Forthill Primary School
Dundee City Council

31 October 2006

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 supported?
6. How good is the environment for learning?
7. Improving the school
Appendix 1 Indicators of quality
Appendix 2 Summary of questionnaire responses
How can you contact us?

1. Background

Forthill Primary School was inspected in June 2006 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 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 Friends of Forthill, other parents¹ and representatives of the local community.

The school is a non-denominational primary school situated towards the east of the City of Dundee and serves an area mainly in the north east of Broughty Ferry. At the time of the inspection the roll was 530, including 68 in the nursery. The proportion of pupils who were entitled to free school meals was well below the national average. Pupils’ attendance was above the national average.

The work of the nursery class was not included in this inspection.

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.

Almost all parents were positive about much of the school’s work. They were particularly positive about the school’s reputation in the local community. They also felt school work was stimulating and challenging and that the school’s buildings were kept in good order. Parents were less positive about the school’s arrangements for consulting them and reporting to them about their child’s overall progress. Pupils were very positive about the school. In particular, they felt teachers were good at telling them how they were getting on with their work and helped them if they experienced difficulties. They felt teachers checked their homework and helped them keep safe and healthy. Teachers were very positive about almost all aspects of the school’s work. While all other staff enjoyed working in the school, most had concerns about aspects of communication

4. How good are learning, teaching and achievement?

Pupils’ learning experiences and achievements

The overall quality of the curriculum was very good. Pupils benefited from a broad and rich range of learning experiences. The school made very good use of external organisations and visitors to enhance pupils’ learning. There were very good programmes in all areas of the curriculum. The programmes enabled pupils to develop their skills continuously and progressively across the school. Visiting teachers and other specialists in art, music and physical education and the active schools sports coordinator had a very positive impact on the opportunities available to pupils. The development of pupils’ information and communications technology (ICT) skills and the provision and use of ICT resources were outstanding. The school successfully gave very effective attention to health promoting activities, including healthy eating, and was working to increase time in physical education to two hours per week. Teaching was of a consistently very good quality across the school, with a number of excellent features, particularly the use of ICT in the teaching of mathematics. Teachers consistently shared the purposes of lessons with pupils and their explanations were always clear. Interactions between pupils and staff were very good. Teachers’ questioning was skilled and helped pupils to develop and explore their knowledge and understanding. Teachers encouraged and valued pupils’ contributions to lessons and successfully built pupils’ confidence. They enabled pupils to develop very effectively as independent learners.

Pupils’ learning experiences were excellent. Lessons were consistently stimulating and challenging. Pupils had very positive attitudes to learning and were highly motivated and very enthusiastic. In all lessons, they were hardworking and very well-behaved.

Pupils took responsibility for their learning and were very good at working together and collaborating on tasks. The pace of learning in all lessons was brisk. Pupils made very good progress and achieved high standards. They were very active in their learning and frequently thought for themselves. They were encouraged to be imaginative and creative thinkers. They had a very good understanding of what they needed to do to improve. At all stages, pupils were highly skilled in the use of ICT. By the upper stages, pupils were able to make very good presentations using computers and could make very effective use of digital microscopes. P7 pupils maintained the school’s web-site and designed machines using computers.

Pupils had developed their enterprise skills well in a range of contexts. Across the school, pupils had achieved gold and silver awards at dance, music and arts festivals. Pupils’ art work was of a very good quality using a variety of media. As part of a public art project, P7 pupils had made use of the local environment to make beach sculptures and had produced a display in the main entrance corridor to the school. Pupils from a range of classes had worked together to produce a wildlife garden in the playground. Pupils in a number of classes were able to carry out experiments in science very well. They were able to conduct fair tests, record the results and draw conclusions. Health promotion activities gave pupils opportunities to develop skills in a range of sports, including cricket, golf and tennis. Pupils participated regularly and successfully in a range of other sporting activities including gymnastics, netball, football and athletics. A group of P7 girls had started a lunchtime dance class for younger pupils. The pupil council gave pupils very good opportunities to develop their citizenship skills. P5 pupils had a very good understanding of the functions of local councils and councillors. P7 pupils acted as helpers to younger pupils. Throughout the school pupils took responsibility and demonstrated mutual respect for each other. All pupils were able to develop their presentation skills, self-esteem and confidence by participating in school and class shows and public performances.

English language

The overall quality of attainment in English language was very good. High levels of attainment had been sustained over several years and almost all pupils were attaining the appropriate national levels. A significant number of pupils reached these levels earlier than might be expected, particularly in reading. Across the school, pupils had well-developed skills in listening and talking to each other in groups and to adults. They were developing their skills in presenting to an audience very well. Pupils listened carefully to the ideas of others in class discussions and made effective contributions. Almost all could talk with confidence and enthusiasm about aspects of schoolwork and their interests. Pupils had very positive attitudes to reading and most read regularly for pleasure. At the middle and upper stages, pupils were able to use their reading skills effectively to access information from a range of sources. In writing, almost all pupils attained appropriate levels and at the early stages, pupils were developing their writing skills very well. At the middle and upper stages, pupils wrote extended pieces of well-structured and accurately presented work.

Mathematics

The overall quality of attainment in mathematics was very good. Over a number of years the school had sustained high standards. Almost all pupils attained appropriate national levels, and an increasing number achieved these levels earlier than might be expected. At all stages pupils were gaining a thorough understanding of information handling. Pupils at the early stages made a very good start in acquiring basic number skills. At the middle and upper stages, pupils continued to develop and apply these strategies effectively in their written calculations. Skills in shape, position and movement were developing well as pupils progressed through stages. Pupils at the upper stages tackled mathematical problems very well. Whilst the overall pace of progress was very good, some aspects of pupils’ skills, including decimals and measurement, needed to be practised more regularly in different contexts.

5. How well are pupils supported?

The overall quality of pastoral care was very good. Staff successfully gave a high priority to ensuring that pupils were safe and well cared for. Staff knew the pupils very well and were very sensitive to their personal, social and emotional needs. There were appropriate and well understood arrangements for child protection and dealing with any possible incidents of bullying or racism. The school was actively promoting health and encouraging pupils to adopt healthy and active lifestyles, including healthy eating.

Overall, pupils’ learning needs were very well met. Teachers successfully used a wide range of learning and teaching approaches that enabled all pupils to achieve appropriately high levels of attainment. All pupils were making very good progress from their prior learning and levels of attainment. The learning support teacher was very successful in addressing the needs of small groups of pupils who were at risk of not achieving levels of attainment in mathematics and English language appropriate to their age and stage. Very well targeted, sensitive and appropriate support enabled these pupils to achieve success. The learning of pupils with additional support needs was well managed. Pupils had individualised educational programmes (IEPs) which were agreed at the beginning of each year with parents and shared with pupils. Barriers to learning were clearly identified and the school had put in place a range of strategies to support the learning of individual pupils. The school reviewed progress and updated pupils’ IEPs termly.

6. How good is the environment for learning?

7. Improving the school

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

Forthill Primary School provided pupils with an excellent learning experience. The overall quality of teaching was very good, with a number of excellent features. Pupils’ needs were very well met and they consistently achieved very high levels of attainment, particularly in English language and mathematics. Pupils were highly skilled in the use of ICT. They also achieved very well in a wide range of areas, including art and music. Pupils had very positive attitudes, acted responsibly and demonstrated mutual respect for others. They were confident and articulate. They enjoyed school and were safe and very well cared for.

The headteacher provided very strong and focused leadership for learning. She had a clear vision for the school and gave a high priority to ensuring that pupils received a broad and high quality educational experience. Working with staff she had successfully achieved these goals, while maintaining high standards during the recent intensive programme of refurbishment and improvements to the school buildings. She was very well supported by two depute headteachers and all teaching and support staff. All staff in the school were hardworking and very committed. Together, they provided high quality leadership for learning in their areas of responsibility. The overall quality of collective leadership throughout the school was excellent. Senior managers had systematic formal and informal approaches to monitoring the quality of learning and teaching. These approaches set very high expectations and ensured a consistently high quality experience for pupils. Pupils’ progress and levels of attainment were very carefully tracked. Staff used these systems to take very effective action to address difficulties pupils were experiencing and enable all pupils to achieve appropriately high standards. The school had very effective approaches to improving its work and was very well placed to continue to provide an excellent learning experience for pupils.

What happens next?

The school and education authority should continue to provide high quality and improving education by implementing the priorities identified in the school development plan. The education authority should consider how to build on the positive practice and support other schools by sharing more widely the excellent practice in the school. As a result of the high performance, the strong record of improvement and the very effective leadership of this school, HM Inspectors will make no further reports in connection with this inspection.

Chris Webb
HM Inspector

31 October 2006

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 Director of Education, 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, 1^st Floor, Endeavour House, 1 Greenmarket, Dundee DD1 4QB or by telephoning 01382 576700. Copies are also available on our website www.hmie.gov.uk.

If you wish to comment about primary inspections

Should you wish to comment on any aspect of primary inspections, you should write in the first instance to Chris McIlroy, Acting HMCI, at HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.

Our complaints procedure

If you have a concern about this report, you should write in the first instance to Hazel Dewart, Business Management Unit, HM Inspectorate of Education, Second Floor, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA. A copy of our complaints procedure is available from this office or by telephoning 01506 600258 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. The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman is fully independent and has powers to investigate complaints about Government departments and agencies. You should write to The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, 4-6 Melville Street, Edinburgh EH3 7NS. You can also telephone 0870 011 5378 or e-mail enquiries@scottishombudsman.org.uk. More information about the Ombudsman’s office can be obtained from the website: www.scottishombudsman.org.uk.

Crown Copyright 2006

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