Knockbreck Primary School
Tain
The Highland Council

9 May 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

Knockbreck Primary School was inspected in February 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 Knockbreck Primary School, and a group of parents¹.

The school serves part of the town of Tain. At the time of the inspection the roll was 74. The proportion of pupils who were entitled to free school meals was in line with the national average. Pupils’ attendance was above the national average.

The school had been without a substantive headteacher for two years. During this time there had been two periods of acting headship. A permanent headteacher was appointed in August 2005.

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 pleased with provision at the school. They believed their children enjoyed being at school and that it had a warm family atmosphere. They felt that the school kept them well informed about how their child was getting on and that it dealt with any concerns effectively. Pupils were also happy with their school. Almost all agreed that teachers explained things clearly, told them how their work could be improved and praised them when they had done well. A small number felt that the behaviour of some pupils was not good. Staff were positive about all aspects of the school. They enjoyed working in the school and reported that they had good opportunities to influence decision making. They felt that they looked after pupils well and that the school was well led.

4. How good are learning, teaching and achievement?

Pupils’ learning experiences and achievements

The school provided a broad and well-balanced curriculum which helped develop pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills. Additional time given to English language and mathematics had been used successfully to raise pupils’ attainment. Recently introduced Enterprise activities had enabled pupils to work cooperatively and take responsibility for planning and organising events. Pupils had good opportunities to develop their ICT, English language and mathematical skills across the curriculum. Teachers were skilled at providing instructions and explanations. In the best practice, teachers used questioning very effectively to extend pupils’ learning. They used a wide range of activities to appeal to pupils’ interests and experiences. At the upper stages, teachers were linking reading and writing activites very effectively with opportuinties to research and present information. In English language, pupils were given helpful information about their strengths and personal learning targets in writing. In mathematics, teachers’ corrections of pupils’ written work was less effective in telling pupils what they needed to do to improve. At the early stages, pupils had limited opportunities to be active in their learning, for example through planned play.

All pupils were enthusiastic, hard working and well-behaved. P4 and P5 pupils collaborated effectively to extend their thinking and understanding when solving problems in mathematics. The pace of learning was good in most lessons. At the early stages pupils were taking responsibility for writing independently. At all stages, pupils were provided with very good opportunities to develop their knowledge and understanding of the local and wider community. All pupils used ICT skilfully for a range of learning activities, including carrying out research for their personal health targets.

Pupils were offered a range of opportunities which helped them achieve well in a number of areas. The school promoted pupils’ health by encouraging pupils to participate in a range of sporting events including running, football, badminton and swimming competitions. Pupils’ confidence benefited from regular opportunities to perform at public concerts which included singing, drumming and violin playing. Pupils in P1 and P2 had exercised a high degree of independence in an ambitious enterprise project producing and selling well designed school calendars.

English language

The overall quality of attainment in English language was very good and had been sustained in recent years. At the lower stages almost all pupils were achieving appropriate national levels of attainment in reading and writing. At the upper stages most pupils were achieving these levels. At all stages most pupils were achieving appropriate national levels in listening and talking. Overall, the majority of pupils were exceeding appropriate national levels. Pupils who experienced difficulty with their learning were making very good progress in English language. Pupils listened well to one another and the teacher and talked confidently at assemblies. Pupils at the upper stages had linked the skills of reading for information with presenting information to the class. At all stages, pupils read fluently with good comprehension and were encouraged to read widely for pleasure. They understood how writers achieved specific effects and this had helped improve their own writing. Pupils at all stages enjoyed writing for a variety of purposes. At the early stages, pupils could identify direct speech in texts. At the middle stages, pupils used their wide vocabulary to describe feelings and characters. Those at P4 and P5 used persuasive language well in designing tourist brochures. At the upper stages, pupils were skilled at developing a character in their story writing.

Mathematics

The overall quality of attainment in mathematics was very good and had been sustained in recent years. Almost all pupils at the early and middle stages had attained appropriate national levels of attainment. At the upper stages, most attained these levels. At all stages the majority of pupils were exceeding national attainment levels. Pupils at the early stages were skilled at producing graphs. By the upper stages pupils used computers skilfully to produce graphs. The emphasis the school had placed on mental calculations had enabled pupils to use numbers quickly and confidently. Pupils at the upper stages had a sound understanding of the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages. At all stages pupils could measure accurately. Pupils at the middle stages demonstrated a very good understanding of symmetry and at the upper stages they confidently identified angles and the properties of triangles. At all stages pupils were making very good progress with problem solving and were able to use appropriate strategies to help them solve problems.

5. How well are pupils supported?

The school’s arrangements for ensuring the care and welfare of pupils were very good.

Staff worked collectively to create a calm and positive environment where mutual respect and encouragement were key features. Pupils felt confident in the school’s arrangements for dealing with any incidents of bullying. The school had a clear range of health and safety policies, including child protection, which were shared and used appropriately by staff. The school had very good arrangements to promote pupils’ understanding of healthy lifestyles. Appropriate arrangements were in place to share information on sensitive health issues with parents.

Tasks and activities were well matched to pupils’ needs and appealed to their interests. Higher achieving pupils, particularly at the middle and upper stages, were making very good progress. In a few lessons at the early stages, tasks were inappropriate to the needs of pupils. The school’s approach to health and enterprise met pupils’ needs well. Staff had begun to identify and share learning targets with pupils in some curriculum areas. This was not yet widespread enough to give pupils a clearer focus on their next steps in learning. Pupils who experienced difficulties with their learning or behaviour were having their needs quickly identified and very well met. Almost all were making very good progress in their learning. Teachers, pupils and parents had agreed appropriate long and short term targets in Individualised Educational Plans. The school worked very effectively with a range of specialists to support pupils’ learning. Teachers were working hard, with assistance from Polish speakers within the community, to meet the needs of pupils with English as an additional language (EAL). However, they did not receive enough direct support from the authority’s specialist services for EAL. The support for learning teacher provided very strong support to the school. She played a leading role in assisting teachers to assess and address pupils’ needs. She taught groups and individuals and provided teachers with good professional advice and resources. The focus of her duties was regularly reviewed in association with class teachers. A social communication group was helping pupils learn to relate appropriately to one another. Classroom assistants and support for learning auxiliaries provided very strong support to pupils. Their training and deployment had been well planned to enable them to provide highly effective support.

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.

A significant feature of Knockbreck Primary School was the strong work ethic of the pupils and the climate of mutual support. Pupils responded enthusiastically to well planned learning experiences and were making very good progress. A series of acting headteachers over recent years had worked with the staff to improve the school, with strong support from the authority. The current headteacher had been in post for six months. Her own teaching was a model of best practice. She gave staff clear direction in developing key areas of the curriculum including improvements in the teaching of reading and writing. She had started to help pupils to improve their learning. She had begun to further improve teaching approaches.

The headteacher monitored teachers planning, classroom teaching and pupils’ work and achievements. She used this information effectively to provided feedback to teachers and pupils. Teachers had good accessto appropriate staff development opportunities. The headteacher planned to engage parents further in the evaluation of the school’s effectiveness and its plans for improvement. The school had a very good capacity to continue to improve with the ongoing strong support of the authority.

What happens next?

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. 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 the education authority working with the school, will provide a progress report to parents.

Jacqueline Sinclair

HM Inspector

9 May 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, Culture and Sport, 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, Longman House, 28 Longman Road, Inverness, IV1 1SF or by telephoning 01463 253115. 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.

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