Uig Primary School and
Nursery Class
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
14 September 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
Uig Primary School is a non-denominational school with a nursery
class. It serves the district of Uig and surrounding area. The roll
was 29, including eight in the nursery, when the inspection was carried
out in June 2010. Children’s attendance was below the national
average in 2008/2009. The nursery class was taken under the
management of the education authority in February 2010.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
The headteacher’s leadership in improving learning and teaching.
•
Well-behaved, polite and confident children who are eager to learn.
•
Opportunities for children to work in a range of enterprising ways.
•
The commitment of all staff and their success in leading
improvements in the school.
•
Partnership working with parents and the wider community.
•
Use of the local environment to enhance children’s learning.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
In the nursery class, children are happy and settled. They are learning
simple routines well. They are learning to take turns and form
friendships. Staff recognise they now need to involve children more
effectively in planning and talking about their learning. Across the
primary classes, children are highly motivated and engaged in their
learning due to the outstanding quality of learning experiences
provided for them. Children contribute confidently to discussions and
work very well with each other during group tasks. They are involved
in creative and investigative activities and welcome opportunities to
take responsibility for leading their own learning. Children are able to
identify targets to improve their own work. They apply their learning
successfully in new situations. Across the school, children use
information and communications technology (ICT) very well to support
their learning. For example, in P1-3, children used video evidence to
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evaluate how well they had described mini-beasts they had found as
part of topic work. Children use feedback from their teachers and their
classmates very well to improve their learning.
Children’s achievements across the curriculum are consistently high.
They work in enterprising ways across a range of curricular areas and
when contributing to school and community improvements. Children
show enthusiasm in music and sing confidently. They are developing
very good skills in art and express themselves well in a variety of
styles. Children can identify what they need to do to be healthy.
Across the school, children participate successfully in a wide range of
sporting events such as athletics, rowing and swimming. Children
show positive qualities of leadership through serving as members of
the pupil council and eco committee, as class monitors and when
managing enterprise projects.
In the nursery class, most children listen well in groups and can follow
instructions in both English and Gaelic. Children’s skills in early writing
are not yet well developed. A few children are able to name simple
shapes and sort by colour. Older children are developing skills in
counting and can recognise numbers to ten. Across the primary
classes, children attain very well. Almost all achieve appropriate
national levels of attainment in reading, writing and mathematic. They
show a positive interest in reading and almost all read with fluency and
expression. Children are able to talk about a range of books they have
read. They write for a range of purposes, including writing factual
reports. Staff have identified correctly the need to strengthen
attainment in aspects of writing. At the early stages, children are
developing a good understanding of number. They are able to
measure accurately and by P3, they can describe different types of
triangles. Children make very good use of their numeracy skills across
other areas of the curriculum. For example, at P7, children used a
spreadsheet to calculate income and expenditures when planning their
art exhibition.
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Curriculum and meeting learning needs
In the nursery class, staff are currently reviewing and improving the
curriculum. They recognise the need to plan activities which are
based on play and take account of children’s interests. Across the
primary stages, staff have made a very positive start to improving the
curriculum using Curriculum for Excellence. The school provides a
broad and balanced curriculum which includes all subject areas,
enriched by visiting specialists. Children have very good opportunities
to link their learning across subjects. Teachers make very good use of
the school grounds and surrounding area for learning outdoors. They
involve visitors to the school to develop children’s enthusiasm and
interest in learning. Children have regular opportunities to develop
their skills in Gaelic. The school is developing children’s literacy and
numeracy skills successfully in different areas of the curriculum. Staff
are providing two hours of good-quality physical education each week
for all children. Supported-study sessions have helped children to
develop skills in mental mathematics and in preparing and serving
food safely.
In the nursery class, staff know individual children well. Relationships
between staff and children are positive. The headteacher has
identified the need to work with staff to ensure that tasks and activities
take better account of children’s prior learning and interests. Across
the primary stages, tasks and activities are at the right level of difficulty
in almost all lessons. Teachers give clear explanations and share the
purpose of lessons clearly. They plan a range of stimulating activities
which encourage children to be involved in their learning. Teachers
use questions effectively to extend and challenge children’s thinking.
Effective consultation and teamwork between the support for learning
teacher, support staff and teachers ensure that children who need
additional help are supported well. Teachers provide regular and
appropriate homework.
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4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
The school works very well with parents, the local community and a
wide range of partners to support children’s learning and wellbeing.
The Parent Council is very supportive of the work of the school and
provides additional resources through a range of fundraising activities.
In the nursery class, parents regularly discuss children’s learning with
staff. Helpful newsletters keep parents informed about the work of the
school. The school has appropriate procedures in place to respond to
concerns and complaints. Parents can view materials used for health
education. Children use the local museum regularly when researching
topics. The community shop supports children’s enterprise activities in
a range of ways. An outreach officer from An Lanntair Art Centre is
working with children in P4 to P7 as they organise an art exhibition.
Parents are provided with homework hints in order to enable them to
support their children’s learning. They receive information on
children’s progress at parent consultation meetings and through
informative annual written reports. Children are well supported when
they start P1. Staff prepare children well for making a confident move
from P7 to the Nicolson Institute.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
All staff and children are committed to improving the school further. In
the nursery, staff recognise the need to develop more effective ways of
assessing and recording children’s progress. The headteacher works
very closely alongside staff and monitors children’s learning and
attainment. She supports staff very effectively to ensure children
benefit from strong links between self-evaluation, professional
development and school improvements. One of the class teachers
has successfully developed the use of ICT, including GLOW
technology, across the school. Support staff feel their views are
listened to and they take on additional areas of responsibility willingly
across the school. Children at all stages have an important and active
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role in school improvement. Members of the pupil council have
worked successfully with others to improve the selection of reading
books in the school library and they have worked with the Community
Centre Association to improve facilities in the local play park. The
school has achieved a silver award from Eco-Schools Scotland and a
gold enterprise award from the local authority.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
The school has a very positive and supportive ethos with a strong
sense of mutual respect between staff and children. Children are
polite and very well behaved. Along with adult members of the school
community, they identify strongly with the school. Staff have high
expectations of behaviour and achievement. They are highly
committed to children’s care and welfare. The school has an
appropriate policy for child protection and staff are aware of their roles
and responsibilities. Children feel safe and well cared for in the
school. Staff use religious and moral education to raise children’s
awareness of different cultures, equality and fairness. They should
now explore ways of providing children with regular opportunities to
participate in religious observance. Staff share children’s
achievements in displays around the school and community centre
and in the community newsletter. The local Historical Society includes
examples of children’s work on its web site. The school successfully
promotes healthy lifestyles.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher, along with staff, is highly committed to the school
and the children. She carries out her management and teaching
commitments very well and leads by example. Since taking over the
management of the nursery class, she has worked with the play
leaders to identify strengths and appropriate areas for improvement.
This has been an important step which will help the nursery to
improve. The headteacher is very well supported by staff who work
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together effectively to improve the work of the school. All members of
the school community have worked well together to develop a clear
vision for the school and nursery. The school is very well placed to
improve further.
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 schools.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Further develop children’s skills in writing.
•
Improve the nursery curriculum to ensure high-quality play
opportunities which take account of children’s needs and interests.
•
Further improve the way staff assess children’s progress in the
nursery and use the information to plan suitable activities for them.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were four requirements, all 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 Uig School and Nursery Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
excellent
very good
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
satisfactory
satisfactory
satisfactory
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jacqueline Horsburgh
14 September 2010
8
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