29 May 2012
Dear Parent/Carer
Sir E Scott School
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Recently, as you may know, my colleagues and I visited and inspected your child’s
school. During our visit, we talked to parents and young people and we worked
closely with the headteacher and staff. We wanted to find out how well young
people are learning and achieving and how well the school supports young people 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 well young people are making connections in their learning, and being
prepared for life and work. We also looked at the effectiveness of leadership at all
levels. As a result, we were able to find out how good the school is at improving
young people's education.
How well do young people learn and achieve?
Overall, young people learn well and achieve very well. Across the school, young
people treat each other with respect. They are polite, well-mannered and have a
very positive attitude to learning. At the secondary stages, young people are
particularly motivated to achieve highly in national examinations. In most lessons,
young people are encouraged to think and talk about their learning by taking part in
practical tasks and by working together. This practice is not yet consistent enough
across the whole school. In these lessons, learning is still too closely directed by
teachers and as a result young people are not sufficiently active in their learning. At
the primary stages, staff have made a good start to giving young people feedback to
help them improve their work. However, at all stages, young people need to be
supported more in identifying their own strengths and in knowing how to improve
their learning. The school is aware that staff need to give young people more
opportunities to express their views and to influence improvement.
Young people are developing a wide range of important skills for life and work by
taking part in opportunities they have to achieve beyond the classroom. A significant
number of young people across the stages receive national accreditation for their
achievements. These include Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, Dynamic Youth Awards,
John Muir Awards and Youth Achievement Awards. Young people demonstrate very
successfully their talent in Gaelic music and recitation at both local and National
Mòd. At the primary stages, young people very effectively led an afternoon event to
celebrate many aspects of Scottish culture. The S6 enterprise group actively
develop leadership skills by organising social events. The school recognises that it
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Transforming lives through learning
needs to have a clearer picture of how well all young people are achieving within
Curriculum for Excellence. At the primary stages, young people are making good
progress in most aspects of their learning, including with developing their literacy and
numeracy skills across the curriculum. As yet these skills are not well enough
developed within the secondary stages. All young people are developing
responsible attitudes to leading a healthy lifestyle, including through the school’s
outdoor learning programme. There are strong examples of young people’s fluency
developing very well in French, Gaelic (Learners) and Gàidhlig. From S3 to S6,
young people’s results in national examinations are above and well above national
averages. A commendably high number of young people gain A-grade passes at
Higher level. Those requiring additional support are making good progress from
prior levels of achievement. The number of young people leaving school to enter
higher or further education continues to improve and is now above local authority
and national averages.
How well does the school support young people to develop and learn?
At the primary stages, there are important strengths in the curriculum. The pace of
developing the secondary curriculum, in line with the principles and purposes of
Curriculum for Excellence, needs to be increased. Across the school, arrangements
for meeting the range of needs of young people who require additional support are
strong. There is scope to improve how well all young people’s learning needs are
met in lessons.
Overall, the curriculum provides young people with a broad range of learning
experiences within a local, national and global dimension. At the primary stages, staff
are making good progress in designing programmes of learning across all the
curriculum areas. Interesting projects help young people to make connections
between different areas of their learning, and provide opportunities for them to develop
and apply their literacy and numeracy skills. Teachers now need to ensure better
progression in children’s learning. Young people in the early stages of Gaelic medium
education now have improved opportunities for learning through Gaelic. Staff
recognise that they need to continue to provide more opportunities for young people to
learn through the medium of Gaelic across the whole school. At all stages, the
curriculum is enriched by working with a very wide range of partners. Recently drama
tutors supported young people to write, record and edit short films through the medium
of Gaelic. Staff have also worked successfully with partners to take account of local
employability and skill needs by providing, for example, a National Progression Award
in Harris Tweed. At the secondary stages, a strong focus on outdoor learning and
accredited award programmes is successfully linking young people’s learning to the
local environment. Not all subject departments have taken positive steps to develop
the curriculum in S1 to S3. More needs to be done to improve key features such as
developing literacy, numeracy, and health and wellbeing across all areas of the
curriculum. The school is still to focus on approaches for the senior phase.
Teachers know the young people in their classes very well and are aware of their
learning needs. The school has effective arrangements for identifying any additional
learning needs of young people. They plan support to help young people to
succeed. In most lessons, tasks and activities are well matched to young people’s
abilities. In a number of classes, staff need to continue to set more challenging work
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that builds appropriately on young people’s prior learning. Support for learning staff
provide very effective support. Support assistants provide exceptional assistance in
adapting materials to suit a range of learning needs. Young people are supported
well as they move from stage to stage.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
There are important weaknesses in the school’s approaches to improving the quality
of its work, particularly at the secondary stages. The primary department has shown
capacity to improve its work in the way staff have worked together to develop
learners’ experiences and the curriculum. At the secondary stages, while staff work
hard, their approaches to evaluating their work have not always identified what
needs to be improved. This includes the consistency of learning and teaching,
checking and discussing young people’s progress, and the need to increase the
pace of introducing Curriculum for Excellence. Improvements in these areas will
ensure that the current strong achievement, including in national examinations, will
be sustained. Since her recent appointment, the acting headteacher has
successfully established a climate of trust and consultation with staff, young people
and partners. She now needs to establish a strategic vision in which all staff have
clear roles and responsibilities for improving the school.
This inspection of your school found the following key strengths.
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Young people who are friendly, well-mannered and keen to learn.
The use of the local environment to enrich young people’s learning.
The positive impact of contributions from partners.
High levels of attainment at S4-S6.
We discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to
improve the school. This is what we agreed with them.
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Improve leadership at all levels to give clear and strategic direction.
Increase the pace of implementing Curriculum for Excellence, including to
improve the provision for Gaelic.
Develop more effective approaches to self-evaluation to ensure continuous
improvement and greater consistency in learning and teaching.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. With support from the local
authority, the school will be able to make the necessary improvements. Our District
Inspector, along with the local authority, will discuss the most appropriate support in
order to build capacity for improvement and will maintain contact to monitor
progress. Parents will be informed by the local authority of the extent to which the
school has improved.
Joan C Esson
HM Inspector
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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/SirES
cottSchoolEileanSiarWesternIsles.asp.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for
example, in a translation. You can contact us at enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
or write to us at BMCT, Education Scotland, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park,
Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact
01506 600200, or write to us at the above address or e-mail:
feedback@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk.
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