Kilbowie Primary School
Clydebank
West Dunbartonshire Council

10 November 2009

HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects schools in order to let parents¹, children and the local community know whether their school² provides a good education. Inspectors also discuss with school staff how they can improve the quality of education.

At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the headteacher and staff about the strengths of the school, what needs to improve, and how they know. We use the information they give us to help us plan what we are going to look at. During the inspection, we go into classes and join other activities in which children are involved. We also gather the views of children, parents, staff and members of the local community. We find their views very helpful and use them together with the other information we have collected to arrive at our view of the quality of education.

This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the quality of education in the school. We describe how well children are doing, how good the school is at helping them to learn and how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff, parents and children work together and how they go about improving the school. We also comment on how well the school works with other groups in the community, including services which support children. Finally, we focus on how well the school is led and how staff help the school achieve its 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 from children, parents and staff. We will not provide questionnaire analyses where the numbers of returns are so small that they could identify individuals. 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. Example 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 are highly motivated and active learners who enjoy and benefit from making choices in their learning. They feel safe in the caring school environment. Across the school, they show very good skills in working on their own. At P4 to P7, children work very well together in groups to complete tasks. At all stages, staff provide helpful feedback to children. This helps children to know their own strengths, for example in writing, and what they need to do to improve.

At all stages, children are successful in developing their personal and social skills. They use their well-developed presentation skills in a range of situations. For example, at a recent open day, children in P3 taught parents about young people in the Congo and about girl soldiers in Sri Lanka. Older children have developed their knowledge of science and developed confidence from showing their recent work in this area at the Scottish Learning Festival. They have developed leadership skills as sports coaches and also support younger children in reading together and completing displays for the main hall. Children in P6 act as buddies to children at Kilbowie Nursery School. They regularly work with them on joint learning activities such as a visit to the local recycling centre. Children develop healthy lifestyles and self-esteem through taking part and achieving success in sporting activities.

Over the past few years, standards of attainment have improved in reading, writing and mathematics. In reading and mathematics, most children achieve appropriate national levels of attainment. The majority do so in writing. A significant minority of children achieve appropriate levels early. Almost all children with additional support needs are making very good progress across their learning. In English language, children listen well to each other and most speak confidently during class and group discussions. Most children enjoy reading a wide range of books by different authors. They read clearly and with expression. Children are developing effective skills in their writing and write well for a range of purposes across all curricular areas. Children in P7 have written very lively newspaper articles about the Clydebank Blitz as part of their history project. In mathematics, most children have very good skills in written and oral calculations. Children use information communications technology well to enhance their learning about time and sequencing. They can handle and display information successfully. They can solve real life mathematical problems, for example about money.

Curriculum and meeting learning needs

The curriculum is broad and balanced with a very effective focus on developing children as confident, independent learners. Staff are making good progress in implementing Curriculum for Excellence. Overall, they develop children’s skills in literacy and numeracy well across the curriculum. Approaches in science, health and international education provide meaningful and interesting opportunities for children to share learning across different stages. Children benefit from two hours of good quality physical education each week involving very good use of the outdoors.

Teachers and learning assistants work together effectively to provide activities which meet the learning needs of most children. A few children at times would benefit from teachers making better use of assessment during lessons to extend their thinking. This would improve their progress even further in line with their potential. Teachers and learning assistants are very effective at identifying and supporting children with additional support needs, particularly in English language and mathematics. Overall, regular, varied homework supports classwork.

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

Staff work very well with external agencies, for example Notre Dame Child and Families Centre, and with neighbouring schools to improve learning for children. Children learn about the world of work through visits to the local radio station and a local supermarket. Staff involve parents well in the life and work of the school. Parents value regular newsletters and curriculum workshops. Staff consult appropriately with parents on sensitive health issues. Most parents’ views are taken into account and the school deals well with most complaints from parents or children. However, some parents feel that the school does not take full account of their views and the school should review its records of actions. Effective arrangements are in place to ensure smooth transitions from Kilbowie Nursery School to P1 and from P7 to Clydebank High School.

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

Children and staff work effectively together to make school improvements. The pupil council collects views from children in each class about many aspects of the school’s work. They discuss these and report back any changes they make. For example, they helped to improve the class learning logs and now have more choice in what they learn. Parents comment on aspects of the school’s work. Staff used suggestions from the Parent Council to improve international education. The headteacher’s effective approaches to monitoring the work of the school lead to notable improvements for children. Staff share good practice very well, review each other’s teaching and share skills they learn on courses. All staff, including the catering manager take part in working groups. This whole school involvement in self-evaluation leads to children making better progress in their learning. Children now experience a more engaging and relevant curriculum, behaviour has improved and they are much more involved in their learning.

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

The school has a welcoming ethos and children respond very well to the high standard of pastoral care. Children, staff and parents are proud of being part of the ‘Kilbowie Family’. Staff are appropriately aware of the school’s approaches to child protection and understand how to keep children safe and well. Parents feel their children are safe at school. Children are confident that staff deal well with any instances of bullying. Staff have high expectations of children’s behaviour and their wider achievements. Consistently high expectations of children’s attainment by staff would enable them to attain even more. There is room to improve the attendance and behaviour of a few children. Children know how to keep themselves healthy through a wide range of well-planned health promotion activities. Staff make good use of limited space. However, one area is not accessible for those with restricted mobility. There are no separate changing facilities for physical education. The school is improving its changing arrangements to ensure dignity and respect for children. Through the high quality learning experiences within international education children understand different cultures and beliefs very well. Appropriate arrangements are in place for religious observance.

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

The headteacher provides the school with a clear sense of direction. She has shared her vision for the future of the school and involves staff in taking responsibility for developing their learning and teaching approaches. She is well supported by her senior management team, teaching staff, learning assistants and the children. They all successfully lead aspects of the work of the school. Together, they make a positive difference and improve learning experiences. The school knows its strengths and continues to improve its work. It is well-placed to improve further.

9. What happens next?

The inspection team was able to rely on the school's self evaluation to make its evaluations and the school agreed with these evaluations at an early stage of the inspection. As a result, the inspection team was able to change its focus during the inspection to help the school plan to improve even more.

The school provides a very good quality of education. Therefore, we will make no further visits in connection with this inspection. The education authority will inform parents about the school's progress as part of the authority's arrangements for reporting to parents on the quality of its school.

Here are the evaluations for Kilbowie Primary School.

We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.

HM Inspector: Elizabeth C Cole
10 November 2009

When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.

If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.

Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a different format, for example, in a translation, or if you wish to comment about any aspect of our inspections. You can contact us at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT, HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.

Text phone users can contact us on 01506 600 236. This is a service for deaf users. Please do not use this number for voice calls as the line will not connect you to a member of staff.

You can find our complaints procedure on our website www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.

Where the school has a nursery class, you can contact the Complaints Coordinator, Headquarters, Care Commission, Compass House, Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4NY, telephone 0845 603 0890.

Crown Copyright 2009
HM Inspectorate of Education

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
2. The term ‘school’ includes the nursery class or classes where appropriate