Clovenstone Primary School and Nursery Class
The City of Edinburgh Council

2 June 2009

This report tells you about the quality of education at the school¹. We describe how children benefit from learning there. We explain how well they are doing and how good the school is at helping them to learn. Then we look at the ways in which the school does this. We describe how well the school works with other groups in the community, including parents² and services which support children. We also comment on how well staff and children work together and how they go about improving the school.

Our report describes the ‘ethos’ of the school. By ‘ethos’ we mean the relationships in the school, how well children are cared for and treated and how much is expected of them in all aspects of school life. Finally, we comment on the school’s aims. In particular, we focus on how well the aims help staff to deliver high quality learning, and the impact of leadership on the school’s success in achieving these 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. Where applicable, you will also be able to find descriptions of good practice in the school.

Contents

1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. Examples 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?

4. How well do children learn and achieve?

Learning and achievement

Children enjoy their nursery experiences and are growing in confidence. They are developing friendships and are good at playing together and taking turns. They like to choose their own activities and concentrate well on their tasks. Most children in the nursery are developing their skills in talking and listening well. They use circle time to talk about what they have done and how they are feeling. Children are making good progress with early language and mathematics. Most are learning to recognise the letter and sound at the beginning of their own name. They are encouraged to write their name as part of nursery routines. Children should be given a greater variety of opportunities to develop their writing skills through play. Most count well and a few attempt simple sums in their play activities. Some can recognise simple shapes. Children are making a good start to learning about early science and can talk about the seasons of the year.

At the primary stages, children’s achievements across the curriculum are consistently high. At P6, children are developing a good awareness of world religions and are able to talk accurately about their work on Judaism. Those in P5 are aware of the need to recycle and had made an interesting wall display using crochet chains made from recycled material. At all stages, children show great confidence in singing and are able to sing with very good tone and rhythm. Children enjoy using the local environment to support their learning. Those in P6, following a visit to Lauriston Castle, are developing very good skills in historical research as they try to turn their classroom into a Victorian room. Children with additional support needs and those with English as an additional language are achieving well. In recent years standards of attainment in English language and mathematics have shown signs of improvement. The majority of children are attaining national standards. Children’s attainment in listening and talking is good with most children making good progress. Children are confident in working in groups and are able to make presentations in front of the whole class. At all stages, children are progressing with their reading but at times the pace could be quicker. Children are able to discuss how to choose a book and how authors write in different ways to engage the reader. They are able to write for a range of purposes. In order to progress more quickly they require to write with a clearer focus on what they need to improve. In mathematics children, across the school show confidence in practical activities and are able to identify the properties of two- and three-dimensional shapes. Children in P1 are making a good start to counting money and enjoy counting in pairs. Children are able to identify a range of problem solving strategies but now need to use them in practical situations. At all stages, children are developing good skills in information and communications technology (ICT). They use computers to produce a range of charts and graphs, for example surveys of pets and favourite toys. Across the school, children’s skill in mental and written number work lacks confidence.

Curriculum and meeting learning needs

Children in the nursery experience a broad range of tasks and activities. They learn well through play activities. Staff plan for learning very effectively and respond well to children’s interests. Teachers interact well with children in groups and encourage discussion. Staff help to extend children’s learning through skilful questioning. Children have good access to resources which encourage exploration and discovery. They need more opportunities to use mathematical equipment. The outdoor area is used well on a regular basis. Children enjoy using wheeled toys and other large play equipment outdoors. Links between the nursery and primary classes are very positive. Children who start nursery settle quickly and are very well supported by a range of transition activities, including home visits. At the primary stages, teachers provide a broad range of activities for children. They are beginning to make links in children’s learning across the curriculum. Staff are starting successfully to organise the curriculum more flexibly to give more emphasis to active learning. For example, children in P6 and P7 are involved in an animation project and are able to create and film their own storyboards. All children are actively involved in enterprise education which is helping to develop their personal and social skills. Children from P7 had successfully organised a Christmas party for their P1 buddies. There are some good examples of children using numeracy and literacy skills across the curriculum. All teachers use ICT to enhance children’s learning but the use of ICT now needs to be extended across the curriculum. The majority of children do not benefit from two hours of good quality physical education each week.

Children’s learning needs are met well in the nursery. Staff have created a caring and supportive ethos where children and parents are welcome. Most children are making good progress with their learning. The school and specialist services should work more closely together to assist children in the nursery with additional support needs. Staff encourage children to develop healthy eating habits and to brush their teeth each day. They observe children playing and use the information to extend and meet individual needs. Personal learning planning is used very well to develop children’s skills as learners and help them to make progress. Children enjoy sharing their personal learning plans and often choose to use them to talk about learning. Across the primary classes, teachers plan tasks and activities at the appropriate level for most children. They are developing their teaching approaches to support children in being more active in their learning. Children would benefit from a brisker pace in learning in English language and mathematics, particularly in the early years. Staff give very good attention to children with additional support needs. These children are very well supported with high quality individual plans. The support for learning teacher gives very good support to children and helpful advice to staff. Children benefit from a range of homework tasks but these are variable across the school.

5. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?

The school works very well with parents and the local community. Staff know children and families well and have built some very effective links within the local community and with other agencies. For example, the staff from the local community centre come into the school to support children with personal and social development. Links with the police and a range of health professionals are very effective in supporting the school’s road safety and health weeks. The school has also developed links with several local businesses which support the school’s positive behaviour scheme. Although the school does not have a Parent Council, the headteacher and staff continually encourage parents to contribute to children’s learning. For example, several parents work in the school on a regular basis. The school communicates very effectively with parents through informative newsletters and through its website. Children are well supported as they move from nursery to P1 and from P7 to S1.

6. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their school community?

All children are given the opportunity to be involved in decision making through class councils. A range of issues are discussed, including aspects of the curriculum. Older children take on further responsibilities by, for example, being buddies to young children and acting as tour guides for the school. Children are able to run a successful school bank. They take great pride in their ‘chill out room’ which is used by all classes to promote children’s health and wellbeing. All children are successful in raising funds for various charities and money to subsidise a school camp experience. The eco school group and junior road safety officers give children further opportunities to improve their school. Very good use is made of ‘golden time’ to promote positive behaviour. These positive opportunities for children to voice their opinions should now be used to allow children to develop personal learning targets. Staff work well together as a team and their commitment has brought about improvements in learning. Senior managers are aware of the need to evaluate the work of the school and a number of approaches are in place. Staff in the nursery discuss their work regularly and plan daily the activities they provide for children. Across the primary classes, staff are given useful feedback on their plans. All staff should now develop more rigorous approaches to self-evaluation to improve attainment. They should particularly identify additional procedures for monitoring the progress of the significant number of children who enrol in the school throughout each session.

7. Does the school have high expectations of all children?

The school is very welcoming and children feel safe and happy at school. The level of care and attention to children’s personal and social development is outstanding. All staff are aware of the school’s child protection policy. Relationships between staff and children are very positive. Teachers set high standards for children’s behaviour and achievements. Achievements are celebrated at assemblies and through attractive displays around the school. These high expectations of achievement should now be used to raise expectations of attainment. The calm, purposeful atmosphere in the school allows children to engage fully in their learning. Children have very high expectations of each other. They are encouraged to express their ideas and opinions through a wide range of interesting activities. For example children are able to nominate each other for awards for their own ‘Cloviewood’ awards display. Children’s learning is enhanced by the popular breakfast club. Staff take effective steps to treat all children equally and fairly. The school building provides a very stimulating and fully accessible learning environment. The school is good at sorting out complaints from parents and children.

8. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?

The headteacher, supported by the depute headteacher and principal teacher has created a very positive climate for learning. She is well respected by the whole school community. Staff are hard working and very committed to giving the children high quality learning experiences. Together they have created a very positive ethos of achievement and an outstanding learning environment. Nursery staff work very effectively as a team. Staff in the nursery and primary classes have started successfully to introduce new approaches to learning and teaching in line with the national initiative, Curriculum for Excellence. They now need to work together to increase the pace of learning, particularly in the early years of the primary school to improve standards of attainment. Assessment procedures need to be further developed to identify effectively children’s next steps in learning. Building on the school’s high ethos of achievement, strong leadership and commitment of staff to the children, the school is well placed to improve further.

9. What happens next?

We are confident that the school will be able to make the necessary improvements in light of the inspection findings. As a result, we will make no more visits following this inspection. The school and the education authority will inform parents about the school’s progress in improving the quality of education.

At the last Care Commission inspection of the nursery class there were three recommendations made, all of which had been addressed.

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 Clovenstone Primary School and Nursery Class.

Primary school

Nursery class

We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school and nursery class.

HM Inspector: Alan Urquhart
2 June 2009

To find out more about inspections or get an electronic copy of this report go to www.hmie.gov.uk. Please contact the Business Management and Communications Team (BMCT) if you wish to enquire about our arrangements for translated or other appropriate versions.

If you wish to comment about any of our inspections, contact us at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or alternatively you should write in the first instance to BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.

Our complaints procedure is available from our website www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can write to our Complaints Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.

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 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 at www.spso.org.uk.

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

Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education

Footnotes

1. The term ‘school’ is used to include the work of the nursery class, where relevant.
2. Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers, residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.