21 August 2012
Dear Parent/Carer
James Aiton Primary School, Cambuslang
South Lanarkshire Council
Recently, as you may know, my colleagues and I visited and inspected your child’s
school. At the time of the inspection, the school was decanted to the site of the
former St. Charles’ Primary School in Newton, while a new school was being built.
During our visit, we talked to parents and children and we 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 the
developments in children’s writing and the approach to helping children link their
learning across the curriculum. We also looked at the school’s approach to tracking
children’s progress and to gathering and responding to their views. 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?
Children are learning and achieving well overall. They settle into their work quickly
and engage well in the planned tasks. Almost all children are well behaved. They
work well with each other and are confident about expressing their opinions. They
are positive about their school experience and feel, quite rightly, that they are safe
and well cared for. Their class work and achievements are displayed attractively
around the school which helps to create a positive, motivating and stimulating
environment for learning to which they respond well. Children are enjoying their
learning particularly when working outdoors and ‘The Olympics’ topic which links
their learning effectively across subject boundaries. Children are not yet clear
enough about their strengths or what they need to do to improve. They require more
consistent and detailed feedback from teachers about their progress.
Most children are making appropriate progress in their learning. Those children
requiring additional support with their learning progress well. In literacy, children
have confidence in their ability to interact with others, sharing ideas and contributing
to class discussions. Overall, most children read with appropriate levels of fluency
and understanding for their stage. They are developing well their writing skills for a
range of purposes across the curriculum. Children are enhancing their knowledge
and understanding of Scots culture and language effectively through preparing for
assemblies and in creating a Scots dictionary. Children’s ability to write with more
accuracy, expression and richer language has improved as a result of the
whole-school approach to improving writing. Children need more specific targets for
improving their literacy. In numeracy, most children are making effective progress.
Education Scotland
Unit 7, Blair Court
5 North Avenue
Clydebank Business Park
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G81 2LA
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0141 435 3550
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0141 435 3555
E clydebank@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
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www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Transforming lives through learning
Younger children are making a very good start to their early number work. At all
stages children have a secure grasp of working with money and shape and can
display and interpret information from graphs and charts accurately and with
confidence. They are familiar with how to apply a range of problem solving
strategies. They need more opportunities to use information and communications
technology to support their learning in mathematics and numeracy. They need a
more varied and regular approach to mental calculation and to participating more
frequently in class discussions about how they arrived at a solution. The school
works very effectively with a range of partners to support children’s health and
wellbeing and staff provide numerous opportunities for physical activity and active
play. Children benefit from well-planned opportunities across sport, citizenship,
enterprise and sustainability activities. Lunchtime clubs, trips, visitors and outdoor
learning all enhance children’s achievements. School assemblies, shows, nativity
plays and celebrations develop children’s confidence in performing to an audience.
A residential trip develops children’s independence and helps them achieve part of
the John Muir Award programme.
How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
Staff show high levels of pastoral care for all children and treat them fairly and with
respect. Approaches to addressing children’s needs take very good account of any
barriers to learning that exist. The school works closely in partnership with a number
of appropriate joint services, such as Educational Psychologists, to support children
who need it. Support assistants work very effectively with class teachers to provide
additional help for children in their learning. Appropriate plans for children who
require more specific help are in place and these include relevant targets to support
their progress. Progress is reviewed regularly. In most lessons staff plan tasks that
meet the needs of the majority of children. These tasks are resourced effectively.
In a few lessons, learning needs to be progressed more briskly and more difficult
tasks require to be set which provide a greater level of challenge for some children.
Children have a broad and well balanced range of learning experiences which
supports their wider achievements very well. Staff working together with children
and parents have refreshed the school’s vision, value and aims and the curriculum
supports children well in achieving these aims. Staff have updated the curriculum
through developments in writing and thinking skills to good effect. The school has a
clear plan in place for further curriculum improvements. It recognises that
programmes and courses in a few curricular areas need to be more stimulating.
Children benefit from two hours of physical education each week but this is not yet a
consistently high-quality experience. The school has appropriate plans to extend
children’s learning in international education and global citizenship. Transitions are
well planned for. Transitions from nursery to P1 continue to improve and those from
P7 to both Stonelaw and Cathkin High Schools are being progressed effectively.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
We are confident that the school can continue to improve the quality of its work.
Staff are involved in leading a range of school improvement groups. They have
developed their approaches to teaching writing, planning the curriculum and tracking
children’s progress and achievement. These changes will need continued
monitoring but there are already signs that children’s learning is improving as a
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result. Staff need to be involved more in a focused approach to sharing and
adopting best practice in teaching and learning. The headteacher, working with staff,
has put in place broad and appropriate plans for taking the school forward and these
have been shared with parents. She has involved staff, parents and children in
evaluating the work of the school more systematically. She has led new
developments very effectively, improved team working and created a considerable
momentum for further improvement.
This inspection of your school found the following key strengths.
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Motivated, respectful children, keen to learn.
Leadership of the headteacher.
Impact of steps taken to respond to children’s views and to promote and
celebrate their achievements.
Partnerships with parents, community and cluster schools.
Teamwork and the staff’s contribution to leading and improving the school’s work.
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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Plan tasks and activities which more effectively meet the full range of learners’
needs and increase the level of challenge.
Further develop courses and programmes to provide more stimulating
progression routes for developing children’s skills.
Improve the quality of learning by sharing and building on good practice.
Continue to improve approaches to tracking children’s progress.
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 visits in connection with this inspection. The local authority will
inform parents about the school’s progress as part of the authority's arrangements
for reporting to parents on the quality of its schools.
Donald A. Macleod
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/Ja
mesAitonPrimarySchoolSouthLanarkshire.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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