Raigmore Primary School
and Nursery Class
The Highland Council
20 January 2009
This report tells you about the quality of education at the school1.
We describe how children benefit from learning there. We
explain how well they are doing and how good the school is at
helping them to learn. Then we look at the ways in which the
school does this. We describe how well the school works with
other groups in the community, including parents2 and services
which support children. We also comment on how well staff and
children work together and how they go about improving the
school.
Our report describes the ‘ethos’ of the school. By ‘ethos’ we
mean the relationships in the school, how well children are cared
for and treated and how much is expected of them in all aspects
of school life. Finally, we comment on the school’s aims. In
particular, we focus on how well the aims help staff to deliver high
quality learning, and the impact of leadership on the school’s
success in achieving these 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. Where applicable, you will also be able to
find descriptions of good practice in the school.
1
2
The term ‘school’ is used to include the work of the nursery
class, where relevant.
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to
include foster carers, residential care staff and carers who are
relatives or friends.
Contents
1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. Examples of good practice
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their school
community?
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?
1. The school
Raigmore Primary School and Nursery Class is a non-denominational
school. It serves the Raigmore and Wimberley Way area of Inverness.
The inspection was carried out in November 2008 at which time the
roll was 219, including 34 in the nursery class. Pupils’ attendance was
below the national average in 2006-2007. Approximately half of the
children come from families of armed services personnel serving in the
local barracks. Due to the regular international redeployment of
regiments at the barracks, the school experiences considerable
transfers of children on a regular basis.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Well-mannered, confident and enthusiastic children.
•
The very good start made to children’s learning in the nursery.
•
The commitment of the head teacher, staff and support agencies
to creating a safe and nurturing environment for all children.
•
Wide range of learning opportunities across the school which
encourage children to achieve.
3. Examples of good practice
•
The school’s strong focus on health and wellbeing to ensure all
staff and children feel supported and included in the life of the
school.
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
In the nursery class, children enjoy learning and experience success in
a variety of play activities. They listen well and are confident when
talking to staff and each other. They enjoy making books and are
developing their writing skills very well. Many of the children can write
their own name. They are able to recognise simple shapes and
numbers. Children are learning about the world around them through
play in the garden area. They are developing good social skills, for
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example they are able to express their feelings and respect others’
opinions.
Across the primary stages most children are making good progress in
listening, talking and reading. Their skills in writing and spelling are
not as well developed. The majority of children are making good
progress in mathematics. Some children are not good at working with
numbers orally and find it difficult to solve mathematical problems.
Children are more confident when working with graphs. Across the
school, children are learning practical skills through their work in the
school garden. They are being given more responsibility to decide
how they might complete tasks. In most classes, children are
motivated and enthusiastic about their learning. Teachers set
homework which is regular and appropriate. Those with additional
support needs are making good progress in their learning.
Children across the school achieve success in a wide variety of
activities throughout the year. They make effective contributions to the
local community, for example by hosting a garden party in aid of the
British Heart Foundation. They run social events for the elderly.
Children recently worked with members of the local community to win
the Inverness schools’ garden competition. Older children support the
younger ones in their play. At P6 and P7, children benefit from
residential trips which help develop their confidence and social skills.
Together, children and staff are developing a ‘can do’ attitude and
jointly participate in competitions such as the Loch Ness run.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Children in the nursery experience a range of stimulating and
challenging activities which make good use of play. They are able to
carry out simple experiments on their own. Children are encouraged
to make choices and contribute their ideas. They reflect each day on
what they have enjoyed learning. Across the school, staff have begun
to develop aspects of the national initiative, Curriculum for Excellence.
They are involving children in planning tasks and activities. Children
are actively involved in their own learning. They are good at learning
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together in groups and taking responsibility for their own research.
This is leading to greater motivation and understanding of their
environmental studies projects. Children are good at working together
to make decisions about what they should focus their time on.
Children’s personal, social, and citizenship skills are developing well.
Health and wellbeing are very strong features of school life. Children
grow and harvest vegetables in the garden area, and are good at
explaining to others how to eat well and live healthy lifestyles. Staff
adapt the curriculum to suit the needs of the children. At a few stages
staff are developing children’s literacy and numeracy skills well
through activities in other aspects of curriculum. Children are
developing their writing skills through their topic work, for example on
World War 2, and by writing postcards to children in other European
countries.
Teachers work effectively with children who have additional support
needs. They have a good understanding of each child’s needs and
work hard to develop new approaches to support them. All staff need
to work more closely with each other and parents to develop children’s
individual learning plans. In the nursery, staff work effectively to
ensure all children are appropriately challenged and supported in their
learning. In a few lessons in the primary classes, tasks and activities
are not always pitched at the right level for children. In these lessons,
some children are not sufficiently challenged. In the best lessons,
teachers use questioning effectively to extend children’s
understanding. This good practice now needs to become common in
all classes. In some lessons, teachers make good use of information
and communications technology to motivate and engage children.
Some staff are good at giving children useful feedback on how they
could improve. This approach should now be developed consistently
across the school.
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5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
The Parent Council works very well with the school to help raise funds
and reflect parental views. The school works very effectively with
several organisations to support children’s learning, including speech
and language therapists, children’s service worker and army welfare.
These very successful partnerships help to improve and maintain
children’s emotional wellbeing, as well as their learning. The very
good relationship with army welfare ensures that children whose
parents are in the army, experience smooth transitions as they enter
and leave the school. The nursery has good links with other centres
where children have shared placements. Children are supported well
to make a confident and successful move from nursery to primary and
from P7 to Millburn Academy.
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
In the nursery, children tell staff what they enjoy by using voting cards
and through discussion. Staff use this information well when planning
activities for the children. At P4 to P7, children are successfully
developing their leadership skills through taking turns to run the school
committees and action groups. They make decisions on how they can
help to improve the school and the wider community. Representatives
from P1 to P3 also join in with committee work and are well supported
by the older children. In class, children are increasingly being given
more of a say in how and what they learn. Staff work very well
together as a team and they are keen to share good practice. A few
teachers and support staff have taken on key areas of responsibility
and leadership, for example in learning and teaching, and health and
wellbeing. Their work is leading to improvements in children’s learning
experiences and has been shared with other schools locally and
nationally. Staff are involved in evaluating the work of the school.
They are knowledgeable about national initiatives and are keen to take
these forward in the school. Across the school children review their
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weekly activities. This information should be used more effectively in
the primary classes to help children plan their next steps in learning.
Teachers provide helpful information to parents on children’s progress
through weekly home reports, interim and annual progress reports,
and meetings. Staff are now involved in a more rigorous approach to
monitoring children’s progress. They meet regularly with senior
managers to discuss individual children’s achievements. Recently,
this has led to improvements in the pace at which children are
learning.
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The achievements of children and staff are celebrated widely around
the school in displays and through assemblies. Staff have high
expectations of children’s behaviour. They are very caring and have
developed a nurturing environment in which children can feel safe and
happy. All authority employed staff have been trained in child
protection procedures. Children are encouraged to work hard and
come forward with their ideas. As regiments come and go, the
children are very supportive of each other, and are welcoming of new
children. They enjoy school and are proud of it. They know who to
speak to if they are upset or worried. The school is very active in
promoting equality and fairness through its positive and inclusive
ethos. Children have regular opportunities to explore and discuss
culture and religion in assemblies and in class. As a result, they are
very tolerant and understanding of each other.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher involves children, parents, staff and the community in
developing the school’s aims and vision. There is a clear shared
vision for the school which everyone feels part of. The headteacher,
depute headteacher and principal teacher work well with staff to
improve children’s learning experiences. Staff are keen to work
together and to take on developments which will further enhance their
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teaching. The school’s good self-evaluation has led to gradual
improvements in standards of attainment and achievement. The
school should now build on its existing approaches to self-evaluation
to bring about further improvements in attainment.
9. What happens next?
As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the
school, we will make no further visits following 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.
•
Ensure that all children experience tasks and activities which
challenge them appropriately.
•
Build on existing arrangements for self-evaluation to bring about
further school improvement and continue to raise attainment.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class two
recommendations were made, both of which had 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 Raigmore Primary School and Nursery
Class
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
very good
good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Laura J S Welford
20 January 2009
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very good
good
To find out more about inspections or get an electronic copy of this
report go to www.hmie.gov.uk. Please contact the Business
Management and Communications Team (BMCT) if you wish to
enquire about our arrangements for translated or other appropriate
versions.
If you wish to comment about any of our inspections, contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you should write in
the first instance to BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm
House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way,
Livingston EH54 6GA.
Our complaints procedure is available from our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can write to our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our
complaints procedure, you can raise your complaint with the Scottish
Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent
and has powers to investigate complaints about Government
departments and agencies. You should write to SPSO, Freepost
EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also telephone 0800 377 7330,
fax 0800 377 7331 or e-mail: ask@spso.org.uk. More information
about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website
at www.spso.org.uk.
This report uses the following word scale to make clear
judgements made by inspectors.
excellent
very good
good
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas for
improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education