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. 1 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. 2 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 3 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. 6 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. 7 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