19 May 2015
Dear Parent/Carer
Bankier Primary School and Nursery Class
Falkirk 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 writing and children’s care and welfare.
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?
Across the nursery and the primary stages, children are happy, polite and keen to
learn. They respond well to warm, nurturing relationships with staff which are a strong
feature at all stages. Most staff are skilled at supporting children to behave well and
be respectful of others. In the nursery class, children experience learning in different
environments and are motivated by outdoor play, for example exploring the mud
kitchen. Staff in the nursery recognise that children need to take more responsibility
and make more choices during sessions. Children in the primary classes respond well
when they are actively involved in working with others. This was a positive feature in
most lessons during our visit. Staff are encouraging children to learn in a range of
interesting ways. Most staff ensure that children understand what they are supposed
to learn during lessons. They now need to be more consistent in providing detailed
feedback to children to help them understand what they need to do to improve. Across
the school, children benefit from a variety of out-of-class activities such as ‘Let’s Cook’,
dance and table tennis. Good links with local sports clubs are helping children
participate in physical activities outside of school. At the upper stages, children are
developing their leadership skills well through being ‘big buddies’, peer mediators and
by participating in the pupil Eco-committee. The Eco-committee has been successful
in helping improve the playground and other outdoor spaces. Staff should continue to
identify and develop ways for all children to be involved in improving the school,
including the nursery.
Most children in the nursery listen well, are able to follow instructions and can
recognise familiar letters. A few confidently share personal experiences and seek the
challenge of writing new words such as ‘mummy’. The majority of children can count
and understand simple words used in mathematics such as ‘full’ or ‘empty’. They are
not yet developing and applying their literacy and numeracy skills in real-life contexts.
At the primary stages, most children are developing their reading and writing skills
Education Scotland
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0131 244 8424
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www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Transforming lives through learning
well. Across the school, children are engaging with a wide range of texts and are able
to read aloud with fluency. They are developing their awareness and understanding of
Scots language through studying Scottish poetry and stories including ‘Tattie Bogle
and the Eejits’. In numeracy and mathematics, children are making satisfactory
progress with mental calculations with the majority developing their ability to add,
subtract and multiply numbers. At the early stages, the majority of children are able to
set basic times on a clock face and identify and count with a range of coins. However,
attainment levels in English and mathematics are not of a consistently high enough
standard across the school. The school needs to identify children who are not on track
with their learning and provide increased support to raise their attainment. At the
upper stages, children spoke confidently about how to stay safe on the internet and
the importance of having a healthy lifestyle. However, overall, the school needs to
place greater emphasis on health and wellbeing to allow children to develop key
knowledge and awareness. Children achieve well in environmental projects, including
litter picking, recycling, and growing vegetables. This has contributed to the school
being awarded their sixth Eco-Schools Scotland green flag. Children from all stages of
the school benefited from performing in the ‘Peter Pan’ production and participating in
the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
At the primary stages and in the nursery class, staff provide a safe and supportive
ethos that ensures a positive, comfortable climate for children to learn. Most children
across the primary stages and nursery engage in activities which are well matched to
their needs. We have asked the school to ensure learning is suitably challenging for
all children and delivered at a consistently brisk pace. Staff work well with a range of
partners, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, to
help assess children’s needs and plan strategies to support them effectively. At the
primary stages, support for learning assistants are very well deployed to support
individual children and provide assistance to whole-class groups. Nursery staff are
aware that they need to review their deployment to best meet the needs of all children.
Staff use programmes such as ‘Seasons For Growth’ and ‘Reading Recovery’
effectively to support children’s specific needs. Most children across the school are
making good progress with their individual learning targets, especially in literacy and
English. Staff should now ensure that all children are consistently involved in setting
their targets. This would help them understand what they need to learn next and how
this builds on what they already know.
Across the school, children have access to a broad curriculum which is taking
increasing account of Curriculum for Excellence. Staff are using national guidance to
plan lessons including more opportunities for children to make connections in their
learning across subjects. There is currently no whole-school approach to developing
the curriculum to ensure that children make suitable progress across all subject areas.
Children are beginning to benefit from new approaches, such as ‘BIG writing’ and
‘Thinking Readers’, focused on improving their literacy skills. As staff develop the
curriculum further, they should work towards ensuring there is continuity and
progression in the development of children’s knowledge, understanding and skills in all
curricular areas. The school has well-established links with Denny High School to help
children settle in quickly and smoothly. There is scope for the school to do more to
ensure continuity in children’s learning when they move from nursery to primary.
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How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The headteacher has been in post for 17 years and has the respect of parents, staff
and the community. She is well supported by the depute headteacher and principal
teacher. Collectively, they have been successful in developing effective teamwork
across the school, with a number of staff having additional responsibility in taking
forward school priorities. There are well-established systems in place to help senior
managers measure the quality of the school’s work and identify any areas for
improvement. Parents and children are given a range of opportunities to contribute to
this process but it is not yet clear how their views influence school improvement.
Together with the staff, senior managers have begun to refresh the curriculum with a
clear focus on literacy, numeracy and outdoor learning. However, approaches to
tracking and monitoring children’s progress lack consistency across the school and
nursery. More effective tracking will help ensure children attain more highly. Most
teachers welcome feedback on their learning and teaching from colleagues and
children in their class. All staff access a range of training opportunities which are well
linked to improving learning and teaching, and to help meet the needs of all children
across the school.
During the previous Care Inspectorate inspection, the nursery had no requirements
and two recommendations. From these, one recommendation has been met and one
has been partially addressed. There were no further requirements or
recommendations made as a result of this inspection. Further information can be
found at the link below.
This inspection found the following key strengths.
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Happy, polite, well-behaved children who are eager to learn.
Positive, nurturing ethos across the school and nursery.
Examples of highly effective learning and teaching.
Effective teamwork amongst staff.
We discussed with staff and Falkirk Council how they might continue to improve the
school and nursery class. This is what we agreed with them.
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Improve the curriculum to ensure challenge and progression in children’s learning
in the nursery and at the primary stages.
Develop more robust systems for tracking and monitoring children’s progress.
Improve children’s attainment.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that most of the
school’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. Our Area Lead
Officer will work with Falkirk Council to build capacity for improvement and will
maintain contact to monitor progress. Parents will be informed of the extent to which
the school and nursery class has improved.
Steven McPherson
HM Inspector
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Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations and
national care standards gradings, for your school can be found on the Education
Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/primsec/Ban
kierPrimarySchoolFalkirk.asp
If you would like to receive this letter 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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