Macduff School and
Nursery Class
Aberdeenshire Council
25 January 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
Macduff School is a non-denominational primary school with a nursery
class. It serves the town of Macduff and the surrounding rural area.
The roll was 378, including 60 in the nursery, when the inspection was
carried out in November 2010. Children’s attendance was in line with
the national average in 2008/2009.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Many high-quality learning experiences for children.
•
Children’s high standards of behaviour, and positive attitudes to
learning.
•
The strong leadership of the headteacher, very well supported by
the depute headteachers and staff, in improving the curriculum and
the quality of children’s learning experiences.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Almost all children in the nursery are becoming more independent,
such as when serving their snack and washing their own cups and
plates. They are at an early stage in talking about and planning their
learning. Almost all are motivated and show good concentration when
working on activities. Across the school, children are confident,
relaxed and enjoy learning. In the primary classes, most children are
interested in learning, work hard, and are keen to do well. Children
are involved well in planning learning in class theme work, and in
deciding what successful learning involves.
Children in the nursery are proud of their work and show parents
confidently around the nursery class on open days. They are
developing a good understanding of how eating healthily and leading
an active lifestyle contribute to staying well. In the primary classes,
children are very knowledgeable about the need to conserve energy
and to recycle. The school has been awarded three Eco-Schools
Scotland green flags. Children recently achieved success in a
competition to promote school lunches by writing the winning jingle
which is played regularly on local radio. The school has achieved
2
Health Promoting School accreditation at commended level. Children
are developing very good skills in music and science. Themes such
as the Titanic and the Dinosaurs projects bring together children’s
skills very effectively. Children explain their work confidently at
assemblies, and perform in plays. They benefit from a wide range of
musical and sporting activities, including the choir, badminton and
netball, both in school and in after-school clubs.
In the nursery, children are making good progress in all aspects of
their learning. They enjoy sharing stories, songs and rhymes and are
developing good listening skills. Most children are beginning to notice
words and letters, for example recognising their own names in print. A
few are beginning to write and sound the letters of their names.
Almost all children can count to ten, and a few are using counting and
measuring skills. Children are becoming aware of patterns in their
play, and are beginning to explore information handling. At the
primary stages, most children have been making very good progress
in reading, writing and mathematics. They are now improving their
achievement through their use of language and mathematics skills in a
wider range of situations. Most children talk and listen well, but their
skills in discussion need to improve. Children at the middle stages can
talk confidently about the books they have read. Almost all enjoy
reading. Across the school, children write for a variety of purposes,
including newspaper articles and reports. At almost all stages,
children can carry out mental and written calculations quickly and
accurately. Some older children lack confidence in working with
fractions and decimals. At all stages, children have a good
understanding of shape. Those in the primary stages solve a wide
variety of problems and enjoy the challenge these activities provide.
Children can organise and display information in a range of situations,
including as part of the World War II project.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Throughout the school, staff make good use of the principles of
Curriculum for Excellence when planning learning and teaching. In the
nursery class, staff provide stimulating opportunities for children to
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learn through play in all areas of the curriculum. Outdoor play
encourages children to explore the natural world, learn about the
seasons, and develop a range of physical skills. Staff now need to
continue to provide more challenging contexts for children to develop
and extend their use of early literacy and numeracy skills. In primary
classes, tasks and activities are successful in showing how different
areas of the curriculum link together. Through these, children develop
their skills in literacy, numeracy and health well in a wide range of
contexts. As part of the In and About Aberdeenshire initiative, a range
of visits and trips widen children’s experiences. Children lead a very
active lifestyle, which includes two hours of high-quality physical
education in almost all weeks.
Staff know the children and their families well. Tasks and activities are
well matched to children’s interests and abilities, and are often
stimulating and challenging. In the nursery, staff need to develop their
use of assessment information to ensure that children make
appropriate progress. In primary classes, teachers need to use
information and communications technology more imaginatively.
Visiting specialists, the support for learning teacher, and classroom
assistants and support auxiliaries, make effective contributions to
children’s learning. Children who require additional support have
appropriate individual support plans. These are useful in helping staff
focus on meeting the children’s needs. Partner professionals give
useful support to a small group of children. The various plans used,
and the work of partner professionals, need to be better managed so
that children receive the maximum benefit from support.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff work well with parents to support their children, particularly in the
nursery. Any complaints are dealt with in line with Aberdeenshire
Council’s procedures. Parents are informed about the health
education programme. The Parent Support Group works effectively to
raise funds, mainly for school trips. The Parent Council is supportive
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of the school. A few parents do not feel that the school helps them to
support their children’s learning, or to understand how their children
are progressing. The school needs to gather parents’ views more
carefully, and explain how it acts on those views. As part of the
development of Curriculum for Excellence, it needs to explore how
parents can be informed better about their children’s progress.
Deveronvale Football Club and the Princess Royal Sports Community
Trust support the development of children’s sports skills. Local
businesses funded the development of part of the school’s outdoor
space. A range of visitors support school events. Specialist teachers
link very well with staff to support children’s learning. Transitions into
the nursery class and on into primary one are well managed. Children
are well prepared to move on to Banff Academy after P7.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Staff are improving the school community through developing their
teaching approaches. Groups of staff meet to discuss their work.
They have considered how well the school performs on a wide range
of aspects. Senior staff visit classrooms and discuss with teachers
their planning and children’s learning experiences. Overall, this work
has led to significant improvements. The pupil council, and the Eco
and Health Groups, have encouraged children to consider how the
school environment can be improved. The pupil council has raised
money for charities such as Lepra, and has been involved in planning
projects such as the ‘Homecoming Highland Games’. The school
needs to make sure that members of the pupil council have more
responsibility to develop their leadership in meetings, and can discuss
core aspects of school life including learning and teaching.
5
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Staff and children share high expectations for behaviour and attitudes
to work. Almost all children are very well behaved, and keen to learn.
In most lessons, staff show high expectations for what children can
achieve, though this is not yet consistent. The school celebrates
children’s success very well in assemblies and newsletters. Children
learn about other cultures and religions. Opportunities for religious
observance are regular and appropriate. School staff understand the
importance of child protection procedures. The school needs to
improve the way it monitors the very few incidents of bullying.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
In his two years in post, the headteacher has taken a strong lead and
given the school a clear sense of direction aimed at improving the
curriculum and children’s learning experiences. The depute
headteachers and staff have shown commitment and enthusiasm in
following his lead to implement Curriculum for Excellence. Through
their work, they have been very successful in bringing about
improvements. Members of staff are well-placed to begin to take a
lead on aspects of improvement. The school needs to involve parents
and children more fully in continuing to improve its work.
8. What happens next?
We are confident that, with support from the education authority, 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.
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We have agreed the following area for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve the way the school works with parents and children to
monitor its own work so that it can continue to improve children’s
learning and achievement.
•
Continue to raise the quality of children’s learning and their
achievement.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
was one requirement, which has been addressed. In addition, one
recommendation was made, which has been addressed.
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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 Macduff School and Nursery Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very 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: Brian Stewart
25 January 2011
8
good
satisfactory
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 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education