Tannochside Primary
School and Nursery Class
Uddingston
North Lanarkshire Council
22 March 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
Tannochside Primary School is a non-denominational school with a
nursery class. It serves the Tannochside and Viewpark areas of
Uddingston. The roll was 505, including 98 in the nursery, when the
inspection was carried out in January 2011. Children’s attendance
was below the national average in 2009/2010.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The commitment of all staff to creating a caring and supportive
ethos in the school.
•
Enthusiasm and behaviour of almost all children.
•
Enthusiastic nursery staff who are embracing Curriculum for
Excellence to improve children’s learning and provide a stimulating
learning environment.
•
Positive links with the community and outside agencies to support
children’s development and wellbeing.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Across the school, children are keen to learn. They have positive
relationships with staff and are enthusiastic in their learning. Almost all
children feel they are safe and well cared for, and that they are treated
fairly. In the nursery classes, children are highly motivated and sustain
interest in their activities. They enjoy choosing what to play with and
cooperate very well with each other. At the primary stages, children
respond well to opportunities to work together, support each other and
give each other feedback in lessons. They use information and
communications technology (ICT) well to extend their learning. This
includes podcasting and blogging. Across the school, children now
need to be more actively setting learning targets to help them become
more aware of their next steps in learning. Staff need to continue to
take greater account of the open plan design of learning bays to
ensure that children can hear others talk about their learning and that
there is no negative impact on learning experiences.
2
Children contribute responsibly to school life through their pupil
council, health promoting committee and the travel committee.
Nursery children are developing their confidence by performing to
others. They entertain residents in a local care home and have staged
a nativity play for parents. The school choir achieved success at the
Glasgow music festival. Across the school, children are developing an
understanding of global issues through many fundraising activities. At
P6, children have been trained as ‘Glowbusters’ to develop the ICT
skills of others. Children take on responsibilities willingly to help
others, for example, as buddies and safety officers. Children take part
in health promoting activities, for example, daily fitness clubs, sports
and Scottish dancing. They have a secure understanding of the
importance of leading a healthy and active lifestyle. Children are
developing useful enterprise skills and have used these to design a
reusable bag. Children develop their public speaking skills by taking
part in assemblies.
In the nursery classes, almost all children are making very good
progress. They talk confidently to adults and engage in meaningful
conversations. Children are familiar with books and describe the role
of an author and illustrator. Children need to continue to use their
writing skills in everyday situations. Almost all children are able to
count, use number and solve problems when playing. Across the
primary stages, most children attain appropriate levels in reading and
mathematics. A majority attain these levels in writing. Standards of
attainment improved over recent years but are now fluctuating. In
English language, children listen very well to each other and to their
teacher. Their talking skills are well-developed. Most children read
regularly for pleasure and for information to build on their topic work.
They can talk confidently about how authors use techniques. Across
the school, children are writing well for different purposes. There are
very good examples of children’s extended writing in the upper school.
Overall, children present their work well. In mathematics, children at
all stages are accurate and confident in calculations involving shape,
money and time. Their skills in handling information are well
advanced. Children need to develop further their problem solving
skills.
3
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
In the nursery classes, staff have made a very good start to reviewing
plans and teaching approaches taking account of Curriculum for
Excellence. A balance of play activities provide challenge and
enjoyment in early language and mathematics. At the primary stages,
teachers are working well together to improve the curriculum. They
are helping children to develop their literacy and numeracy skills in
stimulating topic work. A comprehensive approach has been
developed to health and wellbeing. The school uses a wide range of
ICT to enhance children’s learning in various areas of the curriculum.
This includes good use of Glow, Scotland’s national schools’ intranet.
The ‘Northern Lights’ project has helped children to make links with
other countries. There is a focus on Scottish culture through songs
and poems. The school organised a Scottish theme day which
included hosting a Highland games. As yet, not all children benefit
from two hours of high-quality physical education each week. Staff
need to ensure that all courses provide continuous progress in
children’s learning from stage to stage.
Across the school, staff know children well and have caring and
supportive relationships with children and families. In the nursery, staff
observe children at play and are responsive in ensuring that children
are progressing well. In primary classes, most of the time, tasks and
activities help meet children’s individual learning needs. A few lessons
are too teacher-led and are not stimulating children enough in their
learning. The school seeks solutions to particular needs. For
example, higher achieving children in P7 are benefiting from
‘Accelerated Mathematics’. ‘Catch-up Numeracy’ is being used to
assist more effectively those who have support needs in their learning.
Support for learning teachers work very well with staff to plan to meet
the needs of children who need more individual support. They share
regularly their learning plans with teachers and receive feedback.
Support teachers should continue the detailed approach to tracking
that they have introduced recently. Individualised learning plans
provide appropriate support. Almost all tasks set for homework
4
support children’s learning in school. At P6 and P7, children can
access Glow at home and use this to extend their learning.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Across the school, there are a wide range of partnerships to enhance
children’s learning. This impacts positively in a range of areas,
including health and wellbeing. A commercial enterprise organises
activities for children, including quizzes and demonstrations of making
healthy foods. A member of the community is successful in leading
weekly singing sessions for children. The parent association provides
significant support to the school through fundraising. It works with the
pupil council in deciding how their funds should be used to improve the
school. Parents support children to fulfil their responsibilities on
groups. For example, they assisted children in coordinating a travel
plan. The school is good at sorting out concerns and complaints.
Parents appreciate staff’s high profile at the beginning and end of the
day, ‘Meet and Greet’. This gives a daily opportunity for conversation.
Parents view children’s work on the well-designed website. They
receive detailed progress reports and information, for example, on
health education. Children’s reports need to include their next steps in
learning. Children and their parents are supported well when they
move from nursery to P1 and from P7 to S1 at Uddingston Grammar
School.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children are keen to take responsibilities. As a result of children’s
efforts, the school has gained gold as a Health Promoting School.
Staff take a lead in key areas of development. They meet regularly
with stage partners to improve the curriculum. A group of teachers
has a clear focus on improving their teaching approaches by sharing
reflections in a ‘Teacher Learning Community’. Senior managers give
5
helpful feedback to teachers on their work. The headteacher asks
parents for their views about the school. However, parents need to be
involved more fully than at present. To build a better momentum for
improvement, the school should make better use of information from
different sources to set and review clear targets and measures of
success. Methods of tracking children’s progress needs to be adapted
to Curriculum for Excellence to help raise attainment.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Children are proud of their school and recognise that it provides a
welcoming environment. Staff are aware of their responsibilities in
child protection. They have high expectations of children’s behaviour
and attendance. Staff need to have higher expectations of a few
children’s attainment. Children are keen to share their achievements
which are celebrated successfully through assemblies, golden time,
raffles and certificates. Teachers use praise well. Equality and
diversity are promoted well through assemblies and the religious and
moral education programme. Almost all children feel that staff are
good at dealing with bullying behaviour. Staff work well with ministers
to meet religious observance requirements at assemblies. The school
takes appropriate action if children are absent without explanation or
over a longer period of time.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has created a very supportive school ethos in which
children feel respected, valued and nurtured. She has developed a
range of productive partnerships across the school community. The
headteacher is supported effectively by depute headteachers and
principal teachers who have had a positive impact in their respective
areas of responsibility. Staff work hard to provide motivating learning
experiences for almost all children. The headteacher needs to
communicate a clearer direction for the school and increase the pace
6
for securing improvements. With the continued support of the
education authority, the school is well placed to improve further.
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.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve the leadership of self-evaluation activities to ensure that
there is consistently high-quality learning and teaching across the
school.
•
Continue to develop the curriculum to take account of Curriculum
for Excellence, particularly to ensure progression and to raise
attainment.
•
Ensure that all children have work at the right level and clear next
steps in learning.
•
Staff and the education authority need to continue to take steps to
ensure that all children can hear the contributions of others in the
learning bays.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were no requirements and one recommendation was made. This has
been addressed.
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 Tannochside Primary 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
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: Joan C Esson
22 March 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