Crosshouse Primary
School and Nursery Class
East Kilbride
South Lanarkshire Council
16 March 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
Crosshouse Primary School is a non-denominational school with a
nursery class. It serves the Greenhills area of East Kilbride. The roll
was 213, including 46 in the nursery, when the inspection was carried
out in January 2010. Through four supported classes, the school
provides education for 23 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Children’s attendance was in line with the national average in
2008/2009. The school has undergone significant leadership and staff
changes over the past few years, including two acting headteachers.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Friendly and confident children who are enthusiastic learners.
•
The inclusion of children in the supported classes within the life and
work of the school.
•
The quality of transition programmes and links with other schools
and nurseries.
•
The teamwork and commitment of senior leaders and all staff to
making improvements for learners.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
All children, including those who have recently started, are settled and
happy in the nursery. They enjoy taking part in the wide range of
learning experiences and can choose to play in different areas of the
playroom. They work very well together to build models with wooden
blocks and clay. They would benefit from more opportunities to learn
through play outdoors. Almost all children at the primary stages are
motivated and enthusiastic learners. They use information and
communications technology (ICT) well to extend their learning.
Children’s views and ideas often influence their learning, for example
in topic work and through independent research. Children are now
ready to be further involved in making decisions about their learning,
for example by setting and reviewing targets for their own work.
From nursery to P7, children from all classes, including supported
classes, take part together successfully in a range of activities. They
perform well at different events, including assemblies and other
performances. Children from all stages organised and performed a
2
‘Scottish Afternoon’ for parents which helped develop their skills in
music, dance and reciting Scots poetry. Eco committee members
raise other children’s awareness of environmental issues through
helpful class meetings. Those who take part in sporting activities are
very proud of their achievements, for example in netball and
cheerleading. A few children have achieved success in national
competitions for inventing, and for writing poetry. Children are making
very good progress in developing their skills in and using ICT. They
apply these skills very well to coursework in science and social
studies. Children in the upper stages used the national online
resource Glow to discuss climate change with ‘Heather the Weather’.
Other children created databases and spreadsheets to organise and
display information about countries in the European Union.
Children in the nursery are making good progress in their development
and learning. The majority of children can recognise some letters and
are making good attempts at writing their name. Almost all listen well
in group activities. Most children can count to ten and are beginning to
recognise numbers and shapes. Nursery staff should continue to
develop individual profiles to enable children and their parents to
celebrate the progress children have made. Across the primary and
supported classes, children are making satisfactory progress in
English language and mathematics. In recent years, the school has
improved standards in writing and maintained standards in reading,
but standards in mathematics have declined. Children do not yet
make sufficient progress from strong early achievement in their
learning as they move through the school. Most children listen well for
instructions and are good at listening to each other in small groups.
Children make very good use of the school lending library and are
encouraged to read for pleasure and appreciate books. At P7, most
children read fluently and can talk confidently about their favourite
authors. Children write for a range of purposes. Teachers are now
planning writing activities that link to other areas of learning. In
mathematics, most children work well with numbers, both orally and in
written work. At all stages, they are developing good skills in working
together to solve problems. They are benefiting from more regular
opportunities to apply their mathematical knowledge in real life
3
situations. By P7, most children understand fractions, decimals and
shape. They can interpret information accurately from charts and
graphs. Their written work is very neat and tidy.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff provide a broad curriculum and are implementing well, aspects of
Curriculum for Excellence. They have made a good start to planning
how to link children’s learning across the curriculum. Nursery staff and
teachers at the early stages work very well together to plan high
quality learning experiences for children. Across the primary and
supported classes, children benefit from well planned opportunities to
develop their understanding of sustainability and to develop enterprise
and citizenship skills. Teachers should continue to ensure that
children’s learning builds effectively on their prior learning as they
progress through the school. The school provides children with two
hours of good quality physical education each week.
Across the school, staff know children well. In the nursery, they
provide a range of activities and resources to meet children’s needs.
They have appropriate arrangements to identify children who need
additional support. At the primary stages, tasks, activities and
resources are appropriate to meet the learning needs of most children.
Staff now need to focus more closely on monitoring children’s progress
to raise standards in English language and mathematics. At all
stages, children are benefiting from being active learners. Teachers
provide children with helpful feedback about their work. Homework is
regular, varied and helps children reinforce their learning in a
motivating and challenging way. Staff work hard to overcome any
barriers children have to learning. Children with additional support
needs, including children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, are
supported effectively through specialist provision but also in
mainstream primary classes. All children requiring additional support
have appropriate plans in place. Staff should ensure that learning
targets within support plans are clear and that children’s progress is
tracked more effectively.
4
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Parents and grandparents support the school in a variety of ways,
including running the school library. The recently formed Parent
Council is keen to support the work of the school. Staff keep parents
informed of their children’s progress through parents’ evenings and
helpful reports. Parents are consulted on aspects of school life,
including sensitive health issues. There is scope to take more account
of parents’ views and provide them with better information on future
events and the work of the school. There are appropriate procedures
to deal with any complaints or concerns from parents. Children’s
learning experiences are enhanced by the school’s partnerships with
other services. The school has well-established links with the Active
Schools coordinator. As a result, children are benefiting from a wide
range of sports activities, including curling and Tae-Kwondo.
Transition arrangements for children in supported classes are very
effective. The programme to support children moving from home to
nursery and from nursery to P1 is managed very well. Children in P7
are supported very well in moving to Duncanrig High School.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children are keen to help the school improve. The school has won an
award from the local council in recognition of children’s achievements
as effective contributors. Members of the pupil council and eco group
regularly gather the views of children across the school. They have
good ideas about how to make improvements to the playground and to
systems for rewarding achievement and positive behaviour. Older
children act as buddies and help younger ones in the playground and
in classes. The school has gained a silver Health Promoting School
award and a bronze Eco-Schools Scotland award. Support, clerical
and janitorial staff contribute well to the life and work of the school.
Teachers are committed to improving outcomes for children and work
well together to address important priorities.
5
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Almost all children are friendly and polite to staff and to one another.
However, the behaviour of a few children regularly interrupts the flow
of learning and teaching. Children’s wider achievements are
celebrated at assemblies and in the Crosshouse Chronicle. All staff
are committed to supporting the care and wellbeing of children. They
are clear about their responsibilities for child protection. There are
appropriate procedures in place to monitor and encourage children’s
attendance at school. The school and education authority should take
action to address accommodation issues in the nursery class.
Children are unable to use water taps in the toilets and as a result,
infection control is compromised. The cloakroom area is too narrow
and is very congested at busy times during the day. Children have
very good opportunities for religious observance which are regularly
led by school chaplains. Staff are active in promoting equality and
diversity through the very inclusive ethos within the school. Children
learn about different cultures through their work on world religions.
They are working with children in St Vincent’s Primary School to learn
how to identify and tackle sectarianism.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has a clear sense of purpose and direction. She
provides a high level of care and encouragement to children, parents
and staff. The depute and acting depute headteachers carry out their
remits very effectively and provide valuable support to the
headteacher. As a team, they are strongly committed to the
improvement agenda. The principal teacher provides high-quality
leadership for learning. Across the school, staff work well individually
and together in groups to develop the curriculum. This is leading to
improvements in the way children learn and in the teaching of writing.
Together with senior leaders, staff have a good understanding of what
is working well and what needs to be improved. The school is well
placed to improve further.
6
8. What happens next?
We are confident that the school will be able to make the necessary
improvements in light of the inspection findings. As a result, we will
make no more visits in connection with this inspection. The school and
the education authority will inform parents about the school’s progress
in improving the quality of education.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Raise attainment in English language and mathematics.
•
Make better use of assessment information to track children’s
progress in the nursery, primary and supported classes.
•
Review systems in the primary classes for rewarding success and
dealing with challenging behaviour.
•
Address accommodation issues in the nursery class.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were no requirements. Seven recommendations were made.
Three had been addressed in full and two had been partially
addressed. Outstanding issues are carried forward in this report.
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 Crosshouse Primary School and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
satisfactory
good
good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Lesley A Allan
16 March 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