St Mary’s Primary School and Nursery Class
Largs
North Ayrshire Council

22 January 2008

Contents

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?

1. Background

St Mary's Primary School and Nursery Class were inspected in October 2007 as part of a national sample of primary and nursery education. The inspection covered key aspects of the work of the school at all stages. It evaluated nursery children's and 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 the quality of the children's experience in the nursery, pupils' work and interviewed groups of pupils, including the pupil council, and staff. Members of the inspection team also met the chairperson of the Parent Council and a group of parents¹.

St Mary's Primary School is a denominational school serving an area of Largs. At the time of the inspection the roll was 223, including 29 children in the nursery class. The proportion of pupils who were entitled to free school meals was well below the national average. Pupils' attendance was above the national average.

2. Key strengths

3. What are the views of parents, pupils and staff?

HM Inspectors analysed responses to questionnaires issued to a sample of parents, P4 to P7 pupils, and to all staff. Information about the responses to the questionnaires appears in Appendix 2.

Parents felt that the school and nursery class had a good reputation in the local community and that staff made them feel welcome. They thought that teachers showed concern for children’s care and welfare and set high standards for pupils’ attainment. A few felt that progress reports could be more helpful. Pupils were very positive about the school. They thought that teachers explained things clearly, helped them when they were having difficulties with their classwork and expected them to work hard. Teachers and support staff felt they provided pupils with a high level of care and there was mutual respect between staff and pupils. The majority felt that communication between senior managers and staff was not effective. Staff wanted more opportunities to be involved in the decision-making process and in discussing the school’s priorities for improvement.

4. How good are learning, teaching and achievement?

Pupils’ learning experiences and achievements

The school provided pupils with a broad and well-balanced curriculum. Children in the nursery class benefited from a well-planned learning environment with stimulating and enjoyable activities. Nursery staff successfully encouraged children to link their learning and transfer their skills and knowledge across different areas of the curriculum. From P1 to P7, teachers had made flexible use of additional teaching time in a number of areas to support developments and improve pupils’ learning experiences. For example, in English language, art and design and play activities. Pupils’ learning experiences were enhanced by a range of visits and visitors to the school. Visiting specialist teachers provided pupils with very good high quality learning experiences in music. Staff provided pupils with planned opportunities to promote enterprise activities and citizenship which were helping to develop pupils’ team working skills. Pupils’ skills in information and communications technology (ICT) were developing well. However, there was scope for ICT to be used more effectively to enhance learning and teaching across the curriculum. The school was working towards providing two hours of physical education each week for all pupils. Across the school, the quality of teaching was variable. At the early stages, the range of teaching approaches was limited, and frequently relied too heavily on the use of textbooks and worksheets in lessons. From P4 to P7, there were examples of good and very good practice. Most teachers gave clear instructions and explanations. In best practice, teachers shared learning intentions and reviewed what had been learned at the end of each lesson. However, this approach was not consistent across the school. Most teachers made good use of praise to encourage and motivate pupils. Questioning did not always challenge pupils enough to think for themselves. Teachers provided pupils with homework which supported their classwork. There was scope for more variety within tasks.

The quality of pupils’ learning was good. Children in the nursery were confident and active in their learning. They investigated a wide range of creative techniques and confidently used a variety of media to express their own ideas. They operated the digital and video camera well during play. Children cooperated safely with others during energetic physical activities and were developing their running and jumping skills. Pupils throughout the primary classes were enthusiastic and keen to learn. At P1 and P2, pupils had good opportunities to be active in their learning through play but it was not yet purposeful enough. At the middle and upper stages, pupils were developing good skills in discussing ideas in groups and working collaboratively. At P4, pupils confidently worked well as a team to plan their topic on the Vikings. At P5, pupils were enthusiastically and successfully learning to play instruments together in preparation for a Christmas musical performance. At P7, pupils were beginning to set individual learning targets through effective use of their homework diaries. However, across the school, pupils were not always clear about what they had to do to improve their learning. In a few lessons, the pace of learning was too slow and pupils were not sufficiently challenged.

The school had taken very good steps to develop pupils’ wider achievements. In the nursery, children were calm, confident and secure with nursery routines. Staff involved children in making decisions and children successfully carried out their chosen tasks. Across the school, pupils were caring, supportive of each other and making very good progress in developing confidence and self-esteem. They willingly took on additional responsibilities, including acting as monitors, representing each other on the pupil council, the Eco committee and the Road Safety committee. Pupils were developing a very good understanding of environmental issues and worked hard to improve their surroundings. For example, pupils and parents were working with local schools and members of the community on projects to improve the local environment. Pupils at P6 had worked with a media training specialist and created a story board for filming. At all stages, pupils regularly participated and achieved success in a range of sporting and cultural events such as football, netball, swimming, cross-country events and a wide range of musical productions. The school choir regularly sang at local and national events.

English language

Children in the nursery were making very good progress in communication and language. They were confident when talking to each other and to adults and enjoyed listening to stories. Many recognised their own name and some were showing an interest in making marks and letters. In the primary classes, pupils’ attainment in English language was good overall. Levels of attainment had remained consistently high in recent years. Almost all pupils were attaining appropriate national levels in reading and most were doing so in writing. Across the school, pupils were developing good skills in listening and talking. The school had recently reviewed teachers’ planning for listening and talking. The impact of this had still to be measured. Most pupils were making suitable progress in their classwork. However, a few pupils at each stage were capable of even higher levels of attainment. Across the school, most pupils listened carefully to each other and to adults and expressed their views clearly and confidently. At the lower and middle stages, pupils could contribute well to small group and class discussion. By P7, they demonstrated good debating skills. Pupils read well with good understanding and fluency for a variety of purposes. Most could describe the key features of different types of books and showed good knowledge of language. Most pupils were making good progress in developing the quality and range of their writing. However, pupils were not always clear about how to improve their writing. Across the school, written work was well presented.

Mathematics

In the nursery class, children’s early number skills were well developed. Children were able to use the computer to make a bar graph of their favourite fruits. Many could count to ten and beyond. Across the school, the quality of attainment in mathematics was very good. In recent years, levels of attainment had remained high. Almost all pupils achieved appropriate national levels of attainment. At all stages, a significant number were achieving these levels earlier than might normally be expected. Pupils who had not attained appropriate national levels were making suitable progress in their classwork. Across the school, pupils were developing good skills in information handling. By P7, pupils were able to use computers well to organise and display information in databases and spreadsheets. At all stages, almost all could perform mental and written calculations accurately and were developing a good understanding of money and measurement. A few pupils at P7 were less confident in using fractions and decimals. They had a sound understanding of angles and could plot coordinates. Across the school, most pupils had a good understanding and knowledge of shape. By P7, pupils were able to identify and apply a range of problem solving strategies.

5. How well are pupils’ learning needs met?

The school’s approaches to meeting pupils’ needs were adequate overall. In the nursery, staff met the needs of individual children well. They identified the next steps in learning for individual children and made good use of their knowledge of children to focus support on groups and individuals. In the primary classes, most teachers made some use of whole class, group and individual teaching approaches which helped to meet pupils’ different needs. However, in a few classes teachers did not always ensure that tasks and activities were sufficiently varied, stimulating or challenging. Pupils were not yet sufficiently involved in setting and reviewing learning targets for aspects of their work in class. There were effective systems for identifying pupils who needed additional support with their learning. From P1 to P7, teachers and support staff offered a good level of support to pupils experiencing difficulties. Teachers made good use of individualised educational programmes and support plans to plan and monitor the progress of a small number of pupils. The recently-appointed network support teacher provided good support to small groups and individuals. Classroom assistants gave good support in working with groups of pupils and supporting classroom activities.

6. How good is the environment for learning?

7. Leading and improving the school

Appendix 1 provides HM Inspectors’ overall evaluation of the work of the school.

St Mary’s Primary School provided a caring and supportive environment for its pupils.

Children in the nursery class experienced a very good curriculum. Pupils were enthusiastic, well behaved and hardworking. Relationships between staff and pupils were positive. Attainment in mathematics was very good. There was headroom for improvement in pupils’ attainment in English language. Pupils were capable of taking more responsibility for organising aspects of their learning.

The headteacher was committed to the school. She had been in post for just over two years. During that time, she had played a significant part in improving aspects of the school’s provision for its pupils. For example, she had succeeded in maintaining high levels of attainment and had developed strong and supportive links with other schools, support agencies and the local community. She had successfully introduced active play at the early stages. The depute headteacher and the principal teacher fulfilled their remits well and provided good support to pupils and staff. They needed to develop further their roles as leaders for learning. The headteacher was encouraging individual members of staff to lead on aspects of curriculum development. Senior managers provided feedback to teachers on their plans and sampled pupils’ work. The headteacher had shared areas for development arising from the monitoring of teachers’ plans. Parents and pupils’ views had been sought on a number of issues and improvements had taken place as a result. Senior managers had recently started to visit classes to monitor learning and teaching. With the support of the education authority, teachers had used national indicators to evaluate aspects of the work of the school. However, they did not feel fully involved in the process and teaching continued to be variable. Senior managers now needed to ensure that teachers used these approaches consistently across all stages, and that good practice was shared more effectively. With the support of the education authority, the headteacher and all staff now needed to work more closely together to develop a culture of shared responsibility, mutual support and accountability which will enable the school to move forward.

Nursery staff were aware of the implications of the Scottish Social Services Council’s Code of Practice.

At the last Care Commission inspection there were no recommendations or requirements.

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.

Janet Ure
Managing Inspector

22 January 2008

Appendix 1 Indicators of quality

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.

This report uses the following word scale to make clear judgements made by inspectors:

Appendix 2 Summary of questionnaire responses

Important features of responses from the various groups which received questionnaires are listed below.

How can you contact us?

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

Should you wish to comment on any aspect of primary inspections, 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 and Communications Team, 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 2008

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.

Footnotes

1. Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers, residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.