Rashielea Primary School
Erskine
Renfrewshire Council
8 June 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.
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
Rashielea Primary School is a non-denominational school. It serves
the town of Erskine and the surrounding area. The roll was 399 when
the inspection was carried out in March 2010. Children’s attendance
was in line with the national average in 2008/2009.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Children’s motivation and positive attitudes to learning.
•
Stimulating and enjoyable learning experiences which help children
achieve.
•
Staff teamwork in improving the school.
•
Leadership of the headteacher.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Children are confident and eager to learn. They behave well, work
hard and show pride in their achievements. Children enjoy
investigating interesting topics and are stimulated to think for
themselves. Most children understand what they have to do to
improve their work and achieve in lessons. When they have the
opportunity to assess their own and one another’s work, they offer
mature and reflective comments. Children develop effectively their
thinking through discussion when they work in groups.
Children participate eagerly in a local authority expressive arts
initiative which develops their skills in music and drama. Older
children are confident in using advanced publishing and animation
software. Almost all children have benefited from using the National
schools’ GLOW network to hear authors, scientists and artists discuss
their work. Older children use this network to access class work from
home. Through the development of shared values, children have
developed positive attitudes to their responsibilities for improving both
the local environment and the lives of others around the world. The
school’s learning links with China and the school’s success in raising
2
funds for charities have developed children’s understanding of the
world and Scotland’s place in it. Children carry out this work through a
range of eco school committees and the pupil council. Children have
developed leadership skills through organising projects in the local
environment, including upgrading school facilities and raising money
for playground improvements. The popular school choir performs
regularly in the community and at prestigious local authority events.
The school has sustained high levels of attainment in English
language and mathematics in recent years. Almost all children are
making good progress in listening, talking and reading. Most are
capable of making even better progress in writing. Children are
developing effective communication skills and ambitious vocabulary
through collaborating regularly with others in their learning. Most
children are making very good progress in mathematics. Almost all
children carry out oral and written calculations confidently. Most are
able to solve mathematical problems effectively, using several
strategies.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff are providing children with a suitably broad range of learning
experiences. They have revised programmes and learning activities
and developed many opportunities to extend children’s wider
achievement. Staff have made an ambitious start to planning
children’s learning taking account of Curriculum for Excellence, and
provide a range of interesting interdisciplinary topics. Children have
regular opportunities to develop their literacy skills through these
topics and through other areas of the curriculum. There is scope to
develop children’s numeracy skills in the same way. Teaching
programmes for health and wellbeing, including personal safety and
relationships and sexual health are well developed. Staff are
reviewing their courses and programmes to provide learning
experiences that ensure progression in children’s learning in all
curriculum areas, taking account of Curriculum for Excellence. The
school’s learning links with the local and global community and with
other schools develop children’s skills in real-life contexts. Effective
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arrangements ensure that children can continue to make progress in
their learning when they transfer from pre-school providers to P1, from
stage to stage within the school and from P7 into Park Mains High
School. The school does not yet provide all children with two hours of
good quality physical education each week.
Tasks, activities and resources meet the needs of most children.
Teachers give children tasks which help them to learn in different
ways. In most lessons the pace is appropriate. However a few tasks
lack sufficient challenge. In a few classes, teachers make effective
use of their assessment of how children are achieving to ensure that
they experience the support and challenge they need. This needs to
become common practice across all classes. Staff identify effectively
those pupils who would benefit from additional help with their learning.
The support for learning teacher provides strong support to staff and
children. In particular, she gives children strategies which help them to
access their learning independently. Teachers work with parents, and
involve children, to agree appropriate personal learning targets for
those children who need these. All know and understand what they
must do to assist individual children achieve their targets. Teachers
provide children with regular homework to consolidate their learning.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff maintain very positive relationships with parents and take
account of their views. Well-attended events enable children to
display their work and achievements, and help parents to understand
what their children are learning in school. The active parent-teacher
association supports many school events, including the annual
UNICEF ‘Day of Change’ during which the association sponsors an art
competition. The school gives parents detailed information about
health education, including sex education. A few parents would
appreciate more regular information about how their children are
getting on in school in order to support their learning more effectively
at home. The school’s longstanding educational links with a school in
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Tianjin in China have broadened children’s educational experience.
Children’s environmental projects, the school choir and a recent
Chinese dance initiative ensure that the school is held in positive
regard in its community. Staff work closely with a wide range of
partner agencies to support children. These agencies and the local
authority have provided considerable help and resources to support
children with specific medical needs.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Almost all staff and children are involved in improving the school.
Teachers and support staff take responsibility for special events and
projects and teachers work together to plan the curriculum. Senior
managers know the school’s strengths and what needs to be done to
improve its work further. Their visits to lessons and monitoring of
children’s work and teachers’ plans help teachers to improve their
work. The headteacher and the support for learning teacher have
been teaching alongside a few staff in a project which has supported
them effectively to develop new learning and teaching approaches.
The school plans to provide more opportunities for teachers to share
their ideas and take on responsibilities within the curriculum. The
headteacher is making good use of her own knowledge and skills to
provide staff training. Recently, staff have begun to develop more
reflective evaluations of their own lessons and children’s learning.
Senior managers need to develop further staff involvement in school
self-evaluation. Through taking leading roles in the school’s many
committees and projects, children are developing their skills in
planning, organising and making important decisions. The school has
appropriate arrangements in place to deal with enquiries and
complaints.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The school is characterised by positive and supportive relationships
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amongst children and between children and staff. Staff have high
expectations of children’s achievement and behaviour, and use praise
and reward assemblies effectively to encourage children to be
ambitious in their learning. Staff handle sensitive situations and any
concerns about children’s welfare caringly. There are appropriate and
well-understood procedures in place to ensure the protection of
children. Catering staff need further training in child protection.
Almost all children have confidence in the school’s measures to
prevent bullying and they feel that children get on well with each other.
There are appropriate arrangements for religious observance.
Through their topics, the inclusive nature of the school and its
international links, children learn about equality and diversity in
society.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher provides strong and effective leadership. Her sound
understanding of curriculum development and effective practice in
education has helped staff to improve the school. She has been
successful in building positive relationships. The senior management
team work well together, with a focus on improving children’s learning
experiences. Teachers are beginning to lead developments and share
their ideas. Senior managers plan to continue to develop the school
as a place where everyone, including teachers, is learning and
improving.
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.
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We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Ensure that the pace of, and challenge in, all lessons meets the
needs of all children.
•
Review courses and programmes as planned to ensure children
continue to make good progress in their learning. In particular,
make arrangements to provide all children with two hours of good
quality physical education each week.
•
Continue to involve staff in discussing their work, sharing best
practice and in developing their leadership for learning role.
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 Rashielea Primary School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jacqueline Sinclair
8 June 2010
7
good
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