Education Scotland
Foghlam Alba
Education Scotland, Europa Building, 450 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8LG
t 0141 242 0100
f 0141 242 5757
Textphone 01506 600236
e glasgow@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
w www.educationscotland.gov.uk
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20 March 2012
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Dear Parent/Carer
Eaglesfield Primary School
Dumfries and Galloway Council
Recently, as you may know, my colleagues and I visited and inspected your child’s school.
Throughout our visit, we talked to many parents and children and we worked closely with the
headteacher and staff. We wanted to find out how well children were learning and achieving
and how well the school supported 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 how well learning was being linked across subjects to
meet children’s learning needs. We also looked at how well the school was developing wider
partnerships and increasing children’s role in helping to improve its work. As a result, we
were able to find out how good the school was at improving children’s education. I would now
like to tell you what we found.
How well do children learn and achieve?
We found that children are well behaved and work well together. Most are motivated to learn
and willingly complete tasks set by their teachers. Children are good at cooperating in pairs
to share their learning. These skills can now be built on by enabling children to work more
often in groups. Children are not always aware of the purposes of lessons or of how they will
know when they have been successful. As a result, children are not clear about their
strengths or of how to improve. They need teachers to explain consistently to them what they
are learning about and how they can achieve success. Teachers also now need to involve
children fully in planning for success across key areas of their learning. Most children feel
safe in school. During the inspection, they expressed their views about school but were not
always sure how their views are normally taken into account. Children would like the pupil
council to start again as they feel it did make a positive difference to the school in the past.
Children feel the school recognises their achievements well and it has begun to keep a record
of these through photographs and certificates. Children recognise the school is helping them
to develop a healthy lifestyle and are excited about the school focus on the Olympics. They
like the opportunity to attend after school clubs provided by staff and parents where they can
make a positive contribution to the community. Overall, the quality of learning needs to be
improved.
Overall, we found that the majority of children are developing their skills in literacy and
numeracy well but that some could be achieving much better. Children at the early stages
speak enthusiastically and are good at discussing their ideas with each other. They are
becoming confident readers. At the middle and upper stages children show an enthusiasm
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for reading and can talk about authors they like. They now need to deepen their
understanding of texts through analysing books in new and different ways. Children at the
middle and upper stages write for a widening range of purposes and present their work to an
audience through presentations and displays. They now need to talk with staff in a focused
way about how to improve their writing and apply their skills across all of their learning.
Children at the early stages count well and are learning to manipulate numbers through
different kinds of calculations. They enjoy being active in their learning through games and
puzzles. Children at the middle and upper stages learn skills in mathematics and numeracy
mainly through textbooks. They can do numerical calculations in their jotter but are not
confident in doing these mentally. Children readily identify shapes, different kinds of angles
and directions. They are not clear enough about where they might use their skills in real life
and are not experienced in applying or discussing their learning when problems are presented
in different ways.
How well does the school support children to develop and learn?
Teachers have been working well together to improve how they meet the learning needs of all
children in their classes. They know children well and presently provide activities which offer
the right amount of challenge for the majority of children. They now need to build on this to
ensure that all children are challenged appropriately through well-paced learning. Children
who need additional help are mostly well supported by teachers and classroom assistants
although arrangements for reviewing individual learning plans, including involving parents,
need to be improved. Staff also need to review how and where children are supported by
visiting staff so that they can learn more often alongside their peers. The school curriculum
broadly reflects Curriculum for Excellence but further work is still needed. Work is ongoing to
develop a shared vision for the curriculum and to improve topics so that children can progress
their skills in literacy and numeracy across their learning. This work needs to continue at a
faster pace. The school has identified health and wellbeing as an important aspect for
development and we would agree with this. A number of partners work well with the school
including, for example, to support its work towards celebrating the Olympic Games. Teachers
are beginning to explore how they might embed outdoor learning and, to do this, they work
well with local rangers. The school has established very positive relationships with local
nurseries and Lockerbie Academy to support children’s transitions into school and on to
secondary school.
How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
Staff across the school are enthusiastic and want the best for all children. Under the
guidance of the headteacher, they have introduced activities which help them gauge how well
children are learning and the impact of teaching. We found that teachers are beginning to talk
more together and are keen to share practice which they feel is working well in their
classrooms. These activities need more time and focus to have a greater impact on
learning and teaching. The headteacher is working very hard to make improvements in the
school. She is organising a range of different, stimulating learning opportunities and has
improved how the school promotes achievements. She now needs to focus directly on
learning and teaching and establish, with teachers, effective approaches to assessing and
monitoring children’s progress. The school works well with parents and has offered
opportunities for them to find out about the curriculum and attend celebrations presented by
their children. The parent council, whilst not meeting regularly at present, has been very
successful in organising training opportunities for parents and financial support to the school
through successful grant applications. Overall, whilst many of these approaches to
improvement have the potential to make a significant difference, they need more time to make
the desired impact.
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This inspection of your school found the following key strengths.
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Children who are willing and keen to do their best. They show enthusiasm and
commitment when working together for others.
The work with partners, led by the headteacher, to enhance children’s learning.
The promotion of children’s achievements through the school.
We discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to improve the
school. This is what we agreed with them.
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Improve the quality of learning and attainment across all stages.
Continue to improve the curriculum, including by ensuring important skills such as literacy,
numeracy and health and wellbeing are developed across subjects and built on from stage
to stage.
Where children need extra help in their learning, involve children and their parents in the
planning and review process.
Build on the approaches, already underway, to self-evaluation and to monitoring children’s
progress to ensure a positive impact on learning and teaching.
What happens at the end of the inspection?
As a result of our inspection findings we think that the school needs additional support and
more time to make necessary improvements. Our District Inspector along with the local
authority will discuss the most appropriate support in order to build capacity for improvement,
and will maintain contact to monitor progress. We will return to evaluate aspects of provision
and the progress in improving provision within one year of publication of this letter. We will
then issue another letter to parents on the extent to which the school has improved. In that
letter we will inform you if we are going to carry out a further inspection visit.
Shona ES Taylor
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.hmie.gov.uk/ViewEstablishment.aspx?id=8604&type=2.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for example,
in a translation. You can contact us at enquiries@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to us
at BMCT, Education Scotland, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale
Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact 01506
600200, or write to us at the above address or e-mail:
feedback@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk.
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