Longhaugh Primary School
Dundee City Council

17 August 2010

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.

Contents

1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. How well do children learn and achieve?
4. How well do staff work with others to support children’s learning?
5. Are staff and children actively involved in improving their school community?
6. Does the school have high expectations of all children?
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
8. What happens next?

3. How well do children learn and achieve?

Learning and achievement

Children are motivated and actively involved in a wide variety of interesting activities. They are developing good skills in working with others through regular paired and group tasks. In some classes, children enjoy learning through games-based activities using information and communications technology (ICT), most recently in collaboration with Learning and Teaching Scotland. Children are beginning to reflect on their learning and they receive good written feedback on their work to help them improve. They need to become more skilled at setting and using their own targets. Almost all children have developed a sense of responsibility for the school community and show respect for each other. All children feel safe and valued. In the LSG, children make choices in their learning and are developing independence. They make good use of ICT to enhance their learning.

Many children gain confidence and achieve widely through their involvement in sporting or cultural activities such as the choir, the school show and school teams. They understand how to stay healthy. Many help to organise activities and take on posts of responsibility such as playground helper. All children are learning important life skills through enterprise activities like the P1 garden centre project. The school has achieved an Eco-Schools Scotland silver award. Almost all children have developed good social skills. Involvement in the school’s fundraising activities has made them aware of their wider duty as citizens. Children use ICT confidently to research and present their work. They are keen to learn.

Children in the LSG are making good progress with their individual targets and are learning to manage their own behaviour. In the mainstream classes, almost all children listen well and talk with confidence. They are learning to voice their opinions. Children’s skills in reading are developing well and they enjoy discussing class texts. A few read more widely. Children write for a variety of purposes. Most need more opportunities to write creatively at greater length. Most children show very good skills in mental mathematics. Their skills in money, number and measure are developing well. They can collect and display data but should be planning their own surveys. They need more practice at solving problems. Overall, most children are achieving appropriate national levels in reading, writing and mathematics and their skills are improving steadily. A significant and increasing number of children attain these levels early. Children who need additional support in their learning are making very good progress and enjoying their work. At most stages, a small number of children are capable of achieving more.

Curriculum and meeting learning needs

Staff are making good progress in improving approaches to curriculum planning using Curriculum for Excellence. The LSG gives an appropriate emphasis to literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing, and particularly to the development of interpersonal skills. Across the school, teachers have introduced interesting themes such as a Winter Olympics topic, which help children practise their learning across different subject areas. Children need more say in the choice of theme. Classes have exciting opportunities to share their learning with other Dundee schools through GLOW. They are learning skills for life and work through initiatives such as the Saved by the Bell banking project. Children would benefit from more opportunities to develop numeracy skills across the curriculum. Trips and visitors enhance the curriculum well and enrich learning. Children are developing literacy skills regularly across the curriculum but do not have a continuous experience in learning a modern language at both P6 and P7. The school should ensure that all children learn to appreciate the value of different cultures and beliefs through the curriculum. Children do not yet have two hours of high-quality physical education per week. The school needs to make sure curriculum developments maintain a broad and balanced experience for all children.

Approaches to learning are very well suited to the needs of children in the LSG. In the mainstream classes, almost all staff interact well with children. Activities are mostly appropriate but the pace of lessons is not brisk enough. Staff should ensure tasks are demanding enough for all children and constantly extend learning. Children enjoy homework tasks which involve investigating a topic and being creative. Staff in the LSG and the mainstream school meet the social and emotional needs of children very well. The school has found new ways of helping children regulate their behaviour and focus on learning. For example, the Jigsaw room provides a stable environment for a small group of children at key times in the day. Staff work very well with other agencies, such as the hearing impairment service, to meet the needs of children who require additional support. Support for learning teachers help groups of children focus on improvement. The school should continue to try and involve parents and children more in setting clear learning targets for individual support plans. More children would benefit from a support plan.

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

The school has strong, positive links with parents. Staff consult parents well through the active Parent Council and informal ‘meet the management’ meetings. The headteacher ensures parents are well informed about events in school through regular and helpful newsletters, curriculum evenings and mobile phone messages.

The school deals very well with any complaints. Staff consult parents appropriately on all aspects of health education. The school welcomes the effective contribution from the Active Sports service and from a local college. The school has good links with the community, such as those with the local church and Braes riding centre. Staff have good arrangements in place to support children joining the school from different nurseries. These arrangements include nursery children viewing the P1 classroom, using GLOW. The school prepares children very well for the move to Braeview High School. Most children at P7 attend a team building residential trip to Dalguise with their peers from other primary schools.

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

All children have their say through an effective and developing pupil council. Staff have started to consult the council on what children feel about their learning experiences. The school should continue to seek the views of parents on the school’s work. Almost all staff are involved in working groups, in leading on areas such as ICT, or in running clubs for children. All staff are committed to school improvement and teamwork is well developed. The headteacher has made very imaginative use of GLOW as a successful tool for sharing good practice and encouraging staff to reflect on their work. The headteacher and deputy headteacher use a growing range of methods to evaluate the work of the school. They have focused on improving learning to good effect. Staff now need to evaluate the impact of new initiatives on children’s achievement more robustly. More focus on the outcome of activities such as class visits would improve learning and teaching further. Staff also need to evaluate the progress of individual children better to guide their future learning.

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

The school has created a positive and supportive environment for children and parents. All staff receive training in child protection. Staff have clear expectations of children’s behaviour and respect towards each other and children respond very well. Children understand the values of equality and fairness. They recognise the positive impact of the school’s support on how they feel about themselves and their school. The school has appropriate opportunities for religious observance. Children’s achievements are celebrated at assemblies and through a range of awards. Staff should have higher expectations of what children can achieve in lessons and encourage all children to set themselves high learning goals.

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

The headteacher and deputy headteacher have a clear vision and strong values for the school community. They have worked closely with staff to ensure a team approach to school improvement. They have taken bold steps to improve children’s achievements and wellbeing, with a good degree of success. The principal teacher in the LSG works very effectively with children and staff to develop children’s range of skills. The senior management team has successfully encouraged staff to lead developments. A good number of children are developing skills as leaders thanks to serving on school committees or supporting younger children. The school is well placed to build on its very good work and continue to improve.

8. What happens next?

As a result of the very good quality of education provided by the school, 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 service.

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 Longhaugh Primary School.

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

HM Inspector: Fiona A Pate
17 August 2010

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 2010

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.