20 May 2014
Dear Parent/Carer
Craigholme School, Glasgow
HM Inspectors recently visited Craigholme School. The visit was part of our quality
improvement and professional engagement visits with independent schools which
complement the general programme of inspections. The approach allows us to
maintain our knowledge of schools in the independent sector throughout Scotland, and
provides assurance to parents on the school’s capacity for evaluating its own work and
making improvements which have a direct impact on the quality of experiences for its
young people. Our visit was based on the school’s self-evaluation and priorities
identified for school improvement. During our visit inspectors talked to staff and young
people and worked together with the Principal and senior staff about the planned
developments to ensure outcomes for children and young people continue to improve.
How well does the school ensure outcomes for children and young people
continue to improve?
The school has very effective approaches in place to ensure learning, teaching and
young people’s achievements continue to improve. Across the nursery and school,
staff have a clear sense of direction and have a strong focus on ensuring children and
young people achieve all that they can. The school has appropriate systems in place
to support children’s wellbeing and safety. Children and young people are very
positive about their school and about the opportunities they have. The Principal and
senior managers ensure a strong focus on continuous improvement and on ensuring
the needs of individuals are well met. Staff know children and young people well and
have established strong and purposeful relationships with them. Children and young
people have very good opportunities to take on leadership roles. They enjoy being
involved in committees and arranging school events. This teaches them useful skills
and helps increase their confidence. The school now needs to consider how it can
develop further the involvement of children and young people in having a say about
how to improve their learning.
Across the nursery and school, staff use a range of methods to monitor and evaluate
their work. They have benefitted from ‘ask, describe, ask’ classroom observations
which have helped them to improve their practice. They regularly share good practice
to improve their work. In the best practice, this has led to ongoing sustained
improvements and very high quality experiences for children and young people. For
example, in the nursery and junior school, staff are very reflective and regularly work
together to suggest new and innovative ideas for improving their practice. They seek
the views of children and use this to ensure their work supports improvement in
Education Scotland
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Almondvale Way
Livingston
EH54 6GA
T
01506 600 380
F
01506 600 337
E colleges@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
Textphone 01506 600236
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www.educationscotland.gov.uk
Transforming lives through learning
children’s development and learning. The school should now build on this good
practice to focus on ensuring greater consistency in the quality of young people’s
learning within and across all departments in the senior school.
Across the nursery and school, children and young people benefit from a high quality
learning environment and a climate of mutual trust and respect. Children and young
people are friendly, work very well together and are highly motivated and engaged in
their learning. Teachers support them to achieve very well in a broad range of areas.
Young people’s attainment in national qualifications in S4 to S6 is very strong. Almost
all young people enjoy school and feel that the school prepares them well for their next
steps. Teachers assess, track and monitor children and young people’s progress very
carefully. The quality of learning and teaching across the nursery, junior school and
most areas of the senior school was of a very high quality. Support for children with
additional learning needs is very strong across the nursery and school. Children and
young people also benefit from approaches being developed across the school that
support their health and wellbeing. They have very high quality experiences that
support their broader achievements, for example in music and sport. The sports
complex provides very high quality facilities for young people, their families and the
wider community which supports their health and wellbeing.
Transitions at all stages across the school are well planned and support children and
young people very well. In the nursery, staff work closely with parents to support
children’s transition to nursery and then in to junior school. Children moving to other
schools after nursery are also very well supported by staff. Junior school and senior
school staff work very well to support children’s progress in their learning and young
people in the senior school are very well supported for life beyond Craigholme School.
Children across the junior school benefit from specialist teaching from senior school
staff across a range of areas including music, physical education, science and French.
At junior 7, children also benefit from being located in the senior school and spending
around half of their week in senior school classes. They are very positive about this
experience and it supports their transition and progress well. The curriculum supports
children’s learning well and staff have made very good progress in reviewing and
refreshing courses and programmes in line with national guidance including new
national qualifications. This is ensuring that children’s and young people’s learning is
coherent, relevant and builds well on their prior learning.
What happens next?
We are confident the school has the necessary arrangements and procedures in place
to ensure continued improvement in the quality of education provided. The school and
Board of Directors will inform parents about the school's progress as part of its
arrangements for reporting to parents on the work of the school.
Lesley R Brown
HM Inspector
20 May 2014
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please contact the administration team on the above telephone number.
If you want to give us feedback or make a complaint about our work, please contact us
by telephone on 0141 282 5000, or e-mail: complaints@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
or write to us addressing your letter to the Complaints Manager, Denholm House,
Almondvale Business Park, Livingston EH54 6GA.
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