Benarty Primary School
and Nursery Class
Lochgelly
Fife Council
13 January 2009
This report tells you about the quality of education at the school1.
We describe how children 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. We also comment on how well staff and
children work together and how they go about improving the
school.
Our report describes the ‘ethos’ of the school. By ‘ethos’ we
mean the relationships in the school, how well children 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. Where applicable, you will also be able to
find descriptions of good practice in the school.
1
2
The term ‘school’ is used to include the work of the nursery
class, where relevant.
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. 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
Benarty Primary School is a non-denominational school with a
nursery class and three additional support classes. It serves the
villages of Glencraig, Crosshill, Lochore and Ballingary in West Fife.
The support classes serve a wider catchment area including
Cowdenbeath, Kelty, Crossgates, Cardenden and Lochgelly. The
inspection was carried out in November 2008 at which time the roll
was 359, including 22 children in the support classes and 38 in the
nursery. Pupils’ attendance was below the national average in
2006-07. An acting headteacher had been in post for three weeks at
the time of the inspection.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The quality of provision in the additional support classes.
•
Work with the charity Together in Benarty and Lochgelly (TIBAL) to
provide groups of children with a range of experiences in the
community.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
In the nursery class children are making satisfactory progress. They
have made a positive start to most areas of learning and development.
Children enjoy listening to stories and know their favourite songs and
rhymes well. Most recognise their names and staff use the writing
table to encourage children in their mark making. A few children can
count to ten. Most children can sort sizes and match numbers.
Children are developing an interest in the natural world through their
involvement in the initiative, Kindergarten Forest. They enjoy playing
together and choose resources confidently. They are becoming
independent in a number of playroom routines. The school is aware of
the need to plan children’s learning more thoroughly than at present.
In the primary classes, children are making satisfactory progress in
reading, listening and talking. Most are making limited progress in
writing and mathematics. The standard of written work is variable and
a significant number of children are not able to talk confidently about
books they have read. In mathematics, children lack skills and
confidence, for example, in working out calculations in their heads.
When given the opportunity, children work independently and engage
enthusiastically in tasks. Across the school, there are limited
opportunities for children to work in pairs and groups. Children
understand the importance of being healthy and keeping themselves
safe. They are beginning to develop skills in information and
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communications technology (ICT). Children participate
enthusiastically in a limited range of out-of-school activities including
football, netball and running. At P7, children show responsibility in
their work as buddies to children in the additional support classes.
Visitors to the school help to enhance pupils’ learning. In the
additional support classes, children are motivated and enjoy their
learning. They benefit from the positive relations they have with staff
and the nurturing and caring learning environment provided for them.
Children in these classes are becoming successful learners through
well-planned structured activities in English language and
mathematics. Children are making good progress in developing
independence skills. They have good opportunities to make choices in
their learning.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff in the nursery are beginning to improve activities to deliver a
broader curriculum for children. Children are able to use a range of
resources to be creative and express their feelings. There are limited
opportunities for them to develop early literacy and numeracy across a
range of play activities. Children have regular access to the school
gymnasium for physical activities and games. There are too few
planned opportunities for children to solve simple problems and
investigate and explore their surroundings. The nursery provides too
few opportunities for children to gain confidence in using technology.
Staff are aware of the need to review the layout of the nursery to make
best use of the available learning areas. In the primary classes,
structured programmes are in place for the main curricular areas.
Staff at the early stages have successfully begun to explore an aspect
of the national initiative, Curriculum for Excellence. This is beginning
to develop better continuity in learning in aspects of science. At other
stages, there are limited opportunities for children to develop their
skills in literacy and numeracy across the curriculum. Children need
more opportunities to use their ICT skills across a range of curricular
areas. They respond well to the good opportunities to participate in
energetic physical activities. At a few stages, children’s classroom
experiences need to be designed and planned more effectively. In the
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additional support classes, the curriculum is adapted appropriately to
meet the needs of all children. Children are helped to develop their
confidence in the community through visits to the local shops, country
park and swimming pool. Staff use singing and music effectively to
encourage younger pupils to participate in their learning.
Staff in the nursery class have positive relationships with children.
They make regular observations of children’s learning but do not
always use this information well enough to help children progress.
Children who need extra help with their learning need more planned
support. This should include individual plans with targets to help
measure progress in their learning. A few higher attaining children
could be given more challenge in their play. Staff are caring and kind
and use praise well to acknowledge children’s achievements. All
children are treated with respect. Across the primary classes,
children’s learning needs are not yet being met fully. Staff need to
clarify procedures for identifying and supporting children’s needs.
When the tasks that they are asked to complete are interesting and
motivating, children respond very positively. In physical education and
science activities, for example, children work very well in groups and
cooperate well with their classmates. However, many of the tasks and
activities which children undertake in the classroom are too routine in
nature. Children do not have enough chances to make decisions in
their learning. They do not have a clear grasp of what they need to do
to improve their learning. Children complete homework regularly,
though tasks set could be more varied. In the support classes, staff
provide well-planned tasks which ensure that children’s needs are met.
Children use visual timetables successfully to give them a clear
understanding of the tasks they are to complete. Staff are consistent
in their use of signing and visual supports to help children achieve
success in their learning. Children are supported very well to
understand a range of emotions. Appropriate long and short term
targets are set for each child and key information is shared regularly
with parents.
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4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff work closely with a number of external agencies and individuals
to meet children’s learning needs. Several professionals, including the
speech therapist, staff from Fife Sensory Service and school nurses,
have helped school staff in supporting children’s development and
learning. Staff in the support classes regularly film children in order to
record their progress. The films are then shared with parents and
professionals at review meetings. The school works successfully with
a local charity to provide an enhanced curriculum for a small group of
pupils. This programme involves outdoor education, sports
development, fire safety, music and film making as well as team
challenges in locations within the local community. The Parent
Council, which seeks to support the school, has experienced difficulty
in attracting members. There are effective arrangements in place to
support children moving from nursery to P1 and from P7 to Lochgelly
High School.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Staff in the nursery need to be more meaningfully involved in
identifying areas for development. Children in the primary classes
respond well to opportunities to take on responsibilities within the
school. Older children help look after the younger ones. Members of
the pupil council are learning to influence some aspects of the
development of the school community. Staff should, however, ensure
that children have the chance to improve their school community in a
more meaningful and sustained manner. Those children in the support
classes have raised funds through an enterprise activity to create a
multi sensory room. The nature and quality of teamwork in the school
needs to be addressed and improved. Staff are aware of this issue
and recognise that it is limiting the school’s further progress.
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6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
In the nursery, staff encourage children to complete tasks and choose
resources independently. Expectations of the behaviour of a few
children in the nursery could be higher. In primary classes, most
children work well together in school and show an interest and concern
for each other. As yet, the school does not place sufficient emphasis
on ensuring that all children are treated equally. Approaches to
improve relationships and behaviour have not yet had a significant
impact across the school. Children’s wider achievements are
recognised through corridor displays and in assemblies. They have
regular opportunities to take part in religious observation. Staff in the
additional support classes have high expectations of children and
expect them to work hard and be successful in their learning. Almost
all teachers and ancillary staff are confident in their knowledge of child
protection procedures. However, arrangements for managing
information about vulnerable children need to be improved. Not all
staff use praise consistently well to motivate children in their learning.
Overall, the school does not yet have consistently high enough
expectations of all children. There is more to be done to focus
specifically on the achievement of individual learners. For example,
children need to be really clear about what they can do to develop their
skills, knowledge and understanding more fully. The school has
recently improved procedures for monitoring children who are absent
from school.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
Discontinuity in staffing has resulted in a lack of clear leadership to the
school. The nursery and primary classes have lacked a clear sense of
direction and this has affected the quality of education provided for
children. Approaches to reviewing practice and improving outcomes
for children have some important weaknesses. While staff are
committed to self-evaluation, long term staff absences has meant that
their involvement in self-evaluation has been limited. As a result, there
has not been a sustained focus on improving the achievements of all
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learners. The acting headteacher has made a good start in working
with staff to prioritise areas for improvement. The school and the
education authority now require to work very closely together to ensure
that these identified improvements are made.
8. What happens next?
We will carry out a follow-through inspection visit within one year of
publication of this report and will report to parents on the extent to
which the school has improved. Following that visit, we may
continue to check the improvements the school has made. We
may also carry out a second follow-through inspection within
two years of the original inspection report. If a second
follow-through inspection visit is necessary then it will result in
another report to parents on the extent of improvement that the
school has made.
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We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
The development of leadership at all levels in order to improve
team working and direction to the school.
•
Planning and assessment to improve learners’ experiences in the
nursery and primary classes.
•
The quality of the curriculum in line with Curriculum for Excellence.
•
Support for children to better meet the needs of all children
including those who are vulnerable or in danger of missing out.
•
The development of self-evaluation to improve the quality of
children’s learning.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were three recommendations made, and all had been addressed.
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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 Benarty Primary School and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
weak
satisfactory
weak
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
satisfactory
satisfactory
weak
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jacqueline Horsburgh
13 January 2009
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satisfactory
weak
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