24 March 2015
Dear Parent/Carer
Cairn Primary School and Nursery Class
South Ayrshire Council
Recently, as you may know, my colleagues and I inspected your child’s school. During
our visit, we talked to parents and children and worked closely with the headteacher
and staff. We wanted to find out how well children are learning and achieving and how
well the school supports children to do their best. The headteacher shared with us the
school’s successes and priorities for improvement. We looked at some particular
aspects of the school’s recent work, including the approach to developing children’s
skills in French and partnership working to enhance learning. As a result, we were
able to find out how good the school is at improving children’s education.
How well do children learn and achieve?
In the nursery, children are settled and concentrate for appropriate periods of time.
They enjoy making models from a range of materials and use knives safely to cut
vegetables. They make choices about what they want to learn and talk confidently
with staff about their interests. We have asked nursery staff to improve further
children’s skills in talking about their learning, and to ensure fewer interruptions to their
play. Children in the primary classes are motivated and enjoy learning. They work
very well with each other to complete tasks. Children set weekly targets showing what
they plan to achieve. They receive helpful feedback from staff about the targets they
set and older children record examples of how they know they have been successful.
At P7, in writing, children describe ways to raise their attainment and achieve the
highest standards possible. Relationships are positive and children talk confidently
about the very inclusive ethos. Children feel they are listened to and they have
opportunities to influence the work of the school. At P7, children organised and
budgeted very successfully the school’s annual Burns celebration. Older children
show high levels of commitment to their leadership roles. For example, the trained
computing club members led the recent ‘hour of code’ parental workshop. This helped
parents understand an important aspect of computing science. During intervals,
children skilfully plan and lead football training and games. The school works very
closely with partners to ensure all children can take part in lunchtime and after school
clubs. As a result, almost all children are involved in the wide range of activities
available.
Overall, children in the nursery make good progress in early literacy. They recognise
their name in print and use chalks to make marks in the outdoors. At the writing table
they attempt to create recipes. Children make good progress in developing their early
Education Scotland
W1 Spur
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD
T
0131 244 8371
F
0131 244 8424
E edinburgh@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
Textphone 01506 600236
This is a service for deaf users. Please do not
use this number for voice calls as this will not
connect.
www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Transforming lives through learning
numeracy skills. They can count to five and most older children count beyond twenty.
A few children in the nursery would benefit from exploring a greater range of numbers,
for example, using number lines to twenty or thirty. In the primary classes, children
make good progress in developing their literacy and English language. They are very
proud of their heritage and use Scots language with very good understanding,
pronunciation and great enjoyment. Children at P1 are motivated by words such as
‘behouchie’ to describe the body parts of a character in a story. Older children create
Scots poems in which they use language very effectively. Children listen very well and
express their ideas with confidence. They enjoy reading, and older children show a
very good understanding of some challenging fiction and non-fiction texts. They make
appropriate links between their reading and writing. By P7, children’s writing skills are
well developed. They write for a range of purposes using less familiar vocabulary
accurately. We asked the school to improve further children’s skills in talking. Older
children were less confident in discussing different points of view on topical issues.
There is a need to develop children’s literacy skills across their learning. In numeracy
and mathematics, children in the primary classes make good progress. They are
accurate in their written calculations and increasingly children make better progress in
their mental agility. Older children understand how to read information from a range of
graphs. There is a need to continue to improve the pace of children’s progress in
mathematics. Children lack confidence in using their mathematical skills to solve
problems. There are examples of children making very good progress in French,
science and health and wellbeing. For example, in French, they understand
instructions and older children can work together using conversational French very
well. Across the curriculum, there is a need to provide a wider range of real-life
contexts for children to apply their skills and for greater challenge in children’s
learning.
How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
Children in the nursery and primary classes benefit from a caring environment and
staff who support the pastoral needs of individuals very well. In the nursery, most
children are supported appropriately in their learning. Staff observe children and
record their achievements during play. There is a need to make better use of this
information to ensure that children’s learning is extended at an appropriate pace. Staff
identify children with difficulties in their learning quickly and plan well to help them
make better progress. The effectiveness of additional staff is being reviewed to ensure
consistently good practice across the school. Staff are developing a focused nurturing
approach to support children to improve their social and emotional skills more
effectively. Across the school, staff plan most tasks and activities well to meet the
needs of most children. There are very good examples in writing, reading and
mathematics where children’s needs are met very well. There is a need to ensure this
good practice is reflected across all areas of children’s learning. Higher achieving
children need greater challenge.
Across the nursery and primary classes, staff are developing a curriculum to ensure
children have appropriate skills for learning, life and work. In the nursery, staff plan
learning through play which children enjoy. At the primary stages, children’s learning
in each curricular area is supported by helpful guidance from South Ayrshire Council.
Staff have successfully developed and adapted some of this guidance to reflect their
very inclusive approach and the needs of the school community. For example,
2
through the ‘cultural rucksack’ project children develop an understanding of their
contribution to cultural activities. In addition, planned learning takes account of
children’s views on their wellbeing. The very well planned learning in French and the
sciences involves working closely with Carrick Academy cluster schools. The school is
aware of the need to improve other areas of the curriculum. Staff are looking at the
way they assess children to ensure they experience high quality learning. They are
beginning to make appropriate links across curricular areas to ensure that children’s
learning is more relevant.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
The staff team work very well together, and in consultation with the children, make
positive improvements to the life and work of the school. The headteacher and depute
headteacher are very focused and provide clear leadership and direction. The
principal teacher and staff have leadership roles which they undertake well. They
discuss their suggestions and ideas for improvements in a very supportive learning
environment. Staff are reflective in their work and constantly review their practice.
They use a range of information including annual and regular class assessments in
reading, writing and mathematics to monitor children’s progress. Effective use of
assessment has led to an improvement in children’s mental agility in mathematics.
The school works very closely with partners to target specific areas for improvement.
For example, children benefitted from the high quality and motivational learning
experiences through working with South Ayrshire community safety team. The
parenting programme has helped parents enter into employment. Parents feel the
school helps develop children’s confidence and their learning is improving well. The
Parent Council is consulted regularly about school improvements and contribute to
evaluating how well progress is being made.
This inspection found the following key strengths.





The welcoming ethos and motivated, enthusiastic children.
The partnership working and inclusion of all children.
The sense of heritage through Scots language.
Children’s achievements in French.
The leadership for learning of the headteacher and depute headteacher.
We discussed with staff and South Ayrshire Council how they might continue to
improve the school and nursery class. This is what we agreed with them.


Continue to improve children’s achievements across all aspects of their learning.
Continue to improve the curriculum to ensure challenging and relevant learning for
children.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
We are satisfied with the overall quality of provision. We are confident that the
school’s self-evaluation processes are leading to improvements. As a result, we will
make no further evaluative visits in connection with this inspection. During the
inspection, we identified an aspect of innovative practice which we would like to
3
explore further. We shall work with the school and South Ayrshire Council to record
the innovative practice and share it more widely.
Elizabeth C Montgomery
HM Inspector
Additional inspection evidence, such as details of the quality indicator evaluations, for
your school can be found on the Education Scotland website at
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/reports/school/primsec/Cair
nPrimarySchoolSouthAyrshire.asp
If you would like to receive this letter in a different format, for example, in a translation
please contact the administration team on the above telephone number.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact us
by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail: complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
or write to us addressing your letter to the Complaints Manager, Denholm House,
Almondvale Business Park, Livingston EH54 6GA.
4