Patna Primary School Summarised Inspection Findings, East Ayrshire

Summarised inspection findings Patna Primary School East Ayrshire Council 26 February 2019 Key contextual information Patna Primary School, Early Childhood and Support Learning Centre is situated within the rural village of Patna in the Doon Valley. The school is a mix of open plan classrooms and closed classrooms. There are two supported learning centres and a nurture room. The school has a roll of 138 including children in the supported learning base. 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment weak This indicator focuses on ensuring high-quality learning experiences for all children and young people. It highlights the importance of highly-skilled staff who work with children, young people and others to ensure learning is motivating and meaningful. Effective use of assessment by staff and learners ensures children and young people maximise their successes and achievements. The themes are: n learning and engagement n quality of teaching n effective use of assessment n planning, tracking and monitoring n The school has a caring ethos in which children enjoy positive relationships with staff and each other. Staff know children and their families well. Most children, when activities are appropriate, engage well in their learning. In the majority of lessons children are slow to engage in their work and require encouragement to start tasks. As a result there are important weakness in what children are learning. In the best lessons children are motivated and interact well during lessons. In most lessons there is scope for children to be offered planned opportunities for children to exercise choice in their learning. All children in the school are part of a committee. This is beginning to support children to develop their skills as responsible learners. The majority of children think that their views are listened to and a minority of children think that their views are taken into account. n In the majority of lessons there are clear instructions and explanations. In the majority of lessons learning intentions and success criteria were on display. A positive next step would be to ensure that these are rooted in a well-planned progressive curriculum and meet the needs of all learners. Staff are increasing the range of approaches used to take forward learning. In the majority of lessons there are a significant number of children who disengage in their learning. In a few lessons staff use questioning well. Across the school there is scope to develop teachers questioning skills to support children’s engagement. In most lessons teachers are leading the learning. There are missed opportunities for children to lead the learning during most lessons. The school recognised that they are beginning to develop opportunities for children to lead the learning. Children’s curiosity and engagement is not being developed well enough. n In the best lessons observed feedback is used effectively to help children identify their next steps in learning. Most children are not able to articulate their targets for learning. The school would benefit from revisiting all aspects of Assessment is for Learning Strategies. These need to be monitored to ensure that they are being implemented in a consistent way across the school. n The headteacher recognise the need to improve the consistency and quality of learning and teaching across the school to ensure high quality experiences for all children. Learning and teaching is too variable across the school. Themes to improve include a deeper understanding of active learning, increased pace and challenge and differentiation. Staff report that they work 2 | Summarised inspection findings Patna Primary School (8242720) East Ayrshire Council © Crown Copyright well collegiately and support one another. The staff could build on this to develop a shared understanding of what good learning and teaching is in Patna Primary. The senior leadership team have been very receptive to ideas on how the senior leadership and staff can take this forward, including looking at good practice in other establishments and using national advice and guidance. n In almost all lessons teachers used interactive white boards to display children’s groupings and worksheets. A few teachers used digital technology to enhance the learning experiences of children. In a few lessons children used digital technology to support their learning. The school utilise their ICT suite. In time the school could consider how they could use digital technology more effectively to support learning and engagement. n There is a range of formative and summative assessment used. Assessment is not yet integral to the planning of learning and teaching. The senior leadership team recognise the need to use the information from assessment to guide learning and teaching within the classrooms. The school are at the early stages of developing a shared understanding of what high quality assessment is and are aware of the need to have planned opportunities for children to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and attributes and capabilities in different contexts across the curriculum. There is scope for the school to build on the emerging practice to enable staff to plan learning teaching and assessment together to enable valid and reliable assessments to be created. n The school has been part of a local moderation group and staff report that this has helped increase their confidence in moderation. The staff now need to focus on understanding national standards, the moderation cycle and increase the expectations they have for all children. This has the potential to enable staff and the senior leadership team to make reliable judgements of progress within a level and achievement of a level. n The school reviewed their planning a couple of years ago. The staff are using East Ayrshire’s progressions in numeracy and literacy to plan. The senior leadership team recognise the need to review further the schools planning to support more focused and differentiated planning approaches. There is potential to involve children more in planning. n The school regularly monitor jotters, forward planning and visit classrooms. The feedback from theses monitoring activities needs to be more robust and focused on improvements to children’s learning and attainment. The school now need to develop rigorous monitoring and evaluating processes which provide clear information about learner’s progress and the impact of targeted interventions. As discussed with the senior leadership team information from their monitoring and evaluation activities will inform areas to be included in the improvement plan. The school should be mindful of children with additional challenges and those who face disadvantage and monitor their progress. 3 | Summarised inspection findings Patna Primary School (8242720) East Ayrshire Council © Crown Copyright 2.1 Safeguarding and child protection n The school submitted self-evaluation information related to child protection and safeguarding. Inspectors discussed this information with relevant staff and, where appropriate, children. In addition, inspectors examined a sample of safeguarding documentation. Areas for development have been agreed with the school and the education authority. 4 | Summarised inspection findings Patna Primary School (8242720) East Ayrshire Council © Crown Copyright 3.2 Raising attainment and achievement weak This indicator focuses on the school’s success in achieving the best possible outcomes for all learners. Success is measured in attainment across all areas of the curriculum and through the school’s ability to demonstrate learners’ achievements in relation to skills and attributes. Continuous improvement or sustained high standards over time is a key feature of this indicator. The themes are: n attainment in literacy and numeracy n attainment over time n overall quality of learners’ achievement n equity for all learners Attainment in literacy and numeracy n Overall attainment in literacy and numeracy is weak. From the evidence provided by the school, assessments of children’s achievements of a level in literacy and numeracy may be overestimated and lack reliability. Staff are developing their skills in assessing children’s progress and achievement, working annually with their associated local school group and at local authority events. n Staff are carrying out a range of summative assessments and organising pupil tasks that contribute to their professional judgements. They do not yet have sufficient expertise to provide consistently accurate judgements of children’s achievement of appropriate levels. The consistent use of reliable assessment and data analysis to inform next steps and evaluate interventions should be developed to raise attainment and achievement. n The senior leadership team are at an early stage of implementing the East Ayrshire tracking tool. As discussed, the headteacher and management team now need to improve their approaches to tracking conversations with teachers building on the assessment evidence gathered. n There is significant scope for improvement in children’s performance in literacy and numeracy. Children’s progress in both literacy and numeracy should be improved. Recently introduced resources will be important in setting and agreeing higher expectations. Staff should ensure more frequent opportunities for children to apply literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. Attainment over time n The school does not have sufficient, good quality data, of a range and type necessary to judge accurately children’s progress and attainment

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