Ladeside Primary School
and Nursery Class
Larbert
Falkirk Council
30 August 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
Ladeside Primary School is a non-denominational school with a
nursery class and a Base to support learners with autism spectrum
disorders. It serves parts of Larbert and Stenhousemuir. The roll was
373, including 60 in the nursery, when the inspection was carried out
in May 2011. Children’s attendance was in line with the national
average in 2009/2010.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The calm, orderly atmosphere and the positive behaviour and
attitudes to work of children.
•
Welcoming and inclusive ethos and the range of partnerships with
the wider community.
•
Enthusiasm and commitment of all staff in taking forward
improvements to the curriculum and approaches to learning.
•
Successful integration of children from the Base in the life and work
of the school.
•
Leadership and drive of the headteacher and her senior staff.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
In the nursery, children are happy, developing confidence and are
forming friendships. They enjoy outdoor activities and are learning to
take turns when playing games. They are capable of being more
independent in their learning. Across the school, almost all children
are enthusiastic, keen to learn and have positive attitudes to their
work. They listen attentively to teachers and other adults and remain
on task throughout lessons. Interactions between teachers and pupils
are very good. Children work very well together in group activities.
They respond enthusiastically to frequent opportunities to take
responsibility for their own learning. Almost all children enjoy being at
school and feel very safe and well cared for. They are consulted
regularly about their views and are treated with equality, fairness and
respect. The children in the Base benefit from working alongside their
2
mainstream peers. Staff place an appropriate emphasis on developing
communication skills, including sign language, and use appropriate
strategies to manage behaviour.
Across the school, including the Base, all children are offered many
opportunities to be successful in their learning and wider
achievements. Nursery children are involved in a variety of enterprise
and fundraising activities, including growing and selling plants. At the
primary stages, children are actively involved in a wide range of sports
and cultural activities in which they enjoy significant success. A group
of P4 to P7 children recently put on a highly successful public
performance of acting, song and dance. The school choir performs
very successfully at local venues throughout the year. Children are
developing skills as responsible citizens by taking on roles on the pupil
council, the eco group and as buddies.
Children in the nursery are making good progress in early language
and mathematics. Most speak confidently in group activities and listen
well to favourite stories. Older nursery children recognise their name
in print. Children are developing good counting skills. They can name
and match simple shapes. They now need to develop further their
early language and mathematical skills in all areas of their play. At the
primary stages, almost all children are making good progress in
developing literacy skills. Children listen very well to each other and
their teachers. They respond well to instructions and cooperate well in
pairs and group discussions. Children at the early stages are strongly
motivated in reading activities and are able to use new vocabulary in
their writing. Senior pupils are able to talk confidently about a variety
of types of text and their favourite authors. Children at all stages
respond well to good opportunities to write for a range of purposes.
Children in the Base are making good progress in developing their
communication skills. Across the school, most children demonstrate
good skills in mental calculations, appropriate to stage. By P7, they
work confidently with weight, direction, time and money. Across the
stages, most children have good knowledge of two-dimensional
shapes and three-dimensional objects. They have used graphs to
display the results of research in topics. Most children have a good
3
understanding of problem-solving strategies and can use them to solve
a range of problems and challenges. At all stages and in the Base,
children’s skills in using information and communications technology in
mathematics are developing well.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The nursery curriculum is based on active learning and play. Children
have good opportunities to listen to stories and to make marks. They
are able to develop early mathematics skills in group counting, table
top games and baking. Staff provide a good range of activities to
develop children’s physical skills. They now need to extend the use of
the outdoor area. Across the school and in the Base, staff plan their
programmes taking full account of the principles and purposes of
Curriculum for Excellence. Teachers embed aspects of literacy,
numeracy and health and wellbeing across other subject areas. The
school has consulted pupils, parents, and staff on improvements to the
curriculum. Staff provide a good variety of learning experiences,
including environmental and enterprise activities. Visiting specialists in
French, music, drama and physical education provide good quality
learning experiences for children. The school is not yet able to provide
two hours of high quality physical education for all children. Aspects of
the programmes for social studies and religious and moral education
include opportunities to promote aspects of equality and diversity.
Transitions from nursery to primary and P7 to S1 are well planned to
ensure continuity of learning.
Nursery staff provide a caring and supportive learning environment.
Learning activities are matched well to the needs of most children.
There is scope to increase the choice of resources and activities
available to ensure all children are appropriately challenged. Across
the school and the Base, all staff know their children very well. Tasks
and activities meet the needs of almost all children. The school uses
effective approaches to identify, monitor and support children with
additional learning needs. The support for learning teacher supports
groups and individuals very effectively. She liaises with teachers and
support for learning assistants and advises them on helpful strategies.
4
Staff provide targeted support for children with individualised
educational plans (IEPs). The targets in IEPs are appropriate and are
reviewed regularly. Staff have developed effective partnerships with a
range of agencies to support children with additional learning needs.
The school’s transition processes include appropriate support for those
with learning needs. Regular homework includes appropriate tasks
from across the curriculum.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
The school maintains good communications with parents and consults
them regularly. The Parent Council and parent-teacher association
are very active and supportive of the school. The Parent Council is
directly involved in improving aspects of learning. The school
communicates well with parents through e-mails, group call, the
website and frequent newsletters. Nursery staff keep parents well
informed about children’s progress. Parents have responded
positively to the school’s development of learning logs as a means of
recording and reporting on the progress of their children. School
events are very well attended and parents contribute well to
fundraising activities. The school has very good links with Larbert
High School and other primary schools in the area. The school has
two chaplains, both of whom contribute to regular assemblies. The
school has very well-developed partnerships with a wide range of
educational support agencies. The school benefits from links with a
range of local businesses, the local Rotary Club and Round Table.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
All staff show clear commitment to reflective practice and continuous
improvement. They use annual reviews to identify strengths and areas
for improvement. They share good practice regularly and all are
members of staff working groups which take forward developments in
5
learning and the curriculum. Senior managers and staff are examining
ways of tracking attainment and progress in Curriculum for Excellence
levels. Staff have agreed and shared with parents a revised approach
to reporting to take account of these changes. Senior staff observe
classroom practice regularly and provide helpful written feedback to
staff. They know their staff very well and use this knowledge to help
plan appropriate in-service training. The school gathers the views of
children and parents as part of the school’s improvement planning
process. The priorities and targets in the improvement plan are
appropriate to the needs of the school and are reviewed and updated
regularly.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The school is very welcoming and has an inclusive and caring ethos.
Children feel safe and well cared for in school. The headteacher and
her staff set high expectations of all children for learning,
achievements and behaviour. Children have high expectations of
themselves and respond well to challenges and responsibilities. They
are proud of their school and their own achievements. The school
celebrates achievements at regular assemblies, on attractive wall
displays, in newsletters and on the school website. The school has
appropriate systems and policies for the care and welfare of children,
including child protection, safe Internet use, and anti bullying. The
school helps children to develop their understanding of healthy
lifestyles. The school provides appropriate religious observance. All
teachers and support staff are trained annually in child protection
issues and are clear about their responsibilities. The school takes
appropriate and immediate action if children are absent from school
without explanation.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher provides strong and very effective leadership. She is
committed to the school and its continuous improvement. She knows
6
the strengths of her staff and the areas where improvements are
needed. The headteacher has a clear understanding of appropriate
strategies to tackle the challenges facing the school. She has been
very successful in sharing that vision with all members of staff and in
managing improvements. She has used good interpersonal skills to
earn the loyalty of staff and develop strong teamwork amongst them.
Increasingly, teachers are taking on leadership roles to lead working
groups and enhance approaches to learning. The headteacher is very
ably supported by her equally committed depute headteachers and
principal teacher. All have varied and challenging remits which they
carry out very effectively. Together they are continuing to develop
teamwork among staff and set high expectations for further
improvements.
8. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, we will make no further visits in connection with this inspection.
The education 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.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Continue to develop approaches to monitoring and tracking
children’s progress with a focus on raising attainment further.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were two recommendations, both of which had been addressed.
7
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 Ladeside Primary School and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
very good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jim Bruce
30 August 2011
8
very good
very 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