Education Scotland
Foghlam Alba
Education Scotland, Longman House, 28 Longman Road, Longman East, Inverness IV1 1SF
t 01463 253115 f 01463 253075
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Textphone 01506 600236
e inverness@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
w www.educationscotland.gov.uk
8 November 2011
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Dear Parent/Carer
Raasay Primary School and Nursery Class
The Highland Council
Recently, as you may know, I visited and inspected your child’s school. Throughout the visit I
talked to many parents and children and I worked closely with the headteacher and staff. I
wanted to find out how well children were learning and achieving and how well the school
supported children to do their best. The headteacher shared with me the school’s successes
and priorities for improvement. I looked at some particular aspects of the school’s recent
work. These included projects which help children make links across different areas in their
learning, how the school involves parents and the community, and how children contribute to
improving learning. As a result, I was able to find out how good the school was at improving
children’s education. I would now like to tell you what I found.
How well do children learn and achieve?
I found that children in the nursery and the primary class are learning and achieving well.
They are motivated, engaged and enthusiastic about their learning. Children in the nursery
learn through a wide range of well-planned play experiences. Younger children in the primary
classes would benefit from learning more often in this way. Since numbers in the nursery are
small, many activities are shared with the primary class. This is a good way of working and
helps develop friendships, social skills and confidence. Staff meet the care and welfare
needs of children well and, as a result, children feel happy and safe in the school and nursery.
Children work together in groups of mixed ages effectively and enjoy taking responsibilities.
For example, they worked together with the local community and led the development of their
school pond. They are beginning to be more aware of their own learning and are beginning to
set targets to improve their learning. The new headteacher has plans to develop these
approaches further.
Children in both the nursery and the school are achieving very well. They are making good
progress in English and mathematics. A new resource for writing has helped children
improve their story writing and has helped them be clearer about what their next steps are to
improve their writing. They are interested in reading and benefit from visits from the mobile
library to add to their choice of books. They are developing good skills in literacy and
numeracy in real life contexts. Their confidence in mental mathematics needs to be
developed further. Across the school and the nursery children have a sound knowledge of
healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. They develop a wide range of skills in sports through
taking part in the inter-schools sporting festivals. They are proud of their success in the
inter-schools football tournament. Through their work on the human body children are aware
of resuscitation and helped the community fundraise for a life saving device to be housed on
the island. Children are developing well their knowledge of basic Gaelic words and songs.
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How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
Staff provide good support for children in the school and nursery. The new headteacher and
the support for learning teacher together identify clearly children’s learning needs and ensure
that work is set at the appropriate level of difficulty. However, a few children need to be
encouraged to achieve more. Visiting teachers for physical education and music enhance
children’s learning in music and physical education. The headteacher and staff plan a
balance of learning activities over the year. They now need to work with parents and other
partners to create long-term plans for learning, based on Curriculum for Excellence. This will
help children develop a balance in their knowledge and skills. The school uses well its unique
outdoor environment to provide real-life, stimulating learning experiences. Staff are keen that
children grow up with an appreciation of their community and through the Domesday project
children are becoming aware of their islands culture and history.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
I am confident that the school is well placed to continue to improve the quality of its work.
The new headteacher has made a good start to gathering information to measure children’s
progress. She knows the school well. In her short time in post she has created strong team
work and provided children with more motivating learning experiences. She has established
good partnership working with parents. For example, parents have managed to fund and
provide a playground shelter to ensure children were able to play outside in all weathers.
Staff set short-term targets to improve the school. Now is a good time to work with parents
and the community to set longer-term targets to improve the school and the nursery.
This inspection of your school and nursery class found the following key strengths.
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Children’s positive attitude to learning and their ability to work together in groups.
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The use of the outdoor environment as a motivating learning experience.
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Partnership with parents and their support for the school.
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The changes made to the school and the nursery by the new headteacher which have had
a positive impact on the quality of children’s learning.
I discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to improve the
school and nursery class. This is what I agreed with them.
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To continue to develop the curriculum taking account of Curriculum for Excellence.
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Improve further attainment in English language and mathematics, where required.
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Continue to develop robust measures to monitor and track children’s progress.
I am satisfied with the overall quality of provision. I am confident that the school’s
self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a result, Education Scotland 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 it’s schools.
Sadie Cushley
HM Inspector
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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.hmie.gov.uk/ViewEstablishment.aspx?id=7592&type=2.
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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