Fair Isle Primary School
and Nursery Class
Shetland Islands Council
3 November 2009
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. Where
applicable, you will also be able to find descriptions of good
practice in the school.
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. Examples of good practice
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their school
community?
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
9. What happens next?
1. The school
Fair Isle Primary School is a non-denominational school with a nursery
class. It serves the island of Fair Isle, the most southerly and remote
of the Shetland Isles. The roll, including the nursery class, was ten
when the inspection was carried out in September 2009. Children’s
attendance was in line with the national average in 2007/2008.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
High-achieving, motivated and confident children who demonstrate
leadership skills in school and within the community.
•
The quality of relationships between children and all staff.
•
Very effective teaching which provides children with challenging
and worthwhile learning experiences.
•
The teamwork and commitment of all staff in providing a caring and
stimulating environment for learning.
•
Partnerships with parents, support agencies and the wider
community.
•
The headteacher’s leadership of improvement through
self-evaluation.
3. Examples of good practice
•
Outdoor learning in mathematics.
•
Children’s contributions to the life of the island community.
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4. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
At all stages of the school, children are motivated and enthusiastic
learners who are keen to do their best. They work very well on their
own and with others, inside and outside the classroom. In group
tasks, children respect each other’s views and learn very well from one
another. They use information and communications technology (ICT),
including computers, digital cameras and electronic whiteboards very
confidently in many areas of their learning. In the nursery class,
children move confidently between activities and are keen to learn new
things. They help to choose their topics and concentrate very well on
their chosen activities. As children progress through the school, they
make thoughtful choices about what they would like to learn next, and
the best way to go about it. At the primary stages, the quality of
children’s learning experiences is outstanding. Children often take the
lead in organising lessons and activities. They share their ideas and
views confidently. Children are confident in following their own
interests arising from classwork and developing their learning further.
They set themselves ambitious goals and regularly produce work of a
high quality across different areas of their learning. Children across
the school feel valued, respected and very well cared for as
individuals, by staff and each other.
All children in the nursery and primary stages are developing effective
citizenship and enterprise skills across a variety of activities, in and
beyond school. They are strongly committed to saving energy and
protecting the environment, and their efforts have helped the school
achieve three Eco-Schools Scotland green flags. All children, along
with staff, help to keep the island safe, attractive and litter-free during
the annual Da Voar Redd Up. All children perform confidently in
shows and concerts. They regularly plan and lead community events
such as poetry evenings and the island’s Remembrance Day service.
Children show increasing skills in many areas of their learning. With
support from local experts, they are developing important skills in
science, music and local traditions and crafts. Children benefit
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enormously from learning outdoors. They organise and plan
investigative surveys to gather information about plants, birds and
other wildlife.
Across the school, all children, including those with additional learning
needs, are making very good progress in their learning. In the nursery
class, children enjoy stories and talk enthusiastically about books they
have read. They often choose to write during play activities and use
puppets to create their own stories. Children use mathematical
language very well in a range of real-life contexts, such as baking and
gardening. In recent years, the school has made excellent progress in
improving the quality of children’s attainment and achievement at the
primary stages. Almost all children achieve appropriate national levels
in reading, writing and mathematics significantly earlier than might
normally be expected. In English language, all children have
well-developed listening and talking skills. Children use their reading
skills very effectively across their learning, particularly in topic work.
They can talk very confidently about books they have read and discuss
the styles of different authors and poets. They write imaginative
stories and poems and informative and well-organised reports, for
example, on their science fieldwork. Each week, all children have their
writing published in the island newsletter, The Fair Isle Times. They
benefit greatly from receiving feedback on their work from the island
community and beyond. In mathematics, children use their
mathematical skills confidently in a variety of situations, including
written and mental calculation and problem solving skills. At all
stages, children gather and record information accurately. They would
benefit from more opportunities to use their ICT skills to create
spreadsheets and databases to display the information they gather.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school has taken very positive and innovative steps to develop the
curriculum in line with Curriculum for Excellence. Well-planned
activities help children in the nursery and primary stages to use and
develop their skills in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing in
different learning situations. Staff regularly plan tasks which are
4
relevant to children’s lives and interests and which give them choices
about different ways to learn. At all stages, children benefit from two
hours of high-quality physical education each week. In addition, all
children at the primary stages are learning to swim. Staff are
developing children’s skills very well in music and in learning French.
Across the school, staff meet children’s needs very effectively. In the
nursery class, staff know the children very well and plan motivating
tasks and activities to hold children’s interest and generate curiosity.
They gather well-judged information about what children can do and
use this when planning future learning and development. The balance
between activities which children choose for themselves and the
activities led by adults is very good. At the primary stages, staff plan
carefully and reflect regularly on the progress made by each child.
Staff are very successful in promoting independent learning and
thinking. They devise individual or small group programmes which
extend children’s learning. Children set their own challenging learning
targets. They use feedback from staff very well to identify
improvements in their work and to plan what they need to do next.
Children who have additional learning needs are making very good
progress in their learning. They benefit from high-quality support from
classroom assistants. Homework is varied and interesting. Personal
research projects are of very high quality and are suitably challenging
for higher-achieving children.
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Children at all stages benefit from strong partnerships with parents and
the community. The active Parent Council provides very helpful
support to staff and children. Parents are very satisfied with almost all
aspects of the life and work of the school. The school responds
effectively to parental enquiries and has clear procedures for dealing
with complaints. Parents and others from the local community have
positively influenced children’s knowledge of wildlife, conservation and
local traditions such as crofting and chair making. Older children are
5
improving the school website, supported by an ICT instructor. Staff
have productive partnerships with other agencies and professionals.
These include the educational psychologist, police and health
professionals. Staff take children on a variety of interesting visits, both
in the local environment and further afield. Older children value
residential experiences which are successful in developing their
confidence and independence. Links between the nursery and
primary stages are very effective. The school has very good links with
other remote island schools. A full and effective programme of
activities helps children at P7 to transfer easily to Anderson High
School. It prepares them well for living with others in the school
hostel.
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Children are confident and eager to take on the many key areas of
responsibility given to them. Children at all stages act as helpers and
‘eco super heroes’. Older children act as mentors for younger children
by helping them and including them in all aspects of school life.
Through their Eco-Schools Scotland work, children make important
decisions about what happens to the school environment. They
observe and record sightings of birds, insects and flowers for local and
national surveys. Staff teamwork is very effective. The ethos in the
school is outstanding and all staff give willingly of their own time to
maintain the school’s very high reputation within the community. Staff
are reflective and they regularly discuss and share best practice. They
have a clear idea of what constitutes effective learning and teaching.
Effective approaches to self-evaluation and improvement planning
have led to important improvements in attainment and achievement,
the curriculum and meeting the needs of learners. Children’s and
parents’ views are actively sought and acted upon by the school.
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7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Children across the school have high expectations of themselves in
their learning and in their wider achievements. They respond very
positively to challenges. Their behaviour and attitude to learning are
exemplary. There is a high level of mutual respect across the school.
This creates a very positive environment for staff and children to learn
together. Children know what to do if they are concerned about
anything. They believe they are treated fairly and equally. Children
feel strongly that bullying is something that does not happen in their
school. They build on their own strong sense of equality and fairness
by finding out about the values and needs of other cultures. Staff have
a clear understanding of their responsibilities for child protection.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The school is successfully developing confident and articulate children,
committed to lifelong learning and ready to take on challenges.
Children play an important part in helping the school achieve its
ambitions. Partnerships with parents and the community help to
support new initiatives and keep the school outward-looking. Staff are
clear about their vision to ensure that every child receives a high
quality learning experience. The headteacher knows the school very
well and provides highly effective leadership. She is well respected by
staff, children and the community. She manages the pace of
curriculum change and innovation very well. As a result, the school is
very well placed to continue to deliver very high quality education.
9. What happens next?
The inspection team was able to rely on the school’s self-evaluation to
make its evaluations and the school agreed with these evaluations at
an early stage of the inspection. As a result, the inspection team was
able to change its focus during the inspection to help the school plan
to improve even more.
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The school provides a very good quality of education. Therefore, 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 area for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Continue to build on the high quality education and care being
provided for all children.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there
were no requirements. One recommendation was made and this
has been addressed.
8
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 and Nursery
Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
excellent
excellent
very 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: Lesley A Allan
3 November 2009
9
very good
very 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 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education