately. They have a good
understanding of how to keep fit and healthy. Important aspects of
health and wellbeing are being embedded in the curriculum to ensure
all children learn about them. The school has very good links with the
various local churches. The local minister and priest are made very
welcome in the school. The school needs to improve children’s
experiences of other cultures and their understanding of diversity in
the modern world.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher provides a very high level of care, support and
encouragement to children, parents and staff. She is highly respected
and valued by the school community. Staff work very closely as a
team under her leadership. She provides a clear and strong lead on
the development of the curriculum. This has resulted in a very good
start to implementing Curriculum for Excellence. Staff, children and
parents recently updated the school’s values and vision statement and
this has provided a renewed sense of direction for the school.
8. What happens next?
As a result of the good quality of education provided by the school, we
will make no further visits in connection with 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.
6
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Across the school and the nursery class, improve the way
children’s progress is identified and recorded so that the
information can be used to guide their learning and raise
achievement.
•
In the older Gaelic medium class, increase the amount of time
where Gaelic is used across the curriculum.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were no requirements and no recommendations were made.
7
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 Balivanich Primary School and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
very good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very 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: Alasdair Eadie
25 May 2010
8
good
good
When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our
readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.
excellent
very good
good
means
means
means
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
means
means
means
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas
for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.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 HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
HM Inspectorate of Education, 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.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Where the school has a nursery class, you can contact the Complaints
Coordinator, Headquarters, Care Commission, Compass House,
Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4NY, telephone 0845 603 0890.
Crown Copyright 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education