Standards and Quality Report
The Highland Council
Education, Culture and Sport Service
SPEAN BRIDGE PRIMARY SCHOOL
June 2015
Our school vision, values and aims1. To ensure we have a coherent and progressive curriculum from Nursery to P7.
2. To present the curriculum through interesting and challenging programmes of work, taking into account each pupil’s needs.
3. To provide a safe and happy environment where all pupils can learn effectively.
4. To encourage all pupils to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and self- discipline, and encourage responsible attitudes.
5. To promote strong home-school links, working in close partnership with parents, for the benefit of all pupils.
6. To encourage all pupils to raise their levels of attainment, by promoting an ethos of achievement throughout the school.
7. To continue the personal and professional development of all staff, and encouraging teamwork, for the benefit of all staff and pupils.
8. To foster an appreciation of our local and much wider environment, and a feeling of responsibility for the school and the community.
9. To promote health and wellbeing in the school, and encourage pupils and staff to understand the important effect that improving their health and wellbeing will have, on raising attainment, fulfilling potential, and improving quality of life.
10. To promote equality and inclusion, and enable every pupil to benefit from education, with particular regard to pupils with disabilities and special educational needs, and those from different cultures and backgrounds.
May 2015
The Core Areas of our Practice
This report summarises the strengths of our school, our recent improvements and what needs to improve further. We gather this information throughout the year in a variety of ways so we can make sure our report is as accurate as possible. We take time to compare what we do with national examples of best practice. We visit each others’ classes to share standards in learning and teaching. We look at children and young people’s work to see how they are progressing. We cross mark work. We make use of factual data and information including attainment results responding and adapting our teaching in line with children’s needs. We assess using our own expertise, standardised testing, cross marking and results tracking. Children peer assess and self assess. We gather the views of children, parents, staff and members of the local community. We use all of this information to arrive at our view of the quality of education we provide.
Our Key Strengths· Our learners enjoy coming to school and are motivated and enthusiastic about learning. They are engaged, active contributors to school life and the wider community.
· Our commitment to maintaining and improving our very good attainment in Literacy and Numeracy, and focusing strongly on those areas identified for improvement.
· Staff who are highly committed to continuing improvement in our school, associated school and nursery, and work closely as a team to ensure the sharing of information and good practice at all stages.
· Staff who know the children very well and employ a variety of teaching styles and differentiation techniques to accommodate the needs and learning styles of pupils.
· Our commitment to self-evaluation and school improvement. We use a variety of evidence effectively to improve and evaluate our work – visits to classes and nursery, sampling of pupils’ work, analysis and tracking of pupil attainment, feedback from questionnaires, staff reviews, staff development, and effective and focused dialogue between staff.
Our Improvements Last Session
Improvements in performance
· Continued very good progress and attainment in literacy and numeracy, especially in reading and writing, with further improvements in many areas.
· Ongoing commitment and action to further raise attainment and ensure a consistent pace of progress in Literacy and Numeracy.
Learners’ Experiences
· Pupils are taking increasing responsibility for their learning and continue to be involved in reviewing key aspects of their learning, setting goals and tracking their wider achievement.
· Continued development of methods of engaging learners in meaningful feedback, on a regular basis, which they are able to use to further develop their own next steps.
· Embedding the use of Personal Learning Planning ensuring targets are clearly set out in the Learning Logs.
· Development of effective systems to ensure the close evaluation of learner’s experiences throughout the school to ensure all pupils have every opportunity to succeed.
The Curriculum
· The continued development of a clear progression and consistency in learning across all areas of the curriculum which strongly encourages personal achievement.
· Continued development and implementation of progression frameworks across all curricular areas, from Nursery to P7 to provide a consistent and progressive learning experience for all our learners.
Meeting learning needs
· A clear process is in place for identifying, assessing and meeting pupils’ needs including the higher achieving pupils.
· Continued focus on improving the appropriate level of challenge and support to extend pupils’ learning and ensure they are actively engaged in all areas of the curriculum.
Improvements through self – evaluation
· A clear, shared vision and values, and a high level of commitment to school improvement across all areas of the school.
· Continuing to embed robust systems and processes for sharing standards and to track, monitor and report learner’s progress across all areas of the curriculum.
· To increase the opportunities for our learners to take on roles of responsibility and play a greater part in decision making.
· To utilise opportunities to moderate our self – evaluation with other schools and partners to consistently apply and improve standards and expectations.
· To continue to engage with the ASG on all joint initiatives.
Our Priorities For Improvement for Next Session
· To further raise attainment, and ensure a consistent pace of progress in Literacy and Numeracy.
· Continue to develop effective systems to monitor and track pupil attainment and progress across all areas of the curriculum.
· Continue to develop methods of engaging learners in meaningful feedback, on a regular basis, which they are able to use to further develop their own next steps. Embed the use of Personal Learning Planning and ensure targets are clearly set out in the Learning Logs.
· Continued development and implementation of progression frameworks across all curricular areas, from Nursery to P7 to provide a consistent and progressive learning experience for all our learners.
· Planning and implementation of 1+2 languages as a whole school development project.
· Continue to ensure all pupils are provided with the appropriate level of challenge and support to extend their learning and ensure they are actively engaged in all areas of the curriculum.
· To increase the opportunities for our learners to take on roles of responsibility and play a greater part in decision making.
· To utilise opportunities to moderate our self – evaluation with other schools and partners to consistently apply and improve standards and expectations.
1. How well do young people learn and achieve?
1.1.Improvements in performance
· Standards of attainment over time
· Overall quality of learners’ achievement
· Impact of the school improvement plan
2.1 Learners’ experiences
· The extent to which learners are motivated
and actively involved in their own learning
and development
Strengths and recent areas of improvement
Standards of attainment over time
· Most pupils have made good or very good progress from prior levels of attainment in Reading, Writing and Numeracy.
Overall quality of learners’ achievement
· Our pupils are given regular opportunities to achieve in a range of activities as part of the school curriculum and also out-with school. These achievements are celebrated regularly in assemblies and newsletters and recorded in the pupil’s Learning Log.
· The use of personal learning planning and target setting in Literacy, Numeracy and Health & Wellbeing is becoming embedded in to daily practice and referenced in the Learning Log.
Impact of school improvement plan
· We use our school improvement plan effectively to inform and further develop school improvement. We have used this to identify priorities in order to improve the attainment and learning experience for all pupils.
The extent to which leaners are motivated and actively involved in their own learning and development
· Most of our learners are highly motivated and enthusiastic about learning. They enjoy coming to school. They are engage well with all aspects of the school and are encouraged to be effective contributors to school life and the wider community.
· Learners are taking increasing responsibility for their learning and continue to be involved in reviewing key aspects of their learning, setting goals and tracking their wider achievement. / Areas for further development
To further raise attainment, and ensure a consistent pace of progress in Literacy and Numeracy with a specific focus on:
· Continuing to embed a clear progression in the development of writing skills from Nursery to P7.
· Continuing to improve learner’s experiences through the embedding of new literacy resources.
· Continuing to improve learner’s experiences in numeracy through the implementation of the new resources Active Maths and continued focus on raising attainment in mental maths.
· To identify interventions to close the attainment gap to ensure all pupils have the appropriate support to achieve their potential.
· Continue to develop effective systems to monitor and track pupil attainment and progress across all areas of the curriculum.
· Continued focus on the revised Highland Council Learning Policy and agree what good learning looks like.
· Continue to develop methods of engaging learners in meaningful feedback, on a regular basis, which they are able to use to further develop their own next steps. Embed the use of Personal Learning Planning and ensure targets are clearly set out in the Learning Logs.
· In the Nursery to continue to extend and embed opportunities for personal achievement and reference in ‘My Learning Journey’ and the ‘Key Worker’ initiative. Monitor closely in view of the new Nursery arrangements
· Continue to embed formative assessment across all areas of the curriculum; to make it clear to learners what is expected and how to improve.
2. How well does the school support young people to develop and learn?
5.1 The Curriculum
· The rationale and design of the curriculum
· The development of the curriculum
· Programmes and courses
· Transitions
5.3 Meeting learning needs
· Tasks, activities and resources
· Identification of learning needs
· The roles of teachers and specialist staff
· Meeting and implementing the
requirements of legislation
Strengths and recent areas of improvement
The rational and design of the curriculum
· Through the Curriculum for Excellence all learners have access to a very broad and balanced curriculum which strongly encourages personal achievement. It highlights the importance of a positive ethos and the learners being an integral part of the life of the school. Our curriculum treats all children, regardless of gender or social background, fairly and gives each child the maximum opportunity to fulfil their potential.
The development of the curriculum
· Our school’s curriculum continues to ensure that relevant opportunities are provided for pupils to broaden and enrich their learning and engage in a wide range of physical and creative activities through a variety of class-based and out–of-class activities.
Programmes and courses
· We are designing and refreshing the curriculum as an ongoing process to plan a coherent approach to learning, teaching and assessment.
Transitions
· Very good arrangements are in place for pre – school and S1 transition.
Tasks, activities and resources
· Staff are skilled at providing a variety of teaching strategies to accommodate the needs and learning styles of pupils.
· A variety of forms of differentiation are used effectively to meet the needs of pupils.
Identification of learning needs
· Staff know children very well and respond effectively to a range of pupils’ needs. Children are also very well supported by our PSAs and by Support for Learning.
· Parent’s feel that the school has a strong ethos and that children learn very well.
The roles of teachers and specialist staff
· The school uses the skills of all staff very well. In addition, specialist teachers for PE and Music lessons, and visitors for Gaelic and assemblies reinforce classroom teaching. / Areas for further development
· To ensure our Curriculum Plan and its rationale are shared with parents and clearly understood by them.
· Continue to embed/monitor and review our Science and Health & Wellbeing progression frameworks from Nursery to P7
· Implementation of RME and Social Studies progression frameworks from Nursery to P7.
· Planning and implementation of the progression frameworks for Literacy and Technologies from Nursery to P7.
· Planning and implementation of 1+2 languages as a whole school development project.
· Further develop programmes across all curricular areas, from Nursery to P7, to provide a long–term overview of planned learning which ensures a consistent and progressive learning experience and meets the needs of all our learners.
· Continue to ensure all pupils are provided with the appropriate level of challenge and support to extend their learning and ensure they are actively engaged in all areas of the curriculum.
· Continue to develop and improve the processes for identifying and meeting all learners needs
· To Identify a clear strategy of interventions towards narrowing the attainment gap
3. How well does the school improve the quality of its work?
5.9 Improvements through self-evaluation
· Commitment to self-evaluation
· Management of self-evaluation
· School improvement
Strengths and recent areas of improvement
Commitment to self – evaluation
· We have engaged in a wide range of assessment evidence and tracking systems which have improved our performance.
· We have utilised a range of self –evaluation activities to bring about clear improvements in teaching and learning.
Management of self - evaluation
· We ensure that self-evaluation is embedded through the structured monitoring programme and staff CAP programme.
School Improvement
· Staff, pupils and parents demonstrate a commitment to school improvement, with a focus on continuing improvements to learning and teaching and the achievement of our learners.
· We have strong, positive relationships with parents, the local community and schools within our Associated School Group (ASG). We greatly value the contribution parents play in enriching the experiences of our learners, through supporting in classrooms, leading workshops and helping with transport. / Areas for further development
· Continue to improve the range of self –evaluation activities to bring about clear improvements in teaching and learning.
· Continue to develop high quality support for professional review and development for all staff. Use the GTCS Professional Standards as a starting point for personal reflection and self – evaluation and ensure all staff are fully compliant by 18/19
· To utilise opportunities to moderate our self – evaluation, both within our school and with other schools, to consistently apply and improve standards and expectations.
· Continue to develop and embed a more learning based focus for the Pupil Council and Eco Committee and through our Citizenship Groups extend the opportunities for every P4-7 pupil to take on wider roles of responsibility.
· Ensure these are used effectively as part of the self – evaluation process.
· To ensure our school community and wider partners are fully informed and consulted on the relevant areas of school Improvement.
The Highland Council Education Service Quality Improvement Team