Keig School
Aberdeenshire Council
14 June 2011
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
Keig School is a non-denominational school. It serves the village of
Keig and the surrounding rural area. The roll was 39 when the
inspection was carried out in April 2011. Children’s attendance was
above the national average in 2009/2010.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The range and quality of children’s learning experiences.
•
Polite, well behaved children who are keen to learn.
•
The care and commitment of the headteacher and all staff.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Across the school, children respond effectively to teachers’ provision
of a range of high-quality learning experiences. Interactions between
teachers and children are very positive and ensure effective learning.
Children are very well motivated and keen to learn and can discuss
their strengths and next steps in learning. Almost all children are
confident in thinking for themselves and work together well in groups.
Children’s skills in independent learning are developing effectively.
At all stages, children are developing a sound understanding of what it
means to be a good citizen. Children at the upper stages gain
confidence through carrying out a range of responsibilities, including
working as young leaders to help younger children. Teachers make
effective use of responsibility groups, in which children from all stages
gain valuable skills working together on school-based projects. As a
result, children learn to take responsibility in a range of tasks, including
the pupil council and the gardening group. Children have a strong
awareness of how to care for the environment. They benefit from their
work on the Eco group, in the outdoor classroom and in the Forest
Schools project. As a result, the school has an Eco-Schools Scotland
bronze award. Children improve their fitness and gain confidence
through participating in sporting and cultural activities. These include
the school pantomime, football, residential trips, netball and country
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dancing. Children have an effective awareness of the benefits of
healthy eating and regular physical activity. The school has Health
Promoting School status. At all stages, children are developing
knowledge and understanding through studying a range of topics.
Children at the upper and middle stages show an appropriate
awareness of aspects such as digestion as part of their study of the
human body. In the early stages, children respond well in learning
about the sun and moon.
Across the school, almost all children are making effective progress in
developing their skills in reading, and most are doing so in writing.
The majority of children are progressing appropriately in mathematics.
In English language, at all stages, almost all children talk together well
in groups and listen attentively to information and instructions. Almost
all children read with appropriate fluency and expression and show
understanding of what they have read. Children read well for
information and show appropriate skills in using the Internet for
research. Children at all stages write effectively for a wide range of
purposes and produce effective written accounts, poems and stories.
These include reports on visits to local places of interest, imaginative
stories, and sensitive poems on the theme of Culloden. In a few
children’s written work, standards of accuracy in spelling and neatness
of presentation are not yet high enough. In mathematics, almost all
children are developing effective skills in written calculation. Children’s
skills in using computers to practise skills and display information are
developing appropriately. There is scope to improve children’s skills
and understanding in aspects of mathematics. These aspects include
mental calculation, place value and understanding of decimals.
Children across the school are developing appropriate skills in problem
solving.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The headteacher and staff have made an effective start in improving
children’s learning experiences, taking appropriate account of
Curriculum for Excellence. Staff plan activities which allow children to
make effective use of their literacy and numeracy skills in a range of
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contexts. In the early stages, children respond well to appropriate
opportunities to learn through play. Across the school, staff ensure
that children can exercise choice and learn skills of cooperation.
Children’s skills in enterprise education are developing well through
participation a range of activities such as organising school events.
The school’s Music Week allows children to learn new skills while
working with professional musicians. The headteacher recognises the
need to continue to improve existing programmes in areas such as
science and social subjects, to ensure progression in children’s
learning. Visiting specialist staff enhance children’s learning
experiences in physical education. Children benefit from two hours
each week of high-quality physical education in accordance with
national guidance.
All staff, including the experienced support for learning teacher, know
children very well and support them effectively. Staff mostly set tasks
and activities at an appropriate level of difficulty for children. At times,
the tasks set lack suitable challenge and the pace of learning is too
slow. Children with identified needs receive effective support. A few
children have individualised educational programmes which the school
shares effectively with parents. Staff ensure that most children are
aware of their strengths and what they need to do to improve their
work. Homework is appropriately frequent and varied.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Very effective partnerships with parents and the wider community
support children’s learning appropriately. The headteacher works well
with the very supportive Parent Council. She makes effective use of
newsletters, parents’ meetings and the school’s web site to keep
parents suitably informed about the work of the school. Parents assist
the school in a range of ways, including helping with trips, fund raising
and participating in activities. Teachers provide helpful annual written
reports to parents on children’s progress. The headteacher consults
parents appropriately about sensitive health issues. She deals with
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any concerns and complaints effectively and ensures that actions
taken are noted appropriately. Children benefit from the school’s links
with the wider community. The local minister assists with aspects of
the school’s religious and moral education programme. The
community policeman helps the school in, for example, ensuring that
children are aware of Internet safety and the dangers of substance
misuse. There are effective procedures to support children entering
P1 and children transferring from P7 to Alford Academy.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
The headteacher and teachers are very committed to improving the
school. They meet frequently to reflect on their work and to identify
areas for possible improvement. Staff have recently developed a
useful means to monitor children’s progress in aspects of literacy and
numeracy as part of their work in Curriculum for Excellence. The
headteacher and teachers observe and evaluate each other’s work
and offer helpful comments about possible improvements. They work
together using nationally agreed quality indicators to evaluate the
school’s provision. The school takes appropriate account of parents’
and children’s views through regular written surveys. The results of
these surveys are shared effectively with parents and children. There
is scope to develop these arrangements for self evaluation to make
them more systematic and rigorous, and ensure that all children make
appropriate progress.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Staff have suitably high expectations of children’s behaviour, to which
children respond well. Across the school, children are friendly, very
well behaved and courteous. Staff’s expectations of most aspects of
children’s attainment are appropriately high. Teachers celebrate
children’s achievements effectively and motivate children to achieve
their best. Children respond well to staff’s high levels of care and
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commitment and know how to obtain help and support if necessary.
Teachers prepare children well for life in a multi-ethnic society. Staff
provide children with appropriately frequent opportunities for religious
observance. Staff implement an effective policy for child protection
and know their roles and responsibilities well.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has an appropriate vision for improving the school
and shares this well with staff. With the help and support of teaching
staff, she has ensured that children are well motivated and receive
high-quality learning experiences. The headteacher’s plans for
developing aspects of the school’s provision are clear and well judged.
She is supported effectively by teachers in bringing about
improvements. With the continuing support of the education authority,
the school has the capacity to improve further.
8. What happens next?
We are confident that the school will be able to make the
necessary improvements in light of the inspection findings. As a
result, we will make no more visits in connection with this
inspection. The school and the education authority will inform
parents about the school’s progress in improving the quality of
education.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve attainment in mathematics.
•
Continue to take forward the implementation of Curriculum for
Excellence to ensure that all children make appropriate progress.
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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 Keig School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Robert Barfoot
14 June 2011
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good
good
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.
Crown Copyright 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education