Our Lady of The Missions Primary School
Thornliebank
East Renfrewshire Council

24 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

Our Lady of The Missions 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 parent staff association (PSA), and a group of parents¹.

The inspection team also evaluated aspects of the school's progress in implementing national recommendations related to improving aspects of school meals provision.

The school serves an area of Thornliebank and the surrounding area of Netherlee, Clarkston and Giffnock. At the time of the inspection the roll was 664. The proportion of pupils who were entitled to free school meals was well below the national average. Pupils' attendance was above the national average.

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.

Overall, parents expressed a high level of satisfaction with almost all aspects of the school. All parents felt that the school was well led and that staff showed concern for the care and welfare of their children. They thought the school was held in high esteem in the community and that their children enjoyed going there. Almost all parents thought the school set high standards of attainment and achievement. Almost all pupils were satisfied with all areas of the school. They said that they supported one another well and enjoyed learning. They thought they behaved well, were treated fairly and teachers knew them well. Staff also expressed a high degree of satisfaction with almost all aspects of the school. They felt that they communicated effectively as a staff and maintained very good relationships. They enjoyed working at the school and praised the pupils for their enthusiasm and achievements. A few support staff wanted to be more involved in decision making.

4. How good are learning, teaching and achievement?

Pupils’ learning experiences and achievements

The curriculum provided a broad and balanced experience for all pupils. Staff used time effectively to sustain high levels of attainment in English language and mathematics. Teachers made very good use of the local environment to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of social subjects. The visiting teachers of music and physical education provided high quality input to the curriculum for all classes. Pupils’ skills in ICT were being developed progressively. Teachers used ICT effectively to support pupils’ learning across the curriculum. Personal and social education, citizenship and enterprise education permeated the curriculum well. There was a strong emphasis on health education and pupils were encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyles. Commendably, pupils from P1 to P7 were learning French effectively. The overall quality of teaching was very good. Teachers were very well organised and their classrooms were bright and stimulating environments for learning. They made very good use of assessment strategies to focus pupils’ learning. They shared with pupils what they needed to do to achieve success and used praise effectively. Teachers used questioning skilfully to check pupil’s understanding and to challenge their thinking. They set pupils a good variety of homework tasks to support the learning taking place in school.

The quality of pupils’ learning was excellent. Pupils at all stages were highly motivated to learn. They were actively involved in a wide range of challenging learning activities which encouraged them to think for themselves. At P1, pupils worked independently in small groups to design and make models of play equipment for a class play park. All pupils worked very effectively with each other. For example, at P4, pupils cooperated well together when making a diagram and taking notes about factual information they extracted from a text. At P6, pupils worked productively in groups to investigate the life cycle of flowering plants. By P7, pupils worked independently to construct a critical essay about a film. At all stages, pupils had a very good understanding of what they needed to do to improve their work. They learned at a brisk pace, responded well to the high level of challenge and had high expectations.

At all stages, pupils were developing a very good awareness of their responsibilities to themselves and to one another. They were given opportunities to make decisions within the pupil council and Eco School committee. They were developing skills in enterprise across the school. At P1, pupils had learned to use their French language to run a French café. Pupils took part in a wide range of after-school clubs including netball, football and choir. At P7, pupils developed good relationships through the buddy system and were involved in organising lunchtime games for the youngest stages. The school’s positive approach to behaviour management had contributed to raising pupils’ self-esteem and their motivation to succeed. Junior road safety officers promoted road safety by leading assemblies. Pupils had become aware of the need for healthy eating and exercise through a whole school focus on keeping healthy. They had participated in health promoting activities that encouraged them to eat healthily. The school had achieved status as a health promoting school. P1 shared their knowledge of healthy eating with their parents at a lunch event. Many pupils had developed very good skills in playing musical instruments and singing. The school choir had achieved success in the Glasgow Music Festival. By P7, those who played clarsach had reached a level of skill to participate in a national competition.

English language

The overall quality of attainment in English Language was excellent. Very high levels of attainment had been sustained for several years. Almost all pupils had attained appropriate national levels in listening, talking, reading and writing. Most pupils were exceeding these levels earlier than might normally be expected. All pupils, including those with additional support needs and English as an additional language, had made very good progress in their coursework. At all stages, pupils listened well to teachers and to one another. They talked effectively in groups and spoke articulately about their thoughts and ideas. This enabled them to work independently. For example, P4 pupils discussed texts and offered considered opinions about what they had read. At P6 and P7, pupils extracted information from texts and demonstrated highly developed skills of comprehension. Pupils regularly read for pleasure using class libraries and school lending libraries. They made effective use of ICT to source information. Across all stages, pupils were appropriately challenged in their writing. They planned and produced written work of very high quality and for a broad range of purposes. The standard of spelling, punctuation and presentation of pupils’ work was high.

Mathematics

Overall, the quality of pupils’ attainment in mathematics was excellent. Very high levels of attainment had been sustained for several years. At all stages, almost all pupils were attaining appropriate national levels. Most of them attained these levels earlier than might normally be expected. At P4, almost all pupils were exceeding national levels. From P1 to P7, higher attaining pupils were challenged in their mathematical thinking. By P7, pupils were confident when using mathematical formulae. Pupils with additional support needs were making very good progress at an appropriate level. Across the school, pupils successfully collated, extracted and interpreted information from a wide range of graphs. Pupils at P1 extracted information accurately from bar graphs. At P2 and P3, pupils made very good use of ICT to create databases. Across the stages, pupils used ICT to display mathematical information to a very high standard. At all stages, pupils carried out both written and mental calculations accurately. Pupils were very confident when measuring and using money. For example, those at P4 showed good skills in measuring the height of others. Pupils had an excellent knowledge and understanding of two- and three-dimensional shapes. At P1, pupils had drawn butterflies to demonstrate symmetry and at P3 pupils described well features of equilateral triangles. At all stages pupils regularly solved very challenging problems using a good range of strategies.

5. How well are pupils supported?

The school provided pupils with high quality pastoral support. Pupils felt safe and very well looked after and thought that staff listened to any concerns they might have. All staff placed a high priority on pupils’ care and welfare and were fully aware of child protection procedures. They worked effectively together to create a climate of mutual trust, respect and confidence. Pupils and their parents received well judged and very effective support from the parish priests. Staff dealt effectively with incidents concerning pupil behaviour, including bullying. The buddy system enabled pupils in P7 to develop responsible and positive attitudes to others through providing help and support to younger pupils. The school’s approaches to supporting pupils’ social and emotional development were very effective. In particular, the ‘circles of friends’ encouraged pupils to support and nurture one another. Pupils were developing positive attitudes to their health and well-being through, for example, regular physical exercise and participation in after-school clubs. Healthy eating was promoted very effectively. The school ensured pupils were well informed about personal safety, relationships and substance misuse.

Arrangements to support pupils were very good. Teachers provided well-balanced support and challenge in most lessons. The support for learning teachers interacted very well with pupils, and assessed their needs carefully. They worked closely with class teachers to provide appropriate support for individuals and groups. They prepared individualised educational programmes (IEPs) for pupils in consultation with teachers. These IEPs were of high quality and contained clear criteria for success which were shared with parents and pupils. The support for learning teachers provided excellent professional advice to staff. Links with other support agencies such as hearing impairment and speech and language therapist services were very good. The educational psychologist provided effective professional support to staff, pupils and parents. Hardworking and committed pupil support assistants were an integral part of the school support network and provided a very good level of assistance for pupils and teachers. Pupils with English as an additional language were very well supported and were making very good progress. Links with parents were very effective and included well-planned induction programmes for pupils entering P1, and for P7 pupils transferring to secondary school.

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.

Our Lady of the Missions Primary School provided education of the highest standard. The school offered educational experiences that supported pupils’ academic and personal and social development very effectively. The school was held in high esteem in its community and had an outstanding ethos based largely on its values as a faith school. Pupils brought credit to themselves and the school through their successes in a wide range of achievements and excellent levels of attainment. The education authority supported the school effectively through staffing and ICT provision. Overall, the school had a high capacity to sustain high standards through its commitment to continuous improvement.

The headteacher was an effective manager and excellent leader. He shared his vision for the school and promoted teamwork amongst staff. He empowered staff to develop new initiatives and to lead teams. The headteacher set high expectations and demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement. His consultative approach to leadership and highly developed interpersonal skills had inspired confidence in the school’s values and aims. He planned strategically and had a sound professional knowledge of current national developments in education. The two very experienced depute headteachers ably assisted and supported the work of the headteacher. They fulfilled their remits very effectively and were making very good progress in developing their recently revised ‘whole school’ remits. They were highly committed to the work of the school. Together with the principal teachers the corporate leadership of the school was very good overall. The principal teachers were particularly effective in their leadership of curriculm developments in writing, science, ICT, French and enterprise. They provided well-judged support to class teachers. The school’s approaches to self-evaluation were well established. Monitoring activities were managed systematically. The standards and quality report was evaluative and based on a range of evidence including feedback from pupils and parents. Staff valued feedback from regular classroom observations. These could now be more focused on the process of teaching.

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.

Susan Gow
HM Inspector

24 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, Europa Building, 450 Argyle Street, Glasgow G2 8LG or by telephoning 0141 242 0100. 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.