St Charles’ Primary School
North Kelvinside
Glasgow City 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. Example 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
St Charles’ Primary School is a denominational school. It serves the
North Kelvinside and Maryhill area of Glasgow. The roll was 240 when
the inspection was carried out in September 2009. The school roll
increased by 107 in recent months. Children’s attendance was below
the national average in 2007/2008. The Language Unit which shares
the accommodation was inspected at the same time and is subject to a
separate report.
1
2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Improved attainment in reading, writing and mathematics.
•
Well-behaved children who are keen to learn.
•
An ethos where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
•
Involvement of all staff in leading school improvement.
•
Leadership of the headteacher who has shared her vision for the
school.
3. Example of good practice
•
The impact of education about sustainable development education
on children’s learning.
4. How well do children learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Almost all children are highly motivated and keen to learn. They are
polite and respectful learners. At almost all stages, children are given
responsibility for aspects of their learning. They cooperate very well
with each other working in pairs and in small groups. Most children
make good use of ‘learning logs’ where they write about what they
want to learn next. These are particularly effective at P5 to P7 where
children regularly talk about their learning and record the progress they
are making. Children like learning outside and finding out about their
2
local area. At P1 to P3, children enjoy active learning experiences
where they are developing well their literacy and numeracy skills.
At all stages, children are growing in confidence and developing very
well their teamwork, citizenship and leadership skills. This is evident
through their active and meaningful involvement in school committees,
cultural and sporting groups and in classwork. At P4, children’s
knowledge of the environment and their awareness of sustainability
issues are further enhanced through weekly visits to the local botanic
gardens. Children do not have enough access to information and
communications technology (ICT) in classes to extend their ICT skills.
Most children attain appropriate national levels in reading and
mathematics. Almost all do so in listening, talking and in mathematics.
In recent years, the school has raised standards of attainment in
reading, writing and mathematics. The school is taking appropriate
action to further improve attainment in writing. Across the school,
many children achieve expected levels of attainment in reading, writing
and mathematics early. Almost all children listen very attentively to
their teachers and to each other. They communicate their opinions
and ideas well in discussions. At P1, children talked confidently about
their bubble-blowing experiments while those at P7 read aloud with
expression their tree poems. Most children enjoy reading for a variety
of purposes. Across the school, children are not yet writing regularly
enough, handwriting skills vary and presentation could be better. In
mathematics, almost all children can do mental and written
calculations well. By P7, children are able to use a range of problem
solving skills.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
Staff provide children with a broad and well-balanced curriculum. The
school is at an early stage of implementing the national initiative,
Curriculum for Excellence. Staff now need to build on their recent
curriculum development work to ensure they have a greater depth of
understanding of the design principles of Curriculum for Excellence.
Staff are planning an increasing number of relevant activities across
3
the curriculum. At most stages these are supporting children’s literacy
and numeracy skills well. Staff provide very well-structured
experiences in health, enterprise, personal and social development
(PSD) and environmental education. They make good use of
residential trips and visits to extend children’s learning. All children in
primary classes benefit from two hours of good quality physical
education, each week. Plans are in place to involve children from the
language unit in physical education lessons.
Across the school, staff meet children’s learning needs well. Staff
track children’s progress carefully. They arrange additional help for
those who need it. They keep helpful records which are shared with
parents and other professionals as required. Visiting staff provide
valuable support for children with additional support needs and those
who have English as an additional language. Support from classroom
assistants is well targeted but is not consistently effective. Staff have
created a very inclusive and nurturing environment. They use
‘welcome sessions’ to help settle children who are new to the school.
Teachers are well organised. Almost all use questioning effectively to
support learners. They use praise regularly and oral and written
feedback is helping children to improve their work. Most staff set
children work at the right level but sometimes it is too easy to meet
children’s needs. Teachers need to share more regularly the
highly-effective teaching practice which exists at some stages.
Teachers set homework tasks regularly. A review of the homework
policy would ensure a more consistent approach across the school.
5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s
learning?
Staff have developed very effective links with a wide range of other
organisations to ensure that children’s learning is well supported.
They work closely with the supportive Parent Council. Together they
have helped the significant number of new children and families settle
into their new environment. The school’s arrangements for dealing
with complaints are clearly described and effective. Newsletters and a
4
recently-launched school website provide parents with important
information on the work of the school. Teachers provide parents with
a detailed curriculum leaflet at the start of each term and informative
written reports three times a year. Parents are fully consulted on
matters relating to sensitive aspects of health education. Parents help
with activities in classes and lend a hand on school trips. As a result,
parents feel they are more involved as partners in their children’s
learning. A full and effective programme of transition activities helps
children in P7 settle into S1 in John Paul Academy. The school
receives children from a large number of pre-school centres. Staff
work hard to ensure children make a smooth transition into P1. They
visit centres and prepare children and families well for the transition.
6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their
school community?
All children respond very positively to the many opportunities they
have to influence school improvement. Children take seriously their
involvement in the pupil council, ‘eco’ committee, fair trade committee
and right respecting school committee. Such involvement has resulted
in improvements to the school grounds, to traffic signs near the school
and to the redecoration of toilets. The school organises events each
year to raise funds for local and international charities. These events
help to strengthen the already strong sense of community
demonstrated by all staff and children. The school is rightly proud of
its platinum award for enterprise and Eco Green Flag. The staff team
are fully involved in school improvement. They value the opportunities
they have had to improve areas of the curriculum, for example the
health and personal and social development programme. A few are
pursuing additional qualifications. They reflect regularly on their own
practice and have evaluated each other’s teaching approaches. The
headteacher regularly seeks the views of parents, children and staff.
She has used data from these surveys to improve a number of aspects
of the work of the school. The school improvement plan has had a
positive impact on many aspects of the work of the school.
5
7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
Children are very well-behaved. Staff treat children fairly and with
respect. They celebrate children’s achievements. For example, highly
attractive displays in classrooms and in corridors demonstrate
children’s achievements across the curriculum. An annual art
exhibition successfully highlights children’s progress in art and design.
Teachers make good use of points and reward stickers to
acknowledge achievements. Weekly assemblies and regular church
services enable staff and children to celebrate their faith with family
members and others in the parish. Children are developing their
understanding of the differences that exist between people in society.
Children talk enthusiastically about their work to promote health and
wellbeing. They know who to go to if they have concerns about their
safety. Children feel the school deals very well with any instances of
bullying. Playground buddies support others well during intervals and
at lunchtime. Staff have a clear understanding of their responsibilities
for example, for child protection, to protect children from harm.
8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher is a very effective leader and is held in high regard
by parents, children and staff. She has successfully communicated
her vision for the school with staff and parents. The headteacher and
her staff have worked hard to ensure that all new children and their
families are fully included in the life of the school. An agreed set of
school values underpin the work of the school. The headteacher is
very well supported by her acting depute headteacher and a principal
teacher. Both fulfil their remits very effectively. The headteacher
knows her school very well and is very well placed to improve further
the work of the school.
6
9. What happens next?
As a result of the very 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 school.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Continue to raise attainment in writing.
•
Continue to improve the curriculum in line with Curriculum for
Excellence.
•
Build on the existing good practice in learning and teaching to meet
the needs of all children.
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 St Charles’ Primary School.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
very good
very good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Marion Burns
3 November 2009
8
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