Netherton primary HMI follow up report

December 2003

HM Inspectors (HMIe) published a report on standards and quality in Netherton Primary School in April 2002.  In June 2002 North Lanarkshire Council in collaboration with the school prepared and published an action plan indicating how they would address the main points for action in the HMIe report within a two year period.

A North Lanarkshire Council Quality Improvement Officer assessed the extent to which the school was continuing to improve the quality of its work, and evaluated progress made in responding to the main points for action in the original report.

The staff had worked effectively as a team to take forward the recommendations contained in the report.  Attainment had risen significantly. Programmes for English language and mathematics had been improved.  Learning and teaching approaches had been reviewed and improvements in planning and assessment had resulted in an increased pace of learning across all stages.  Self-evaluation had improved across all areas of school work resulting in a clear focus on areas for improvement.  Parents and staff were involved at all stages of development and were committed to improving the school.

The school was now well placed to sustain and build on the effective developments.

3.  Progress towards the main points for action

The initial inspection report published in April 2002 identified six points for action.  This section evaluates the progress made with each of the action points and the resulting improvements for pupils and other stakeholders.

3.1  The school should raise attainment in English language and mathematics.

The school had made very good progress towards meeting this point for action.

• The school had significantly raised attainment in English language and in mathematics.  Staff from the education authority had worked alongside school staff to develop pupils' writing.  Additional staff training had taken place in reading and in talking and listening.  Improved planning and revised programmes of study had improved the pace of learning for all pupils in English language and in mathematics.  The school had worked on tracking and target setting which focussed effectively on achievement. Additional staff had been targeted to support pupils in the middle groups and this had raised their levels of achievement.  The school placed emphasis on achieving targets in a shorter timescale.  New resources had contributed to the improvement in attainment.  The school used baseline assessment and the results of standardised tests to identify pupils who required additional support, including higher attaining pupils.  Good records of pupil achievements were kept.  All teachers had tracked individual pupil attainment.  Monitoring of attainment by the headteacher ensured rigorous and consistent standards across the school.  Parents, pupils and staff were involved in the development of the homework policy, and of procedures to continue the raising of attainment including parental understanding of the school's aims for improvement. Individualised education programmes (IEPs) had been reviewed and targets were focussed on raising achievement for relevant pupils.  Staff training had taken place in the use of IEPs.  Forward plans identified teaching and learning aims, and assessment opportunities, with teacher evaluation, had contributed to maintaining a focus on attainment.  Enhanced staffing had enabled the school to 'set' groups of pupil by ability for English language and mathematics.  This had assisted in the raising of attainment.

3.2  The school should improve further the programmes for English language and mathematics.

The school had met this point for action.

• The staff had written, implemented and monitored new programmes in all aspects of mathematics, including information handling using computers, mental mathematics and problem solving.  The programme ensured better balance across the outcomes of mathematics.  Additional resources had been purchased to support the delivery of the mathematics programme and new forward plans supported their delivery.  Additional resources had been purchased for English language and the programme had been revised to improve pupil progress.  The headteacher and the education authority had enhanced resources for Information and communication technology (ICT) to improve the programmes of study in all curricular areas, particularly in English language and mathematics.  Supportive programmes for talking and listening had been implemented and the headteacher had provided good guidance for teachers.  Additional reading materials had been purchased for aspects of the English language programme.  The library environment and the stock of books had been enhanced and workshops had been provided for parents to assist them to support their children's reading.

3.3  Teachers should develop a more consistent approach to planning across all areas of the curriculum. They should use assessment information more effectively to identify pupils' needs, plan the next steps in learning and evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching.

The school had made very good progress towards meeting this point for action.

• The school had improved planning in all curricular areas and there was now greater consistency across the stages, and between different curricular areas.  All plans now indicated the aim of the lesson, planned assessment and evaluation of the teaching.  Led by the headteacher the staff had developed new planners.  The staff had followed standards in forward planning as set out in national quality indicators.  Forward plans were monitored by the headteacher and feedback given to teachers.  Staff used a neighbouring education authority's format for planners in health education with amendments to increase road safety aspects and to include drug education.  Improvements had been made in the planning of environmental studies.  Assessment was planned, and used to inform learning and teaching.  There was good quality formative assessment taking place in some curricular areas, especially writing, where strengths and next steps were identified for individual pupils.  Co-operative learning strategies and methodology had enhanced peer and self-assessment.  Teachers were using national test results and standardised test scores to assist planning for English language and mathematics.  Assessment was used to identify groupings for learning and teaching.
  
• Teachers used assessment to review achievement and attainment for 'setting' pupils by ability groups in English language and mathematics across P5 to P7.  All pupils had attainment folders where the results of assessments were recorded and predictions were indicated to assist in planning future learning and teaching.

3.4  Teachers should ensure that the pace of learning and choice of activities provide sufficient challenge to meet the needs of all pupils.

The school had met this action point.

• A new support for learning policy was in place. Individualised education programmes (IEPs) were more challenging.  Programmes of study had been reviewed in all curricular areas and activities had been revised and improved.  The pace of learning and teacher expectations had been improved across the school.  Staff set targets for the session and also re-evaluated the targets after national testing had taken place.  The headteacher used a more systematic approach to monitoring the pace of learning and attainment.  More children were achieving level A in P2 and their learning and achievements were being targeted and monitored.  There had been an increase in the number of pupils at the upper stages of the school achieving level D.  The improvements made to forward planning had assisted the school in meeting this target.  Additional materials had been purchased to enable staff to meet the needs of higher attaining pupils in the school.

3.5  The headteacher in consultation with staff and the school community, should review the school's aims and develop policies to provide support and guidance for teachers.

The school had made good progress towards meeting this action point.

• Productive staff discussion and development had taken place.  New aims had been written which reflected learning and teaching and local and national priorities.  These aims were evident in the relevant documents in the school.  Parents were consulted and their views taken into consideration.  The headteacher and the senior teacher attended training in policy writing and led staff in the review of policies.  Policies in mathematics and language had been improved.  The support for learning policy was very good, assisting teachers to meet pupil needs.  All updated policies provided valuable guidance to staff.

3.6  The headteacher and staff should develop more rigorous arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the work of the school. They should use the results of self-evaluation as a basis for improving the school's approaches to development planning.

The school had met this point for action.

• The headteacher had undertaken training in both development planning and monitoring.  Staff had used the national quality indicators in a variety of ways to benchmark and to improve practice.  The headteacher had a monitoring calendar in place, agreed with all members of staff.  The calendar indicated when classroom visits would be made by the headteacher, when pupils' work would be monitored and when forward plans were due.  Feedback on learning and teaching was given to all staff and improvement targets agreed.  There were regular focused meetings with staff to discuss forward plans and classroom practice.  The staff took part in the annual audit of whole school performance.  Parents were consulted about the school and its performance.  Parents were given a summary of the school standards and quality report.  Procedures were in place to ensure that development planning and improvement planning were more rigorous and that there was a systematic focus on improvements in learning, teaching and attainment. Improvements were clearly evident in learning and teaching and pupils' attainment.

4. Conclusion

With effective support from North Lanarkshire Council Quality Development Service, Netherton Primary School had responded very well to the recommendations of HMIe and had significantly improved pupil attainment and achievement.  All staff had been fully involved in the development of the action plan and had worked hard to support the headteacher to undertake the recommendations within the agreed timescale.  The school has a clear focus to continue the improvements achieved to date.  North Lanarkshire Council will not publish further reports in relation to the 2002 HMIe report.

Michael O'Neill, Director of Education
Cllr Charles Gray, Convener (Education Committee)

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