St Ann’s Primary School
Ayr
South Ayrshire Council

23 October 2007

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 Ann’s Primary School was inspected in June 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, and a group of parents¹.

The school is a denominational school serving an area of Mossblown and the surrounding areas of Annbank and Tarbolton. The school is situated on a shared campus with Annbank Primary School. At the time of the inspection the roll was 25. The proportion of pupils who were entitled to free school meals was below the national average. Pupils’ attendance was in line with the national average.

St Ann’s Primary School had undergone significant staff changes in the past year. Almost all teaching staff had taken up post within the previous six months. At the time of inspection one teacher had been in post for less than a week. Over the past twelve months the Education Authority had provided substantial support to the school.

2. Key strengths

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

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 were very positive about almost all aspects of the school. They felt that children enjoyed school and that staff showed care and concern for the care and welfare of their children. They were pleased about the benefits of the joint campus initiatives. A few expressed concerns about the lack of permanent teaching staff. Pupils were positive about the school. Overall they felt safe, well looked after and enjoyed school. They thought staff could be better at letting them know what to do to improve. Staff were very positive about the school. They liked working there and were proud of the very good relationships and climate within the school.

4. How good are learning, teaching and achievement?

Pupils’ learning experiences and achievements

Teachers provided pupils with a broad and balanced curriculum. Effective use was made of additional time allocated to the International Comenius project. This linked pupils from St Ann’s with pupils in Germany, Spain, England and Bulgaria. The school’s approach to the teaching of health education encouraged pupils to develop a healthy lifestyle. Pupils’ experiences were enhanced by a wide range of informal activities and visits. Recent developments had led to improvements in continuity and progression in science. The school had made good progress towards delivery of the nationally recommended two hours of physical education (PE) in each week for all pupils. Insufficient account was taken of the broad range of year groups within classes in delivering the curriculum, for example, in environmental studies. Overall, teachers were well organised and planned a range of appropriate activities. Most lessons were clearly structured and teachers were beginning to let pupils know what they were expected to learn at the start of each lesson. In the best examples they gave clear instructions and directions and used questioning effectively to encourage pupils to contribute their own ideas. However, this good practice was not consistent. Teachers did not use a sufficiently varied range of teaching approaches and too often pupils were taught in whole class groups. Homework tasks lacked variety and were issued infrequently.

The quality of pupils’ learning was adequate. Pupils were attentive and well behaved. They were developing very effective skills using ICT through the ‘East West’ international project. In most lessons, pupils had sufficient opportunities to be active in their own learning through practical activities. However, the pace of learning during these tasks was too slow. They were beginning to work together in a range of activities. Opportunities to develop independent approaches to learning were limited. The choice of activities required to be matched more closely to the learning needs of all pupils. Pupils received insufficient feedback on how to improve their work.

The school took good steps to promote pupils’ wider achievements. Staff used weekly assemblies to highlight and celebrate a range of pupils’ successes, including those achieved outwith school. Across the school, most pupils were self-confident and had good social skills. Older pupils were developing responsibility by undertaking specific duties around the school. Pupils at P6 and P7 ‘buddied’ younger ones in the nursery and at P1. They attended a residential outdoor activity course at Inverclyde with pupils from other local schools. Most pupils at P7 had received a Junior Achievement Award at a ceremony attended by almost all schools in the education authority. This initiative developed pupils’ positive attitudes and self-discipline very effectively. Each of the campus schools had a pupil council. They worked in partnership and successfully organised and purchased playground games. Pupils were developing an awareness of the needs of others by raising funds for a range of charities.

English language

The overall quality of pupils’ attainment in English language was weak. The majority of pupils were achieving appropriate national levels of attainment in listening, talking, reading and writing. At all stages there was considerable headroom for pupils to achieve higher standards, particularly in writing. Pupils who required additional support were making limited progress. Overall, pupils listened and followed instructions well. They lacked confidence when talking in groups and most were unable to express opinions about texts they had read. The school gave insufficient attention to developing and assessing pupils’ skills in listening and talking. Across the school pupils read with fluency. Most did not read widely for pleasure and had too few opportunities to develop their reading skills. Pupils at P1 and P2 had made a good start to developing their skills in writing. By P7, pupils had not developed appropriate skills in writing for a variety of purposes and approaches to assessment were unreliable. Across the school, the presentation of work was good. Older pupils were less confident with appropriate use of punctuation in their writing.

Mathematics

The overall quality of attainment in mathematics was adequate. Standards of attainment had been steady for some years. The majority of pupils were achieving appropriate national levels of attainment. At the early stages, they were achieving these levels earlier than might be expected. The majority of pupils were making appropriate progress in their coursework. They were capable of achieving higher standards by being set more purposeful and challenging tasks. Across the school, most pupils had made good progress in their understanding of aspects of information handling and shape, position and movement. In P7, pupils used computers well to organise and display information. Pupils were very confident in their understanding of written and mental calculations. A few older pupils could competently use fractions, decimals and percentages. The majority of pupils had a good understanding of measurement. Most pupils could identify a good range of two- and three-dimensional shapes and discuss their properties appropriate to their stage. They were less confident with the properties of angles. At all stages, pupils were developing approaches to solving problems. Most were unable to identify and apply a range of strategies to help them reach a solution.

5. How well are pupils’ learning needs met?

Arrangements to meet pupils’ learning needs were adequate. In most lessons, the majority of tasks were appropriate to the range of pupils’ learning needs. Learning assistants provided well-judged support for pupils in classes. This helped pupils stay on task and ensured they understood what was required of them. The school had recently developed more effective approaches for identifying learning needs and providing targeted support. The learning support teacher worked well with small groups and individuals. He did not work alongside teachers in the classroom to ensure continuity in pupils’ learning. He had created individualised educational programmes (IEPs) to help pupils achieve success in their learning. These IEPs were shared with parents and pupils. However, staff did not make effective use of agreed learning targets in IEPs to ensure pupils’ needs were appropriately met. Overall, additional support was not well enough targeted to the range of pupils’ learning needs, including those who were higher achieving. There were effective procedures to support pupils entering P1 from nursery and very effective arrangements for pupils transferring from P7 to Queen Margaret Academy.

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.

The headteacher and staff of St Ann’s Primary School provided a caring environment for pupils. There were very positive relationships between staff, parents and pupils. The quality of teaching was good. However, there was considerable headroom for improvement in several important aspects. Pupils’ attainment was weak in English language and adequate in mathematics. The overall quality of learning and meeting pupils’ learning needs was adequate. The school did not have sufficiently high expectations of pupils’ achievements across all areas of the curriculum.

The education authority had provided considerable support for the headteacher over the last year, to improve the learning experiences for pupils. The headteacher, five years in post, was committed to the school and was respected by parents and the wider community. However, she had not provided sufficient direction and guidance to staff to improve aspects of the work of the school and ensure that pupils’ learning needs were well met. The headteacher had implemented appropriate procedures to evaluate the work of the school. However, these procedures had not led to improved provision for pupils. Without continued support from the education authority, the school had limited capacity to improve.

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. HM Inspectors will continue to engage with the school and the education authority in monitoring progress, and will undertake a follow-through inspection. This will result in a report to parents, within two years of the publication of this report, on the extent of improvement that has been achieved.

Elizabeth Cole
HM Inspector

23 October 2007

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. Where any one group had five or less respondees then, in order to maintain confidentiality, the analysis is not provided.

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 Director of Education, Culture and Lifelong Learning, 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 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.

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.