Standards and Quality Report
Context of the school Athelstaneford Primary is a small rural school at the heart of its community. It serves the village of Athelstaneford and the surrounding areas. It is a traditional stone building which has seen extension and refurbishment. The building comprises of three classrooms, a nursery and a hall which encompasses a small kitchen and serves as the dinner hall, GP space and music room. We have the use of the village hall for PE as well as being able to use the outdoors in the playground on a tarmacked pitch or on the grass pitch at the park. We make very good use of our outdoor facilities and the surrounding area to provide meaningful learning opportunities across the curriculum. The school roll is currently 56 in P1-P7 with a nursery complement of 20. Our current class structure is Nursery (mornings only), P1/2, P2/3/4 and P5/6/7. In August 2018 we will remain with three classes and the structure will be Nursery (mornings only), P1/2, P3/4 and P5/6/7 The school team consists of a Head Teacher, Full time Principal Teacher, new to post in August 2018, 2 class teachers who are part-time, nursery teacher, nursery nurse, an NQT, school administrator, 2 part-time classroom assistants and 2 additional needs auxiliaries, visiting specialists in PE, music and French. In August 2106 the current HT took up post in an acting capacity before being permanently appointed to post in April 2017. During the course of both years there have been a significant number of changes to the staffing. In August 2016 the PT was new in post moving from the nursery into the school. This post was on a part-time basis. The Acting HT shared the P1-3 class with the PT. A new part-time teacher took up post to share the P4-7 class with the existing teacher. There was a supply teacher in the nursery and a new nursery nurse who came to the school on a compulsory transfer. There was also the addition of a SNA into the nursery setting. A permanent teacher was appointed to the nursery and took up post in October 2016. In August 2017 an additional class meant that we would have an NQT and the HT would share that class. This created a post to share with the PT. Initially this was filled from supply until an appointment was made in October 2017. Both classroom assistants moved on and two new people were appointed to these posts. Following a number of years of changes in headship and staff, building confidence, trust and stability within the team and with parents was going to be a huge priority. This has indeed been a challenge in light of the changes accounted for. Once again we have staff changes for the coming session with the PT, NQT and part-time teacher all moving on. Our nursery teacher remains in post for the next year. It is without question that in a small school that encounters this number of changes it can be something of a challenge to maintain consistency, keep morale high and drive forward the improvements needed. However, despite this I feel confident that our team is strong and the appointment of a full time PT will enhance and build on this and we will be able to drive forward our priorities. The organisation of resources throughout the school has been of benefit to all enabling them to access what they need to support the pupils learning. The Parent Council and Fundraising Committee are hugely supportive and play an active part in working with staff and pupils to complement the work of the school. They organise regular fundraising events that involve the whole community. These, where possible, link directly to the SIP and help to enhance and support our work.
How good is our leadership and approach to improvement? 1.3 Leadership of change All staff are hugely committed to all learners in the school and have high expectations for them to achieve the best they can. They have a clear picture of the social, economic and cultural context of our community and use this knowledge to plan appropriately for the learning experiences. Teachers are committed to professional learning and this is directly linked to the priorities at national, local and school level. They are reflective in their learning and are committed to the values embedded in the standards. They undertake and keep up to date with mandatory training such as Child Protection. Teachers have responsibility for leading on and developing specific areas linked to the improvement plan such as 1+2, Eco, RRS and Reading. They are also responsive to a need as they identify it and will take ownership to strive for improvement. During this session the HT and the pupil council undertook the work to review and establish a clear Vision, Values and Aims for our school. The pupil council led consultations within their classes and the parents were consulted on several occasions through family homework tasks, voting with stickers and sharing ideas. Some methods were more successful than others and this has been noted for future success. We have successfully agreed upon our vision and values and this was shared with the parent council and the wider parent forum. We will work to develop our aims at the start of the new session. We have begun to recognise the values through our star of the week and make links within in classes. The eco work was one of our pupil parliament groups and was led by a class teacher and supported by parents. They have undertaken a number of initiatives to build on and develop the work of the existing committee. The PT took responsibility for beginning our work towards recognition as a Rights Respecting School and this was also undertaken with one of our pupil parliament groups. She also had responsibility for 1+2 and had a positive role in working within the cluster and delivering as appropriate at allocated CAT sessions. Alongside this she ensured that all staff were informed about new developments, resources and the progression that have been established at authority level. The PT also worked closely with the French specialist to ensure that she was delivering in such a way that was the greatest benefit to all learners. Our NQT took responsibility for our Twitter pupil parliament group. She successfully set up a twitter account for our school. Alongside this she trained staff and worked with a pupil twitter lunchtime club to promote and advertise the twitter account within the community. The ethos within our school is strong and regularly commented upon by visitors. There is a strong feeling of respect for all across our school community and this is demonstrated through collaborative working across all classes, a supportive parent forum and strong relationships in the staff. This has been compounded by the way that existing staff welcome and support new members of staff into our team. We have strong links with the local community and work with many individuals to support learning. The staff engagement survey 2017 indicated that almost all felt valued and motivated in their work. Some staff had concerns about the management of change, workload and resources. These areas were addressed as part of the selfevaluation process. During this session there has staff morale has been good and working together as team which has helped with the ever changing staff team! At the start of this session we addressed planning and how we could make this a less time consuming task. The introduction of the curriculum frameworks were received very positively and have been an effective tool for planning and assessment. Long and medium term planning has been better and indeed less time consuming. However the weekly/daily planning still presents a challenge in terms of the time taken. We have worked successfully with some of our cluster schools to improve our ability to moderate at the planning stage, the use of holistic assessments and consequently built confidence when awarding a level. We plan to continue this cluster work next session.
Future Developments ďƒ˜ Embed our Vision, Values and Aims which are relevant and appropriate to Athelstaneford. ďƒ˜ Engagement by staff with the East Lothian curriculum frameworks in Expressive Arts, RME and Technologies to inform planning and assessment. ďƒ˜ Professional learning undertaken by staff is relevant and supports national, local and school priorities: Cooperative Learning, Mindfulness, CIRCLE resource, Digital Literacy and Computing Science, Big Writing.
Share the work of the school with our families and community. To continue to develop as a Rights Respecting School and build on our Bronze award working towards silver. To be effective in using the data available as a result of the SNSA.
How good is the quality of the care and provision we offer? 2.3
Learning teaching and assessment
In Athelstaneford the learning environment is one that is built on a positive culture and ethos. All staff have positive, nurturing relationships with the pupils and this is evident in the respect that is clearly shown for everyone. There is a strong sense of trust between pupils and staff. Teachers and children plan together in order to ensure that learning is appropriate and challenging for all. Expectations of what learners can achieve are high with targets being clear. Teachers plan yearly, medium term and daily and track coverage for each year group to ensure progression. This is extremely important to manage consistency and progress within the multi-composite class. At the start of the session we agreed as a staff on how we would use the curriculum frameworks for our planning and assessment, planning formats for long and medium term plans and what would be expected on a daily basis. It was agreed that we would regularly evaluate how well it was working and what the impact was. Throughout the session adjustments were made and staff felt that they were using an effective document. One pair of part time teachers also began to effectively use google drive following a CLPL session to work together on plans. This had an extremely positive effect on the share understanding of their part of the learning. The tracking folder that was introduced for each class during the previous session has continued to be used successfully. At the end of this session more handover has been required due to staff changes and some co-horts changing class. This handover was successful due to staff having the tracking information to hand. We make excellent use of our outdoor space and wider community for learning. We engage with members of the wider community to support our learning make best use of their knowledge and expertise.
Learners’ achievements are recognised at whole school assemblies, displayed in the front entrance and recorded in their assessment folders as well as more informally within the classroom. Despite this the results of the SEE survey indicate that not all children feel that their wider achievements out of school are recognised. We have identified this as a priority in next year’s SIP. Achievements in school are recognised in a number of ways in the classroom. The pupil council worked to develop a more positive approach to recognising positive achievements. Children can receive text messages home, positive postcards, HT referrals and stickers. At assembly we recognise a ‘Star of the Week’ from each class and this is now linked to our school values. Learners are actively involved in the life of the school taking on roles of responsibility such as house captains, JRSO’s, pupil council, pupil parliament and supporting parent council fundraising events. This year the pupils have contributed to achieving our RRS bronze award, maintaining our green flag, raising awareness of road safety and developing a vision and values for our school. Teachers plan for assessment and have a more robust approach to gathering evidence with the introduction of an assessment folder for each child. Teachers have been engaging with and using the benchmarks as part of the assessment process. The introduction of the East Lothian Curriculum Frameworks has been fundamental to supporting teachers in their planning and assessment. We have worked closely with two of our cluster schools to improve our knowledge and skills in developing holistic assessments and consequently building confidence when awarding a level. Regular meetings between teaching staff and SMT to discuss learners progress and how to address and support any who have barriers which are preventing them progress as expected.
Future Developments
Improve approaches to assessing and tracking reading skills. Develop the use of co-operative learning in all classes. Moderation activities with cluster colleagues with a focus on moderation at the planning stage. Staff to be confident when using and interpreting a range of data including the SNSA.
How good are we at ensuring the best possible outcomes for all our learners? 3.1 3.2
Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion Raising attainment and achievement
Staff are well informed and have a good understanding of the children’s well-being and rights and this has been demonstrated this year through the achievement of our bronze award as a RRS. Staff create positive, nurturing environments for their pupils to learn in and have developed a strong culture of trust where they can seek out support. They know children extremely well as individuals and respond to their wide and varying needs with positivity and care. They go the extra mile to be accommodating and supportive in order to help our learners be the best they can be. Our pupils are aware of the well-being indicators and can talk about them in relation to themselves. Relationships between staff and parents are excellent. Staff communicate regularly and as appropriate to meet the needs of each child. They ensure that parents are informed about and can share in their children’s learning, progress and next steps. This is done through parent information evenings, class newsletters, one to one consultations, written reports and open mornings. In addition to this they are readily available to meet with or have a telephone conversation and discuss any issues and concerns that may come up out-with these planned times. Teachers keep parents informed about the planned learning in the classroom and school through termly newsletters, the school website and twitter. Engagement by parents of the website and twitter could be better and we will continue to promote this as a means of communication. We hope to encourage pupils and parents to share their learning at home via twitter. The Child Planning process is used to effectively support a number of children and families in school. An action plan is made to target the identified needs of those learners and shared with the appropriate members of staff. Where necessary an IEP is put in place to support all those involved with each individual. Regular meetings to review and update the plan are held. All staff have engaged well with the changes introduced to the child planning process and they would know how to record a wellbeing concern and the actions required. There is scope to further develop confidence and understanding with this process, particularly amongst the support staff. In our school there is a great strength in the way we meet and have dialogue to discuss learner’s progress. Each teacher considers and records barriers to learning that all children face. These along with tracking documents are discussed at regular tracking meetings with SMT. Dialogue between colleagues is regular and is used to support each other. Teachers are skilled in gathering evidence for assessment through a variety of ways. It is recorded in daily evaluations and observations, using formative and summative strategies. Moderation activities have been positive in helping to inform teachers to make achievement of a level judgements. We have continued to offer after school clubs this year, some of which are partly subsidised by the parent council. There is also a fund which ensures that cost is not a barrier to any family.
Drama has been offered all year and the uptake is good. Multisports and neurojuice were offered for one term each. Primary 7 pupils take part in a cluster residential experience and all pupils attended. Funding was successfully achieved in order to support this. This year, the phonics programme for P1 and P2 was introduced and with the use of support staff we were able to deliver this to small groups two to three times a week. Two classes worked co-operatively together in order to deliver across all stages. This has proved to be a successful way of working and the progressive programme was easily followed and delivered by our NQT. This is testament to the work put in by the Principal Teacher to make this a comprehensive tool for planning, assessment and tracking. Teachers use other approved assessments to measure progress in reading and spelling in the upper stages. Number Counts was our main priority this session with 3 teachers taking part in number academies. We also committed a number of CAT sessions to this and have been successful in achieving a more consistent approach to teaching numeracy. Staff have shown commitment to developing their approaches to teaching numeracy through their attendance at number academies, being willing to take a risk in their classroom and building on resources to support their teaching. We had very successful health and finance weeks, organised by different members of staff. A whole school HWB focus allowed for great team work and opportunities for pupils to work together across all stages. During this time P6/7 enjoyed and input on mental health from Martin Lahiffe. Transition in Athelstaneford is vital and has been successful in preparing our young people for High School and entering into P.1. Information is shared with pupils and parents about the programme of events. We work closely with secondary staff, nursery colleagues and partnership establishments to ensure that transition is smooth and enjoyable for all.
Future Developments
Develop a curriculum rationale 2 teachers attending co-operative learning training and will share with rest of staff. All staff trained in use of CIRCLE resource. Develop teaching and tracking of reading and listening and talking. Attendance at Big Writing training. Use of PEF funding to offer additional teacher support for SfL. Consider our approaches to consulting and reporting to parents – consult on possibility of doing more face to face consultation.
What is our capacity for continuous improvement? 1.1
Self-evaluation for improvement
Staff engage well with self-evaluation understanding it is an integral part in our approach to improvement. We have used a range of tools and approaches to gather evidence and feedback to inform how we will move forward in our nexts steps for improvement. Throughout the year we planned in time and reflected on progress of the SIP and also QI’s from HGIOUS. We identified ares of strength and what our priorties for improvement would be. This work has been carried out throughout the year at staff meetings and in-service days. We have done our best to do this with as many staff present as possible but is challenging due to part time hours worked by all. Staff are always given the opportunity to contribute in other ways if not present. The changes of staff in the coming year will bring another full time member of staff, the principal teacher, into school along with the NQT this should offer more opportunioty for all voices to be heard more regularly.
Through our pupil parliament and pupil council the learners have the opportunity to share their thoughts on areas for develoment within our school and have an active role in taking those forward. There is scope to develop this and with the introduction of How good is OUR school? We will look to offer more opportunities for the pupils. Our parents were consulted at the open mornings, parent consultations, family homework, by invitation to participate in small group feedbackand through the parent council. We will continue to be creative in the ways that we involve parents and partners more regularly as it is clear that some methods are more successful than others. In spite of the ever changing staffing picture in our school everyone continues to work exceptionally hard to engage withand drive forward the identified priorities we have identified to establish and achieve a consistent direction and use of approaches to teaching and learning. The driver is the children and making the learning opportunities appropriate to meet the needs of all. Their motivation and commitment to improvement and willingness to take on the development of specific areas has resulted in clear priorities and direction of travel. Although we have more staff changes in the coming year the picture of our direction of travel is clear and that shared understanding is good amogst the remaining staff. Continue to be creative in the ways we invilve our parents to contribute the the self evaluation process. Continued engagement with curriculum frameworks in particular the ones which will be new this session. Use of the CIRCLE resource as a way of looking inwards, outwards and forwards to measure and track how the classroom environment can impact on inclusion for all. Building confidence in the identification, assessment and intervention of persistent difficulties in reading or spelling.
Level Q.I. 1.1 Self-evaluation for self-improvement Q.I. 1.3 Leadership of change Q.I. 2.3 Learning teaching and assessment Q.I. 3.2 Raising attainment and achievement
Good Good Good Good