Standards and Quality Report 2018 - 2019
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Standards and Quality Report 2018 - 2019 Underbank Primary School 159 Lanark Road Crossford Carluke South Lanarkshire Context of the school: Underbank Primary School Underbank Primary School is a small, rural, non-denominational school which serves the villages of Crossford, Rosebank, Tillietudlem, Hazelbank and the surrounding area. Underbank is situated within Clydesdale in South Lanarkshire. The current roll is 100, with five classes (P1 – 13 children, P2/3 – 19 children, P4 – 21 children, P5/6 – 22 children and P7 – 25 children). Almost 60% of our pupils are placing requests. The catchment area is varied and draws from a mix of housing within the local villages. The school is on one level and is set within attractive grounds which are used to deliver outdoor education and play. One staff member is trained in Forest Schools and two are progressing towards this qualification, this impacts greatly on our creative outdoor curriculum. Our new build was completed in November 2018 and has had a significant impact on pupils’ enthusiasm and motivation to learn due to the variety of learning spaces now available. A Wedding in our Outdoor Classroom Our Willow Dome Our core values and principles are centred around CfE. We aim to raise standards, prepare our children for a future they do not yet know and equip them for jobs of tomorrow in a fast changing world. Our vision at Underbank is to work in partnership with everyone in our school community, to provide a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment in which everyone is included to achieve their full potential. Our school motto is: ‘We Can and We Will’. Strong partnership working is a key feature of our school. We believe strongly in working together in order for every child to reach their fullest potential, and benefit from an educational experience that will equip them with the relevant knowledge and skills to be successful as they progress to secondary education and beyond. We promote positive relationships within school and foster an ethos which encourages all pupils to respect themselves and others. Our teachers deliver subjects creatively, work together across the school and with other schools, share best practice and explore learning together. We believe that there should be good teaching indoors and outdoors. At Underbank, we wish to nurture parental involvement; we have an active Parent Council and a Parents’ & Friends’ Association, both support us in valuable ways. We also welcome the support of helpers to assist us in providing an active and engaging curriculum, as well as a variety of after school opportunities. These helpers include parents, grandparents and members of the community. Our school offers a varied choice of extra-curricular activities. We participate in local, SLC and National events, such as swimming, netball, football and cross country. P6 & 7 pupils are offered a residential outdoor experience annually which offers many new activities and experiences to our learners. Attendance at Underbank is very good and this is carefully monitored. Records in mid- May showed that 86% of our pupils had an attendance rate of over 95%, with 22% having perfect attendance. At this time all pupils at Underbank have attendance of over 90%. This year has been a challenging, yet exciting year, as we moved from our old building into our new one. Our new PT has settled well and contributed in many valuable ways to the life of the school. In the year ahead we anticipate having two FME at Underbank. Using our current SIMD deciles, we have 11 pupils who will sit within SIMD 2. All of these pupils are placing requests to Underbank and live within semi-rural settings. They all attend extra-curricular activities that we offer and attend other activities out with school. All of these pupils have attendance rates of over 90%, with 91% having an attendance rate of over 95%. Of these 11 pupils, the majority are on track within all areas. We have identified that a very small number are not on track to attain their expected level in all areas. We are part of the Lanark Learning Community and have developed strong links with all local primary schools and Lanark Grammar, to ensure smooth transitions for all of our learners are planned for. Underbank Primary School The National Context for Education The National Improvement Framework (NIF) for Scottish Education sets out the Scottish Government’s vision to continually improve Scottish Education and to close the attainment gap, delivering both excellence and equity. Our school, working in partnership with South Lanarkshire Council is fully committed to delivering these ambitious aims. The key priorities of the National Improvement Framework are: Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing Improvement in employability skills and sustained, positive school leaver destinations for all young people Key drivers of improvement have also been identified, these are: School leadership. Teacher professionalism. Parental engagement. Assessment of children’s progress. School improvement. Performance information. South Lanarkshire Council’s overall vision is to “improve the quality of life of everyone in South Lanarkshire Council.” Education Resources’ key purpose is to: “Raise achievement and attainment, inspire learners, transform learning and work in partnership to strengthen our communities” The priorities relating to this are: Deliver high-quality early learning and childcare to give our children the best educational start Raise standards in literacy, numeracy and close the poverty-related attainment gap. Improve health and wellbeing to enable children and families to flourish. Support children and young people to develop their skills for learning, life and work. Ensure inclusion and equality are at the heart of what we do. Our school is committed to taking these priorities forward and developing each driver through our annual School Improvement Plan (SIP.) Assessment of children’s progress throughout the Broad General Education (to end of S3) As one of the drivers, our school, alongside all schools in Scotland, has been required to report on Curriculum for Excellence levels for literacy and numeracy achieved by all children at the end of stages P1, P4, P7 and S3. This data is submitted to South Lanarkshire Council in June each year and collected subsequently by the Scottish Government. This data is based on teacher judgement, informed by a wide range of assessment evidence including standardised testing where appropriate. As from session 2016/17 all schools in Scotland will be required to participate in the new Scotland National Standardised Assessment (SNSA) project. This will further help inform teacher judgement of levels. The following table shows benchmarks for children achieving Curriculum for Excellence Levels. Level Stage covering 3 years approx. Early The pre-school years and P1, or later for some. First To the end of P4, but earlier or later for some. Second To the end of P7, but earlier or later for some. S1 to S3, but earlier for some. The fourth level broadly equates to Scottish Credit and Qualifications Third and Framework level 4. Fourth The fourth level experiences and outcomes are intended to provide possibilities for choice and young people’s programmes will not include all of the fourth level outcomes. Senior S4 to S6, and college or other means of study. phase Some children and young people will start learning at these levels earlier and others later, depending upon individual needs and abilities. Many children not attaining National Levels will have an Additional Support Plan (ASP) and may be making good progress but against different milestones e.g. individual targets. Learning progress is not about how fast children move through the levels but about ‘how much’ and ‘how well’ children learn, having depth and breadth of experiences at each level. Assessment of these levels is based on a wide variety of evidence and ways of measuring progress such as assessment of projects, general class work, observations and peer assessment. Where possible, children and young people are encouraged to be directly involved in the assessment process. Schools and teachers work with others to set shared standards for assessing progress. These standards are based on National “benchmarks” for each area of the curriculum. This process is called moderation and it ensures that schools have similar expectations. What follows is our school’s data about achievement of these levels for session 15/16 through to session 18/19 which represents a three year trend. Review of SIP progress session - 2018 - 2019 Priority 1: To realign our Numeracy and Mathematics planning and assessments to take into account the latest Numeracy and Mathematics Benchmarks, while embedding good practice from previous session. National Improvement Framework Key National Improvement Framework Key Drivers Priorities Improvement in attainment, particularly in School leadership literacy and numeracy; Closing the attainment gap between the most Teacher professionalism and least disadvantaged children; Improvement in children and young people’s Parental engagement health and wellbeing; and Improvement in employability skills and Assessment of children’s progress sustained positive school leaver destinations for all young people. School improvement Performance information HGIOS 4 QI: 2.2 Curriculum