Yester Primary School and
Nursery Class
Gifford
East Lothian Council
21 December 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
Yester Primary School is a non-denominational school with a nursery
class. It serves the village of Gifford and the surrounding rural area.
The roll was 183, including 34 in the nursery when the inspection was
carried out in November 2010. Children’s attendance was above the
national average in 2008/2009. At the time of the inspection, the
school had unsettled staffing in the primary classes. Staffing in the
nursery class was now settled after a period of change.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Well-behaved and courteous children who are keen to learn.
•
Within the primary classes, children’s growing independence as
learners and their skills in working with others.
•
High-quality support from specialist staff for children with particular
learning needs.
•
International education is supporting children’s knowledge and
understanding of the world and Scotland’s place in it.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Most children in the nursery are confident and settled. They play well
together and enjoy energetic play outdoors. They make some choices
and contribute their ideas to planning but are not involved enough in
making decisions about their own learning. As a result, children are
not engaged deeply enough in their learning. At the primary stages,
children are keen to learn and have positive attitudes to their work.
They are motivated by the wide range of experiences provided both in
and out-of-class. Increasingly, children take responsibility and make
informed decisions about how and what they learn. They receive
high-quality feedback about their learning regularly from their teachers
and peers. Children use information and communications technology
(ICT) skilfully to extend their learning, including webcam links with
schools across Europe.
In the nursery, children are developing skills in recycling, planting and
growing through their environmental projects. They are developing
their physical skills well. At the primary stages, children are making
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very good progress in their personal and social development. Those
in P6/P7 are positive role models to their younger peers through their
work as buddies and mediators. Enterprise skills are being developed
well through a range of well-planned projects. The health group
monitors class and individual achievements in reaching health targets
successfully. Children’s citizenship and leadership skills are
developing well through their fundraising, international links and
community environment projects. Their efforts have helped the school
win awards such as the European ‘Vision for the Future’ award.
Children in the nursery class listen well and talk confidently to express
their ideas. A few children use counting, matching and sorting well
during play. Children need improved opportunities and
encouragement to use their early language and mathematical skills
through play. Almost all children at the primary stages, including those
who require additional support, are making very good progress in
literacy and numeracy. Children express their points of view
confidently and clearly, for example when delivering presentations to
others. Children are developing positive attitudes to reading a variety
of texts. They write effectively for a range of purposes. In
mathematics, almost all children are competent with written and
mental calculations. They are consolidating and applying their
numeracy skills well across their learning. Children use a range of
strategies confidently to solve problems.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff in the primary classes have made a promising start to developing
the curriculum using the principles of Curriculum for Excellence, but
progress is limited in the nursery. Primary staff are providing more
varied, stimulating experiences which build on children’s interests,
skills and aptitudes. International projects make a significant
contribution to children’s literacy, numeracy and ICT skills. The school
now needs to improve the balance of experiences to develop
children’s skills across all curricular areas. Visiting teachers help
children develop their skills in physical education and music. Children
benefit weekly from two hours of good quality physical education. In
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the nursery class, staff are beginning to record observations of
children’s learning but need to improve the way they ensure progress
across all areas. Activities also need to be planned better to support
children’s development and progress. At the primary stages, staff
know children very well and in all but a few lessons set appropriately
challenging work for most of them. All teachers share the purpose of
lessons with children and are skilful in their use of questioning to
develop children’s thinking. Children use self and peer evaluation
skilfully to review their learning at the end of lessons. Specialist
support for learning staff are highly skilled and effective at meeting the
needs of children who require additional support. This has been
recognised through their status as a Dyslexia Aware School. Staff
should ensure that appropriate additional support strategies are used
consistently.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Most parents are happy with the nursery class and share in their
child’s learning. The school has developed effective partnerships with
the Parent Council, parents and business partners to make learning
more interesting and meaningful. An attractive school website,
newsletters and the community newspaper keep parents well
informed. Staff consult parents about health education. The school
works effectively with a range of partners to support children’s
learning. The school needs to improve the arrangements to help
children move from nursery to P1. At P7, children enjoy a range of
activities to help prepare them for secondary school. The school is
good at sorting out complaints.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children are proud of their school. They have an appropriate say in
decisions and good opportunities to improve the school and the wider
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community. The school uses an appropriate range of self-evaluation
approaches to identify improvements in the primary classes. The
management team provides constructive feedback to teachers on
children’s learning. Parents are invited to observe and provide
feedback on learning and teaching having received training on ‘What
makes a good lesson?’. These approaches have resulted in
enrichment to children’s achievement. Staff benefit from sharing
practice and should build on the effective practice in the school. Staff
in the nursery class are involved in a few aspects of self-evaluation but
need to implement child-centred approaches to learning and teaching.
Overall, all staff now need to increase their contributions to more
rigorous approaches to evaluating learning and tracking children’s
progress.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The school has a calm, caring and friendly atmosphere. Staff respond
well to children’s concerns about bullying. At the primary stages,
relationships between staff and children are positive and founded on
an ethos of mutual respect. Approaches to equality and fairness need
to be improved in the nursery and expectations for children’s learning
increased. Across the school, children’s achievements are recognised
and celebrated well through assemblies, class blogs and bright wall
displays. Children have appropriate opportunities for religious
observance. Links with schools across Europe are developing
children’s knowledge and understanding of other cultures and faiths.
Children feel supported to make healthy life choices. All staff are
informed about child protection and safeguarding procedures.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has established clear aims and values based on a
shared understanding of what the school should be. She is
supportive, approachable and sensitive to staff and children’s personal
needs. The principal teacher plays an important role in developing the
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curriculum and supporting staff with improvement activities. Staff are
developing new learning activities and ways of teaching. Children take
on lead roles enthusiastically and contribute to important discussions
about their school. At the primary stages, the school is well placed to
continue to enrich children’s experiences using Curriculum for
Excellence. Working closely with the education authority, the
headteacher should now focus on helping staff to improve the nursery.
8. What happens next?
As a result of the good quality of education provided in the primary
stages, we will make no further visits to primary classes. However,
we will carry out a follow-through inspection visit to the nursery
class within one year of publication of this report and will report to
parents on the extent to which the nursery class has improved.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve the curriculum, children’s experiences and progress in all
aspects of learning in the nursery class to better meet the learning
and care needs of children.
•
Continue to develop the curriculum using the principles of
Curriculum for Excellence.
•
Build on existing arrangements for self-evaluation, including by
sharing the most effective learning and teaching in classes, to
improve further the learning outcomes for all children.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were six recommendations. Three had been addressed and three
are still ongoing and are carried forward in this report.
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Requirements and recommendations for the nursery class
from this inspection
Requirements
1. Where a child has an existing medical condition there must be a
clear care plan to enable staff to appropriately manage medical care
needs. This care plan will be in writing and agreed with parents. The
plan will include the procedure for storage, administration and
recording of any necessary medication. This is in order to comply with
SSI 2002/114 Regulation 4(1) (a) - a regulation with regard to health
and welfare of service users. In making this requirement we took
account of the National Care Standards for Early Education and
Childcare up to the age of 16. Standard 36 Health and wellbeing and
Standard 6 Care and support. Timescale: 24 hours from receipt of this
report.
2. The medication policy and procedure used in the nursery should be
further improved to take account of local authority procedures and
good practice guidance. The procedure should include:
•
•
•
•
•
information on what types of medication may be administered;
written permission from parents for the administration of
medication;
appropriate storage procedures;
information on methods of administration; and
recording of administration and parental signature after
administration.
This is in order to comply with SSI 2002/114 Regulation 4(1)(a) – a
requirement to meet the health and welfare needs of service users. In
making this requirement we took account of the National Care
Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16.
Standard 36 – Health and wellbeing. Timescale: 24 hours from receipt
of this report.
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Recommendations
The nursery class should further develop the procedure for tooth
brushing to ensure it meets with current good practice advice and
appropriate infection control. National Care Standards for Early
Education and Childcare up to the age of 16. Standard 24 – A safe
environment.
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
Yester Primary School and Nursery Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very good
good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
weak
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: Fiona Robertson
satisfactory
satisfactory
21 December 2010
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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