5 June 2007
1. Background
2. Key strengths
3. What are the views of parents, pupils and staff?
4. How good are learning, teaching and achievement?
5. How well are pupils’ learning needs met?
6. How good is the environment for learning?
7. Leading and improving the school
Appendix 1 Indicators of quality
Appendix 2 Summary of questionnaire responses
How can you contact us?
St Winning's Primary School was inspected in February 2007 as part of a national sample of primary education. The inspection covered key aspects of the work of the school at all stages. It evaluated pupils’ achievements, the effectiveness of the school, the environment for learning, the school’s processes for self-evaluation and innovation, and its capacity for improvement. There was a particular focus on attainment in English language and mathematics.
HM Inspectors examined pupils' work and interviewed groups of pupils, including the pupil council, and staff. Members of the inspection team also met the chairperson of the School Board, representatives of the parent-teacher association (PTA) and a group of parents1.
The inspection team also evaluated aspects of the school's progress in implementing national recommendations related to improving aspects of school meals provision.
St Winning’s Primary School is a denominational school serving the Corsehill, Dirrans, Blacklands and part of Pennyburn areas of Kilwinning. At the time of the inspection the roll was 134. The proportion of pupils who were entitled to free school meals was well above the national average. Pupils' attendance was in line with the national average.
HM Inspectors identified the following key strengths.
|
HM Inspectors analysed responses to questionnaires issued to all parents, P4 to P7 pupils, and to all staff. Information about the responses to the questionnaires appears in Appendix 2.
Parents, pupils and staff were very pleased with the work of the school. Most parents were positive about the significant changes made by the recently-appointed headteacher. Almost all parents thought their children enjoyed being at school and that the school set high standards for pupils. A few raised concerns about the level of support for pupils with additional support needs. Pupils enjoyed being at school. They felt safe and well looked after. A significant minority thought behaviour in the playground could be improved. They said that teachers told them when they were doing something well and explained things clearly. A significant minority were concerned about the arrangements in the dining hall. All staff were very positive about working in the school. They felt they worked well together and the school was well led. Most thought that the number of changes in management of the school in recent years had affected the effectiveness of school improvement priorities. A significant number of support staff felt they could be more involved in the decision-making process and there was room for improvement in pupils’ playground behaviour.
Pupils’ learning experiences and achievements
The overall structure of the curriculum was good. Pupils experienced a broad and balanced curriculum which helped them develop a wide range of skills. At all stages, pupils had valuable experiences in art and design. Pupils’ personal and social skills were being very effectively developed. Teachers had allocated additional time to teaching English language and mathematics but the impact of this on pupils’ learning had not yet been evaluated. The school was making good progress towards ensuring all pupils received two hours a week of high quality physical education. Overall, teachers were not yet effectively building on pupils’ prior learning experiences in listening and talking, environmental studies and mathematics. The quality of teaching was good. Teachers gave clear explanations and made good use of praise to increase pupils’ self-confidence. Most teachers shared learning intentions with pupils, but not all consistently reviewed what had been learned at the end of each lesson. At P3/4, pupils were actively involved in their learning through the effective use of an interactive whiteboard. Regular homework was set but tasks lacked variety.
The quality of pupils’ learning experiences was good. Most pupils were enthusiastic learners who worked hard in school. They listened attentively to instructions and explanations. Most tasks were appropriate and challenging with a suitable pace of delivery. However, at times pupils took too long to settle to work. At P7, pupils benefited from working collaboratively on a task associated with their topic on World War Two. At the early stages, pupils were active learners and experienced well-planned play activities. At P3/4, pupils worked well together in pairs and small groups on a variety of tasks. Overall, pupils had insufficient opportunities to take responsibility for their learning. Across the school, pupils were not clear enough about what they needed to do to improve their learning.
Wider Achievements
At all stages, pupils achieved success in a broad range of areas. Many pupils developed their sporting skills through a wide range of out-of-school activities including football, netball and badminton. The school football team had won the Smithstone House cup for the past two years and several pupils had represented North Ayrshire in a regional badminton tournament. Pupils developed an awareness of the needs of others by working with staff and parents to organise fundraising events. Pupils’ knowledge and awareness of enterprise education was being effectively developed through well-planned activities. This included a successful fashion show organised and staged by P2/1, and a Burns night organised by P6. Senior pupils took their responsibilities seriously, acting as buddies to younger pupils and playground games instructors at lunchtime. Senior pupils also had further opportunity to develop teambuilding and their personal and social skills at the annual residential experience in Arran.
English language
The overall quality of attainment in English language was good. In recent years, attainment in writing had improved while in reading it had remained steady. Most pupils were achieving appropriate levels of attainment. Across the school, pupils listened well to instructions and directions from teachers. Most pupils expressed their views clearly and confidently, particularly at the senior stages. Most pupils with additional support needs were making appropriate progress in their learning. Pupils showed good listening and talking skills during class discussions, for example, at P6, when setting the scene for story writing. Pupils in the early years were beginning to develop their listening and talking skills through play. Across the stages, most pupils read well and for a variety of purposes. Those at P7 could talk knowledgably about books they had read, and were able to read and discuss unfamiliar texts confidently. However, not all pupils read regularly enough for pleasure. Pupils wrote regularly for a variety of purposes, using a range of styles. The majority of pupils were making steady progress in their writing course work, but a number were capable of achieving higher standards. Overall, standards of punctuation, spelling and presentation were variable.
Mathematics
The overall quality of pupils’ attainment in mathematics was adequate. In recent years, levels of attainment in mathematics had remained steady. Most pupils were achieving appropriate national levels of attainment. At P2 and P3, many pupils were achieving these levels earlier than might normally be expected. However, a significant minority of pupils at the middle and upper stages were capable of achieving even higher standards by being set more challenging tasks. Most pupils with additional support needs were making appropriate progress in their learning. By P7, pupils could confidently interpret information from a range of graphs and charts and were starting to develop appropriate skills in using computers to handle information. Across the school, the majority of pupils’ written calculation skills were well developed. A significant majority were not skilled in carrying out mental calculations. Pupils had a good knowledge and understanding of the properties of shapes. At all stages, most pupils were able to use a range of strategies to help solve mathematical problems. However, they did not have sufficient experience of deciding which strategy was the most effective to solve the problem.
Support for pupils’ learning needs was adequate. Class teachers systematically tracked the progress of all pupils, including those with additional support needs. Staff put in place effective systems to assist individuals and groups. However, most higher attaining pupils were not set appropriately challenging tasks. In most classes, too little attention was given to matching tasks to pupils’ learning needs. Many pupils were not clear about what they had to do to improve their work. The support for learning teacher provided adequate support to few individuals and groups in classes. However, the needs of the majority of pupils requiring additional support were not being sufficiently well met. Individualised educational programmes with appropriate short and long term targets were in place for identified pupils. Parents, pupils and class teachers were not actively enough involved in setting and working towards these learning targets.
Aspect |
Comment |
Pastoral care |
The school’s arrangements for ensuring that pupils were safe and well in school were very good. Staff knew pupils well and were sensitive to their needs. Clear and effective child protection arrangements were in place. All staff were clear about what to do when they had concerns. They took effective action when necessary, to ensure children got the help they needed. The school had an appropriate anti-bullying policy, which was clearly understood by staff. Most pupils were confident in the effectiveness of these approaches. Most pupils had a good understanding of how to maintain healthy lifestyles through the school’s active approaches to health promotion. However a few were less confident in their knowledge about healthy eating. |
Quality of accommodation and facilities |
The overall quality of accommodation was good. The school, with the support of the education authority, had refurbished classrooms and office space. Appropriate arrangements for security were in place. Classrooms were spacious and teachers had created a bright and stimulating learning environment with effective displays. Resources were very well organised. All classes made very effective, regular use of the well-equipped ICT suite and library to enhance pupils’ learning. Most areas of the building were accessible for disabled users. |
Climate and relationships, expectations and promoting achievement and equality |
Staff, pupils and most parents had a strong sense of identity and pride in their school. Staff had created a warm and welcoming environment and relationships between staff and pupils were very positive. Throughout the school, pupils were friendly, courteous and almost all behaved very well. Pupils’ achievements were recorded in displays of photographs and celebrated at assemblies. Staff had high expectations of pupils’ attendance. They should now raise their expectations for the attainment of all pupils including those who were higher achieving. There were regular opportunities for religious observance. Staff were developing approaches to promoting race equality and to helping pupils recognise and tackle discrimination. In the playground, a few pupils did not always show respect and tolerance for others. |
Partnership with parents and the community |
The school had established very good partnerships with parents and the local community. The School Board and PTA worked in close partnership with the school and provided a very good level of support. The school consulted parents effectively about aspects of its work, including potentially sensitive aspects of health education. Recently, parents’ views about the work of the school had been gathered to inform future priorities to improve the work of the school. The school had effective arrangements for the transition of children in the nursery to P1. This included P7 pupils creating a digital movie which informed parents and children about the work of the school. The home-school liaison worker provided very effective support to families. Parent helpers and members of the community supported aspects of the school’s work, such as active play in the early stages. |
Appendix 1 provides HM Inspectors’ overall evaluation of the work of the school.
St Winning’s Primary School provided its pupils with a caring and stimulating learning environment. The quality of learning and teaching was good and pupils interacted well with each other and with teachers. Pupils were making good progress in English language. However, pupils’ achievements in mathematics could be improved. At all stages, pupils’ wider achievements were regularly celebrated. Staff’s expectations of pupils’ attainment in most areas of the curriculum were not high enough. Teaching and learning experiences did not challenge all pupils to maximise their learning potential.
The recently-appointed headteacher was hard working, very committed to the school and had accurately identified priorities to improve pupils’ learning experiences. Whole school approaches to promoting positive behaviour were beginning to impact positively on pupils’ learning. The principal teacher fulfilled her recently reviewed remit well. She worked effectively with pupils in classrooms and in small groups. She now needed to work with staff to sustain this good work. Most staff, parents and pupils were appropriately involved in decision making. The headteacher needed to ensure everyone shared in this positive approach in improving the work of the school. The headteacher was building on the existing good approaches for evaluating the work of the school and monitoring pupils’ progress. This had started to impact well on the school’s continuing improvement. The school should build on these positive processes to raise attainment ensuring they impacted sufficiently on teaching and meeting all pupils’ learning needs. With continued support from the education authority the school was well placed to improve.
Main points for action The school and education authority should take action to improve learning, teaching and meeting needs. In doing so they should take account of the need to:
|
What happens next?
The school and the education authority have been asked to prepare an action plan indicating how they will address the main findings of the report, and to share that plan with parents. Within two years of the publication of this report parents will be informed about the progress made by the school.
Elizabeth C Cole
HM Inspector
5 June 2007
The sections in the table below follow the order in this report. You can find the main comments made about each of the quality indicators in those sections. However, aspects of some quality indicators are relevant to other sections of the report and may also be mentioned in those other sections.
| How good are learning, teaching and achievement? | |
Structure of the curriculum |
good |
The teaching process |
good |
Pupils’ learning experiences |
good |
Pupils’ attainment in English language |
good |
Pupils’ attainment in mathematics |
adequate |
How well are pupils’ learning needs met? |
|
Meeting pupils’ needs |
adequate |
How good is the environment for learning? |
|
Pastoral care |
very good |
Accommodation and facilities |
good |
Climate and relationships |
very good |
Expectations and promoting achievement |
good |
Equality and fairness |
good |
Partnership with parents, the School Board, and the community |
very good |
Leading and improving the school |
|
Leadership of the headteacher |
good |
Self-evaluation |
good |
This report uses the following word scale to make clear judgements made by inspectors:
| excellent | outstanding, sector leading |
| very good | major strengths |
| good | important strengths with some areas for improvement |
| adequate | strengths just outweigh weaknesses |
| weak | important weaknesses |
| unsatisfactory | major weaknesses |
Important features of responses from the various groups which received questionnaires are listed below.
What parents thought the school did well |
What parents think the school could do better |
|
|
What pupils thought the school did well |
What pupils think the school could do better |
|
|
What staff thought the school did well |
What staff think the school could do better |
|
|
If you would like an additional copy of this report
Copies of this report have been sent to the headteacher and school staff, the Corporate Director (Educational Services), local councillors and appropriate Members of the Scottish Parliament. Subject to availability, further copies may be obtained free of charge from HM Inspectorate of Education, Europa Building, 450 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8LG or by telephoning 0141 242 0100. Copies are also available on our website www.hmie.gov.uk .
HMIE Feedback and Complaints Procedure
If you wish to comment about primary inspections
Should you wish to comment on any aspect of primary inspections,provision for pupils with additional support needs, you should write in the first instance to Chris McIlroy, HMCI, at HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
If you have a concern about this report, you should write in the first instance to our Complaints Manager, HMIE Business Management Unit, Second Floor, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston, EH54 6GA. You can also e-mail HMIEComplaints@hmie.gsi.gov.uk. A copy of our complaints procedure is available from this office, by telephoning 01506 600200 or from our website at www.hmie.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the action we have taken at the end of our complaints procedure, you can raise your complaint with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO). The SPSO is fully independent and has powers to investigate complaints about Government departments and agencies. You should write to the SPSO, Freepost EH641, Edinburgh EH3 0BR. You can also telephone 0800 377 7330 (fax 0800 377 7331) or e-mail: ask@spso.org.uk. More information about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website: www.spso.org.uk.
Crown Copyright 2007
HM Inspectorate of Education
This report may be reproduced in whole or in part, except for commercial purposes or in connection with a prospectus or advertisement, provided that the source and date thereof are stated.
1. Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers, residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.