Fairlie Primary School and
Nursery Class
North Ayrshire Council
29 June 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
Fairlie Primary School is a non-denominational school with a nursery
class. It serves the town of Fairlie. The roll was 132, including 25 in
the nursery, when the inspection was carried out in May 2010.
Children’s attendance was in line with the national average in
2008/2009. The headteacher had recently taken up post in
November 2009.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Children who are polite and enthusiastic.
•
Children’s success in establishing new garden areas.
•
The work of the new headteacher in improving learning and
teaching.
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Children across the school are enthusiastic learners. In the nursery
class, children play well together. They are beginning to organise their
own learning activities. Staff can now build on this to ensure activities
and routines help children become more independent in their learning.
At the primary stages, children work well together in groups to share
their ideas. They are learning to take responsibility for completing
tasks. The majority of children talk confidently about their own
learning. Overall, children are not clear about what they do well and
what they need to do to improve their learning.
Children in the nursery class are making good progress in their
learning. They have shown particular interest in finding out about
different skeletons by using information and communications
technology (ICT). Across the school, children have experienced
success in a range of activities which enhance their learning, for
example, in local competitions about Robert Burns and musical
performances in the village. These kind of activities should be further
developed across the school. Children are successful in sport. Across
the school, children understand how to keep themselves healthy.
2
Children are proud of their garden areas and are working well with the
janitor to build their own greenhouse. They are becoming more aware
of sustainability issues through their work with Eco-Schools Scotland.
In the nursery, children listen well and speak confidently using wide
ranging vocabulary. They enjoy books and like to experiment with
early writing. They do not yet use writing independently enough in all
areas of their learning. Children are beginning to explore pattern in
number. They are now ready to extend these skills further. At the
primary stages, children’s attainment in reading, writing and
mathematics has been variable. Most children attain appropriate
national levels in writing and almost all do so in reading and
mathematics. Children who attain these levels earlier than might
normally be expected do not always keep up their rate of progress as
they move up through their stages. In English language, most children
listen well and can discuss the books they are reading for pleasure.
They write for a wide range of purposes, for example, to accompany
art work or express their feelings. Children do not write at length often
enough. Across the school, most children are confident in mental
calculations. At the early stages, most use number confidently to play
games. At the middle stages, most children use time successfully to
solve problems. Older children are learning to represent accurately
the size of the garden on a scale drawing. At all stages, children need
more experience in handling and displaying data for a range of
purposes.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Across the school, staff provide children with a broad curriculum. Staff
are beginning to take account of Curriculum for Excellence. In doing
so, they must ensure the curriculum enables all children to develop
their skills at a brisker pace. Staff have yet to improve how areas of
study within the curriculum join together across the stages. This will
ensure children develop their skills more consistently across all areas
of their learning. With guidance from North Ayrshire Council, staff
have recently improved the quality of numeracy activities. These
activities are now beginning to be used across the curriculum.
3
Opportunities for children to use their literacy skills more widely are
developing well. The curriculum is enriched through a visiting
specialist in music. Staff provide all children with two hours of good
quality physical education each week. This is supported well by a
visiting specialist. Staff across the school have recently begun to
make use of the stimulating natural environment and local community
to enrich children’s learning.
Staff in the nursery class know children well. Children feel secure and
confident. Overall, activities are matched to the needs of most
children. Staff have yet to identify more clearly what children will learn
next. At the primary stages, tasks and activities meet the needs of the
majority of children. Staff do not always ensure that activities help
every child make sufficient progress from their earlier learning. At
times, children do not find their learning tasks challenging enough.
The school has recently introduced new systems to support children
who need extra help in their learning. These are working well and the
school now provides better support to children with a range of
additional needs. Staff are well supported by classroom assistants.
They now need to ensure classroom assistants are used more
effectively to support and extend learning within all classrooms.
Teachers share the purposes of activities and lessons with children.
Teachers should further develop their questioning skills to encourage
children to think deeply enough about their learning. Teachers have
improved the link between homework tasks and classroom work.
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Parents feel there is a supportive atmosphere across the school. They
appreciate the opportunities to become involved in learning through
sharing their expertise and by helping in the classroom. Most parents
feel their child is progressing well and the majority feel that the school
keeps them well informed about their child’s progress. The
headteacher is building productive relationships with the Parent
Council. She deals very well with parental concerns and complaints
4
and has improved communication. The school values the work of a
number of partners. The school nurse supports staff in consulting with
parents and in delivering the programme for sensitive aspects of
health and relationships. The home-school inclusion officer provides
practical support and guidance to families. In particular, she works in
partnership to support children well as they make transitions into P1
and Largs Academy.
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
Across the school, staff have made a positive start to improving
learning and teaching. Staff are developing new ways to encourage
children to work well together and take responsibility for their own
learning. These approaches need to become more consistent within
and across classes. Children like to contribute to school life and share
their views through pupil groups. They have contributed very well to a
recent homework survey and arrangements for the purchase of new
playground equipment. The headteacher has made an important start
to consulting with staff and children about all aspects of the school.
Teachers reflect on learning and teaching within their own classrooms.
With a strong lead from the management team, they are beginning to
track and monitor the progress of all children. This self-evaluation is
not yet securing improvements to learning and teaching across the
school. Teachers now need to work more effectively as a team to
ensure self-evaluation becomes central to school improvement.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Staff and children throughout the school are welcoming. Children
speak confidently about their school and are very polite toward all who
are part of the school community. Staff have high expectations of
children’s conduct. They celebrate children’s achievements well
through awards and by displaying children’s work attractively. Staff
enjoy positive relationships with children but do not always share high
5
enough expectations of children’s achievements. The school has
updated its procedures to protect children from harm. Children are
developing a positive awareness of the beliefs and values of others.
Appropriate arrangements are in place for religious observance.
These are enhanced through close links with the parish minister.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The new headteacher is settling into her post well and is highly
committed to school improvement. She is building very positive
relationships with all who are part of the Fairlie Primary School
community. The headteacher has a very clear view of the school’s
strengths and areas for improvement. She should now invite the
school community to create a new vision for the school. The principal
teacher provides valuable support to the headteacher. The
management team now need to build upon, with staff, the recent
positive start to improvements in learning and teaching. The school,
with the support of the education authority, has the capacity to
improve.
8. What happens next?
We are confident that, with support from the education authority, the
school will be able to make the necessary improvements in light of the
inspection findings. As a result, we will make no more visits in
connection with this inspection. The school and the education
authority will inform parents about the school's progress in improving
the quality of education. Our District Inspector will maintain contact
with the education authority to monitor improvements in self-evaluation.
6
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Improve the quality of children’s learning experiences across the
school.
•
Continue to develop the curriculum, taking account of Curriculum
for Excellence.
•
Improve the pace and challenge of learning to meet children’s
needs more effectively.
•
Improve the use of self-evaluation by staff to lead to improvements
in achievement, learning and teaching.
At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class no
requirements or recommendations were made.
7
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 Fairlie Primary School and Nursery Class.
Primary school
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
satisfactory
satisfactory
Nursery class
Improvements in performance
Children’s experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and
nursery class.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Shona E S Taylor
29 June 2010
8
satisfactory
weak
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