Ralston Primary School
and Nursery Class
Renfrewshire Council
23 February 2010
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. Where
applicable, you will also be able to find descriptions of good
practice in the school.
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
Ralston Primary School is a non-denominational school with a nursery
class. It serves the north east sector of Paisley. The roll was 375,
including 58 in the nursery, when the inspection was carried out in
November and December 2009. Children’s attendance was in line
with the national average in 2007/2008.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Well-mannered and confident children who are motivated to learn.
•
The very caring and purposeful learning environment.
•
Staff teamwork and commitment to improving children’s learning
experiences.
•
The quality of support for young people with additional support
needs.
•
The leadership of the headteacher and depute headteachers in
meeting the learning needs of all children.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Across the school, almost all children are eager and enthusiastic
learners. In the nursery class, children are confident, play well
together and make choices from a good selection of resources and
activities. Staff should consider ways of reviewing play areas to create
a wider range of more suitably challenging learning experiences. In
the primary classes, children are attentive, well behaved, contribute
confidently to class activities and respond effectively to questions.
They work competently in pairs and small groups and often help each
other in group activities. In most lessons, the rate at which children
learn is appropriate and most children are taking responsibility for
aspects of their own learning. Across the stages, a few children would
benefit from being given more difficult tasks to extend their thinking
and become better independent learners. Children need to receive
high-quality feedback and be more involved in identifying their
2
strengths and next steps as learners. They are successful in using
online learning resources to increase their enjoyment and engagement
within lessons. Children are learning about health and wellbeing and
feel the school supports them well to make healthy lifestyle choices.
Across the nursery and primary classes, most children are achieving
effectively. For example, nursery and P1 children are involved in eco
activities such as growing vegetables and recycling. In the primary
classes, children participate enthusiastically in a range of out-of-school
activities, such as cheerleading, basketball and top play. Their wider
achievements are tracked regularly by staff to ensure consistency of
opportunity. Children are becoming more confident and are gaining a
sense of achievement through designing an outdoor learning area,
fundraising and organising events. Children have taken on roles of
responsibility in their class and around the school, such as, acting as
buddies to younger children. They are able to voice their opinions
appropriately on how to improve the school through well-established
groups, such as the eco group, pupil council and the School Nutrition
Action Group (SNAG). Children’s citizenship skills are being
developed further through partnership working with Kersland School
and other project work.
In the nursery, almost all children listen carefully to stories and follow
instructions well. Almost all children requiring additional support are
achieving in line with agreed learning targets. Almost all talk
confidently to one another and to adults, for example, when discussing
pictures in books. Most children are keen to explore early writing in
their play and can count accurately when sorting play animals into
groups. Children are developing well their literacy and numeracy skills
across a variety of areas of their learning. Across the primary stages,
most children are making very good progress in English language and
mathematics. Almost all children attain appropriate national levels in
reading, writing and mathematics. A significant number are achieving
these levels earlier than might normally be expected. In the last three
years, standards of attainment in reading and writing have been
variable and in mathematics there is a decreasing trend. In English
language, children’s listening and talking skills are being developed
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successfully through pair and group work. Almost all children listen
attentively for information and instructions, to others and take turns to
talk. Across the primary stages, children read well and widely, can
name their favourite authors and enjoy reading for pleasure. They use
their reading skills effectively when researching other areas of the
curriculum. At all stages, children are using vocabulary and
punctuation appropriately and are writing effectively for a variety of
purposes. In mathematics, most children carry out oral and written
calculations confidently. Across the stages, children use a variety of
strategies successfully to solve mathematical problems. They are
using mathematical games and information and communications
technology (ICT) appropriately to increase their mathematical
knowledge and understanding. Children apply their mathematical
skills effectively, for example, in science to measure rainfall.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school has made a very positive start to improving the curriculum
in line with Curriculum for Excellence. Nursery staff provide a broad
curriculum which is firmly based on play. They make effective use of
the outdoor area to enrich children’s learning and take good account of
children’s interests in planning. Across the primary classes, staff use
interdisciplinary topics effectively to broaden children’s learning
experiences and increase children’s literacy and numeracy skills. For
both nursery and primary classes, staff should further enhance their
planning by involving children in discussing and agreeing what they
will learn next. All children are benefiting from two hours of good
quality physical education each week. At P4 to P7, children are
experiencing success in learning German. Children are developing
relevant skills in music through high-quality teaching. Children are
enhancing their ICT skills as a result of the strong educational links
with Reid Kerr College.
In the nursery class, children’s learning needs are met effectively.
Almost all children are able to complete tasks successfully. A few
activities are too easy and are not providing sufficient opportunities for
children to use their problem solving and investigation skills. Across
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the primary classes, tasks and activities are at the right level of
difficulty for almost all children. Appropriate homework is given
regularly and reinforces class work. Teachers use a variety of learning
and teaching approaches effectively to support and motivate children
in their learning. They give clear instructions and helpful explanations,
and use questioning appropriately to find out what children know.
Classroom assistants provide helpful support for groups of children.
The school has very clear systems for identifying and supporting
children’s individual needs. Teachers, parents and partner agencies
are involved in producing relevant support plans for children with
additional support needs. These plans are reviewed regularly and
almost all of them meet the needs of children effectively.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
The school works well with parents, the local community and other
partners to support children’s learning and wellbeing. It has organised
a variety of activities, such as curriculum workshops, to encourage
parents to be more involved in their children’s learning. The Parent
Council is very supportive of the work of the school. Parent helpers
work frequently in classes and in after-school activities with infant
teachers. The headteacher consults parents about sensitive aspects
of health education and other school matters. The school
communicates successfully with parents through informative
newsletters, helpful reports on children’s progress and well-attended
parents’ evenings. The headteacher deals effectively with any
complaints or concerns from parents, children and visitors. The
school’s well-planned arrangements ensure that children’s
experiences of moving from nursery to P1 and from P7 to Paisley
Grammar School are relevant and enjoyable.
5
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
All children and staff participate in a range of activities to improve their
school community. For example, children gained an Eco-Schools
Scotland flag for improving their school grounds and establishing an
eco garden. They promote healthy eating through the SNAG, and
active playtimes as games buddies. The pupil council meets regularly
and has worked with teachers to improve aspects of the school’s
physical environment. Senior managers monitor and evaluate key
aspects of the school’s work regularly. They sample children’s work,
track children’s attainment rigorously and identify children who would
benefit from additional support. All staff are committed to ongoing
improvement and work successfully in groups to lead and develop
curricular areas. Senior staff need to build on this work to ensure that
the quality of learning and teaching across the school is consistently
high.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
All staff have high expectations of children’s attendance, behaviour
and achievement. They have created a safe and caring ethos in which
all children are encouraged to try their best. Successes are celebrated
in many ways, for example, children receive certificates to recognise
their achievements. Children are treated fairly, have very good
relationships with staff and are courteous to each other. Staff meet
children’s health, emotional and social needs very well and are clear
about their responsibilities for child protection. They address any
potential bullying and racist incidents promptly and effectively. The
school chaplain plays a meaningful role in the school. Equality and
diversity are promoted at assemblies and through curricular
programmes.
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7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has a clear vision of the direction for the school and
provides very effective leadership for learning. She has shared this
vision with staff, children and parents through helpful and informative
leaflets and newsletters. The two depute headteachers support the
headteacher very effectively and the principal teachers support class
teachers well. Together, they provide effective leadership to all staff to
improve the quality of children’s learning experiences. Staff are
continually developing new ideas to improve and enhance their
teaching. Children are successful in taking on leadership roles in a
number of aspects which help to enhance the ethos of the school.
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 school.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Continue to improve the consistency of the quality of children’s
learning experiences across the school.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were no requirements.
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 Ralston Primary School and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
good
very good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
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: Hakim Din
23 February 2010
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.
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 2010
HM Inspectorate of Education