Fair Isle Primary School
Kirkcaldy
Fife Council
24 August 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
Fair Isle Primary School is a non-denominational school. It serves the
area of Templehall on the west side of Kirkcaldy. The roll was 229
when the inspection was carried out in May and June 2010. Children’s
attendance was below the national average in 2008/2009.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Arrangements for ensuring that children are safe, healthy and well
cared for.
•
The school’s success in building positive relationships with parents
and the local community.
•
Strong partnership working with a range of agencies which helps
staff to meet children’s needs.
•
Very welcoming and inclusive ethos, and the positive environment
for learning in the school.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Children feel secure and confident in school and are keen to learn.
Almost all children are attentive and well behaved in lessons and
engage well in learning activities. Lessons in philosophical enquiry are
helping younger children to ask questions and think problems through.
Older children are encouraged to give their opinions in lessons.
Sometimes children are not clear enough about what they need to do
to improve their learning. They have too few opportunities to work
together with others on tasks. A very wide range of clubs and learning
activities very effectively develops children’s skills. For example, P1
and P2 children demonstrate very confident and creative performance
skills in dance, music and drama. Many of these activities involve
parents and children working together effectively to learn and develop
their skills. A few children have taken on ambitious leadership roles.
They are learning appropriate communication skills through
negotiating for improved facilities and helping younger children.
2
Overall, attainment in mathematics and reading is good. Most children
attain appropriate national levels. Attainment in mathematics has
improved in recent years. Attainment in writing should be better. The
majority of children attain appropriate national levels. At the early
stages, children’s listening, talking and thinking skills are well
developed. Children are making good progress in improving their
reading skills. By P4, children write long and accurate pieces linked to
the topics they have been learning. Older children need a better
understanding of writers’ techniques. Teachers need to give children
more regular and challenging writing tasks. Staff are taking
appropriate steps to improve the writing of groups of children who are
not achieving expected levels. Children’s progress in mathematics at
the early stages is strong. Children have a good understanding of
adding and subtracting numbers, and of shapes and colours. A few
can use a full range of coins. Older children’s skills in mental
calculation are developing well. Their problem solving skills are less
well developed. Children can gather information and make graphs but
their understanding of how they are used in real life is limited. The
school encourages children to adopt a healthy lifestyle and children
understand what they need to do to stay healthy.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Overall, the school is taking good account of Curriculum for Excellence
in planning improvements. At each stage, teachers are developing
themed topics across areas of the curriculum. These approaches are
setting out clearly what children are expected to learn. The school has
not always ensured that the curriculum gives children a wide enough
range of experiences which develop their skills from stage to stage,
but these gaps are now being addressed. The school has good
arrangements with Kirkcaldy High School that support children
transferring from primary to secondary, particularly in mathematics and
Spanish. In some classes, children experience two hours of
high-quality physical education each week, but this is not consistent
across all classes. In a few classes, teachers are creating good
opportunities for children to develop their literacy and numeracy skills
through their topic work.
3
Staff know the children very well. They understand their skills,
achievements and the support they need. They regularly discuss
children’s progress with senior managers, and organise children into
appropriate groups for a few subjects. This helps staff to give them
support and set tasks at the right level of challenge. Children benefit
from having skilled learning assistants and senior managers helping to
teach these small groups. The support for learning teacher helps a
few children who need support to develop the skills they need to
achieve success in lessons. A few children have support plans in
place so that everyone, including children and their parents, knows
how they can help children to improve.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Parents are very positive about the school. They find teachers and
support staff helpful, approachable and interested in their children.
The school works very effectively with a wide range of agencies in
supporting children and families. Everyone is very positive about how
the ‘Opportunities for All’ project is giving families more opportunities.
Several parents and their children have gained confidence and new
skills through the school’s extensive programme of family activities.
The family worker provides very effective support for families and
helps them to access the support of other agencies. An education
consultant works effectively with staff and groups of children to
develop positive attitudes to learning. Children learn new skills and
knowledge regularly through working with visiting theatre groups,
authors and scientists.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Older children have a range of responsible roles. The pupil council
has helped staff to improve lunch arrangements and road safety. Staff
regularly ask children for their views about their experiences in school.
4
The school should build further on senior children’s leadership training
by giving them more important roles in school. A few key staff have
led improvements and changes successfully. A majority of staff have
begun to work in groups to share new ideas and develop aspects of
the school’s provision. Senior managers know what the school does
well and what it needs to improve. They monitor the work of the
school very closely. Their visits to classrooms help teachers to
improve teaching and learning. By monitoring children’s work they
have been able to give teachers and children support. Senior
managers now need to continue to work closely with all staff to further
improve learning, teaching and achievement.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Staff have high expectations of children’s behaviour and achievement.
Attendance has improved and is now in line with the national average.
The school helps children to understand that they can be successful.
Children are now ready to be given more responsibility for their own
learning and progress. The school has thorough arrangements for
ensuring the care and welfare of children. Staff have good links with
social work, police and the housing department which help them to
protect and support children quickly and effectively. The school is well
supported by the school chaplain who contributes to assemblies and
celebrations of achievement. The school has effective arrangements
in place to prevent and deal with any incidents of bullying. Children
believe that teachers will always listen to them.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher has a sound understanding of the school and the
community it serves. She has established, and is realising, her vision
for an inclusive school, supporting parents and families and raising
aspirations. All senior managers and almost all staff understand their
role in achieving the school’s aims. The school has a very positive
climate for learning. Children are developing their relationships with
5
their community through the school’s ethos of fairness, positive regard,
equality and inclusion. The principal teacher and the depute
headteacher are supporting the headteacher effectively by taking
significant responsibility within the curriculum. Staff know what the
school needs to improve. Everyone now needs to work together to
make the changes which will further improve learning and
achievement.
8. What happens next?
As a result of the 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.
•
Improve the quality of children’s writing.
•
Give children more independence in and responsibility for their own
learning.
•
Ensure that children have a continuous and progressive experience
in all curriculum areas.
6
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 Fair Isle Primary School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
very good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Jacqueline Sinclair
24 August 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