24 June 2014
Dear Parent/Carer
Mossneuk Primary School and Nursery Class
South Lanarkshire 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 how the professional learning of staff
improves children’s experiences, the development of children’s skills in modern
languages and the high levels of children’s attainment and achievement. 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 primary classes attainment is high and children achieve very
well. In the nursery, children are respectful to one another and work well together, for
example, to build models of famous buildings using construction materials. Children in
the primary classes are confident and use Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) effectively to help them learn. They share their talents and interests
to enhance the learning of other children across the school and nursery. A younger
child fluent in Hindi supports an older class learning this language as part of their
Commonwealth Games project. Children take on many leadership opportunities.
They organise themselves in groups and make decisions about how to complete tasks.
They lead a wide range of well-attended lunchtime clubs. At one club children create
digital games using ‘Scratch’ computer programing language. Children’s ideas make a
difference to the work of the school. Older children wrote personal views on the
responsible use of mobile phone technology in school. This led to a small group of
children working with parents and staff to change the school policy. Children now use
mobile phones responsibly in school to support their learning. Learning logs
increasingly help children know what they are good at and what they need to do to
improve. The school plans to develop further children’s skills in talking about their
achievements across all their learning.
Children in the nursery and primary classes make very good progress in literacy and
English, numeracy and mathematics and across most areas of their learning. In the
nursery, they talk confidently and use a wide range of vocabulary. They develop a
very good understanding of time and measurement during sport activities. They listen
very well and talk confidently using appropriate vocabulary linked to what they are
Education Scotland
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Transforming lives through learning
learning. Across the school children enjoy reading and answer challenging questions
accurately. They support their view points with appropriate evidence from what they
have read. They write well for a wide range of very relevant purposes. Through
written communication with local council officials changes are being made to the local
park. In numeracy and mathematics children apply their learning in real life contexts.
Children at P6 accurately apply and present their knowledge of astronomical units and
metres when making scale drawings of the solar system in the playground. They
record their learning confidently using video imaging software on iPads. Very good
progress is being made in developing their understanding of finances. Children can
talk about profit, loss and understand how income tax is calculated. In music, children
create and invent their own tunes using appropriate musical notation. In the nursery
children are beginning to learn and use appropriate words in French. At P7, children
create high quality watercolour paintings of landscape views they observed during their
residential trip to Lochgoilhead. In drama, children in the role of a famous athlete
answer questions, created by their peers, very convincingly.
How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
Across the nursery and primary classes children are supported very well. Staff use
their knowledge of individual children’s progress to plan tasks and activities to meet
children’s needs. The school has strong partnerships with parents, external agencies
and the community. Parents and friends of Mossneuk regularly attend the school and
support children and staff in delivering learning. The range of adults working with
children is very well organised. Children use a wide range of approaches to help
reduce difficulties they have with their learning. For example, children needing help
copying or remembering homework are encouraged to use their mobile phones to
photograph information for reference at home. The school is working towards
improving further the pace of some lessons. They are continuing to find more
motivating learning opportunities to challenge the highest-attaining children. Staff use
guidance from Curriculum for Excellence and the opportunities the new school building
offers very well to plan learning. They think creatively about learning in the classroom,
open areas and the school grounds. In the nursery there are rich opportunities for
children to explore different languages, music and cultures. Staff have high
expectations and link learning very well to real life situations. The motivating
curriculum helps children learn and practise skills from one curriculum area to another.
The school is continuing to improve approaches to assessing progress across the
curriculum. Transitions from nursery to P1, from class to class and from P7 to S1 are
very well developed.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The leadership of the headteacher and approaches to self-evaluation are outstanding.
The headteacher has a clear vision for the school community to provide high quality
learning for children. She encourages individual staff and staff teams to lead
developments and make changes on their own. Children, staff and parents learn from
and with each other in a climate of trust. The strengths and talents of the whole school
community, including parents and partners, are identified to support school
improvement. The skilled staff are highly motivated and committed to career long
professional learning. They are reflective practitioners with a notable range of
professional qualifications. Staff learning, including qualifications gained before their
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employment at Mossneuk Primary, is used effectively to improve children’s
experiences across the school. A wide range of opportunities for unpromoted staff
develop their leadership skills very well. Staff in the nursery are involved fully in whole
school working groups. Class teachers can undertake an acting principal teacher role
for a short period of time. In this role their creative and innovative ideas are supported
and challenged by the headteacher. Staff reflect on their work very well as individuals
and as a staff team. Staff track children’s progress after they move to Duncanrig
Secondary School. Recently they tracked the progress of former P7 children now in
4th year taking the new National 4 and National 5 qualifications.
This inspection found the following key strengths.
 Confident children, and their use of ICT and real life contexts for learning.
 The learning experiences enhanced by the new school building and grounds.
 The highly motivated staff team’s use of career long professional learning to
improve outcomes for children.
 Involvement of children, parents and the community in the work of the school.
 Outstanding leadership of the headteacher and her promotion of creativity and
innovation.
We discussed with staff and South Lanarkshire Council how they might continue to
improve the school and nursery class. This is what we agreed with them.

Continue, as planned, to improve assessment within a progressive curriculum
enabling children to know their strengths and next steps across all 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 evaluative visits in connection with this inspection. During the
inspection, we identified aspects of innovative practice which we would like to explore
further. We shall work with the school and South Lanarkshire Council to record the
innovative practice and share it more widely.
Elizabeth C Montgomery
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/Mos
sneukPrimarySchoolSouthLanarkshire.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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