Standards and Quality Report 2017-18 Underbank Primary

Standards and Quality Report 2017-18

Underbank Primary School 154 Lanark Road Crossford Carluke South Lanarkshire

Standards and Quality Report 2017-18 School Name: Underbank Primary School Context of the 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 108, with five classes (P1/2 – 18 children, P2/3 – 19 children, P4/5 – 21 children, P5/6 – 25 children and P6/7 – 25 children). 44.85% 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 split-level and is set within attractive grounds which are used to deliver outdoor education and play. Some staff are trained in Forest Schools which impacts greatly on our creative outdoor curriculum. The school is featured in SLC’s Modernisation Programme and our new build is in its early stages. 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 all stakeholders, to provide a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment in which every child can achieve their full potential in preparing for their role in society. 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, and aim to deliver a curriculum which embraces outdoor learning in a deep and relevant capacity, while recognising the community in which we sit. At Underbank, we wish to nurture parental involvement; we have an active Parent Council and a Parent and Friends Association, both support us in valuable ways. We welcome the support of parent helpers to assist us in providing an active and engaging curriculum, as well as a variety of after school opportunities. Our school offers a varied choice of extra-curricular activities including football, netball, tennis, running, athletics, Spanish and chess. We participate in local and SLC wide events, such as swimming, netball, football, athletics, tennis and cross country. Our children have the opportunity to participate in a variety of events during the year e.g. Orchard Day in the valley, creating and delivering harvest hampers within the village, school showcase events, Religious Festival celebrations and dance competitions. P6 & 7 are offered a residential outdoor experience annually and are currently booked to go to Lockerbie Manor which offers many new activities and experiences to the children. This year has been a fairly stable year and our NQT has been highly effective in P2/3. One class teacher moved onto an acting PT post early in 2017 and was replaced by area cover. Our CCC teacher (one day per week) has changed throughout the year and this does have some impact on consistency for classes.

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.

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 sessions 15/16 (when data was first collected) and 16/17.

Attainment data - Attainment of Curriculum for Excellence levels 2015/16 (teacher judgement)

Reading Writing Listening & Talking

P1 P4 P7 P1 P4 P7 P1 P4 P7 Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved School Early or First or Second Early or First or Second Early or First or Second better better or better better better or better better better or better Underbank 95.5% 73.7% 76.5% 95.5% 73.7% 70.6% 95.5% 89.5% 100.0% Primary SLC 80.0% 75.2% 72.3% 78.2% 67.9% 62.7% 83.8% 82.6% 79.7% National 80.8% 75.2% 72.3% 78.2% 69.3% 65.1% 85.0% 80.9% 77.4%

Numeracy

P1 P4 P7 Achieved Achieved Achieved School Early or First or Second better better or better Underbank 95.5% 68.4% 64.7% Primary SLC 83.0% 71.2% 67.9% National 83.9% 73.1% 67.8%

1.2 Predicted Attainment 2016/17

National Improvement Framework - Attainment of Curriculum for Excellence levels 2016/17

Reading Writing Listening & Talking

P1 P4 P7 P1 P4 P7 P1 P4 P7 School Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Achieved Early or Early or Early or Early or Early or Early or Early or Early or Early or better better better better better better better better better

Underbank 100% 87% 64% 100% 93% 54.5% 100% 93% 100.0% PS

Numeracy

P1 P4 P7 Achieved Achieved Achieved School Early or First or Second better better or better Underbank 100% 80% 81.8% PS

Achieving Excellence: Overall Progress towards National Improvement Framework Priorities Session 2016-17 Use all available evidence (including data)

Literacy: Progress satisfactory good very good excellent 

Strengths Our spelling data for 2016 – 2017 shows the positive impact of the North Lanarkshire spelling approach from P1-4 and teachers also recognise the positive impact of our work to develop higher order reading skills throughout all stages. Our predicted data for listening and talking shows that this is a real strength from P1-7 at Underbank.

Areas for Development A large number of our P7 group this session have been supported in literacy throughout their years with us. This has impacted greatly on P7 writing, reading and numeracy data. As we progress NLC spelling approaches into P5 next session, we believe this will impact positively on data in the years ahead. Our aim is to work on moderation and holistic assessments for listening and talking to build staff confidence within achievement of a level using the new Benchmarks. We will continue to develop writing as a learning community, aiming for a consistent standard across our school and our learning community. Data around children in receipt of free school meals and/or within SIMD 1-3 does not highlight any necessity to close the attainment gap within literacy.

Numeracy: Progress satisfactory good very good excellent  Strengths Our numeracy data for 2015/16 and 2016/17 shows that we consistently do well at the P1 stage when compared with SLC and nationally. This we believe is impacted by our high quality active teaching style and activities at the lower stages. Our numeracy data at P4 shows that we have built upon the good practice at the early stages this session and this is highlighted by the increased percentage of children at P4 achieving first level or more. Through self-evaluation, we believe that the implementation of ‘Talk it, Solve it’ and by starting to develop maths within real life contexts are also having a positive impact.

Areas for Development Through self-evaluation, we have identified the need to develop our practice in interactive mental maths and to use varied technology to promote engagement and enjoyment in maths. These improvements we believe will impact at all stages and are key priorities of our plans for our Pupil Equity Funding spend this coming year. Data around children in receipt of free school meals and/or within SIMD 1-3 does not highlight any necessity to close the attainment gap within numeracy. 6

Health and Wellbeing:

Progress satisfactory good very good excellent 

Strengths Our Health and Wellbeing Curriculum provides progressive opportunities for pupils to develop. We continue to engage with varied partners to enhance this area of the curriculum. We believe that our work within ODL and Forest School impacts greatly on pupils’ wellbeing. We have developed an approach for pupils to self evaluate their wellbeing during 2016 – 2017 and staff and pupils recognise its worth, valuing the approach. We offer a wide variety of after school and lunch clubs that also impact positively on pupil engagement and activity.

Areas for Development We aim to continue to develop our pupils’ and parents’ understanding of bullying and will seek to source a partner to enhance this area. As a staff, we will also engage with the NHS resource www.healthyschools.scot to refresh our work within this area.

Employability Skills/Positive Destinations: satisfactory good very good excellent 

Strengths At Underbank we continue to build upon the principles of Building the Curriculum 4. This has continued to lead to an increased awareness of staff and pupils. Staff strive to set all pupils’ learning within real life contexts when possible and we will continue to build upon this. Each class has an annual focus on enterprise and our parents and other partners ably support us to ensure our pupils have a good understanding of the ‘world of work.’ Senior pupils continue to have leadership roles within a number of areas of school life and all pupils have the opportunity to use their voice to impact positively on the life of our school through committee involvement.

Areas for Development We will continue to work on developing skills for learning, life and work throughout our school in creative ways. We will aim to use local employers to enhance the good work of parents and other partners within this area.

Overall quality of our learners’ achievements Highlights of session 2016-17 Underbank has been a very busy place again this session and our school community has lots to be proud of. Our pupils continue to receive a broad, balanced and well planned curriculum in line with Curriculum for Excellence, making the best use of our context.

P4-7 children took part in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge as we continued to build on the positive impact of our 2015-2016 project, Underbank Reads Together. As part of Scottish Book Week, we set an Extreme Reading Challenge of trying to read somewhere out of the ordinary. As always, our pupils didn’t disappoint us with their creative entries!

Our Learning Community has focused on the development of writing this session. This collaborative work has ensured staff have a better understanding of achievement of a level in writing and increased familiarity with the Benchmarks, while forging stronger relations across our Learning Community to ensure a shared understanding. Our aim is to continue to strengthen this in the new session.

HMIe (April 2016) asked us to promote musical activities and skills to impact positively on our school and attainment. We have had this as a key focus throughout this session. Each of our classes have shared their musical learning in rotation during Friday assemblies throughout the year and we have sought to broaden opportunities for all stages. Opportunities such as creating a school choir, Fischy Music Workshops, P5-7 Bugsy Malone production, purchasing a class keyboard for our two senior classes, Scottish Opera workshops for P4-7 and a visiting African Choir have all impacted greatly on school life, pupil motivation and increased opportunities for parents to view showcases of work.

Again this session, each class has experienced Forest School and we have maintained our focus on taking learning outdoors. We applied for and won, The Finest Scottish Woodland Award for Scotland. This was a fabulous achievement, and recognises our commitment to ODL and using our context as a learning resource.

We have four committees in school and all children continue to select their chosen one for the session. Our Eco Committee successfully gained their fourth green flag and have our garden planted with produce to be harvested. Our Making Rights Real Committee gained their Level 1 award and ran a very successful Take a Break Fairtrade event for parents and the community. Our Charities and Enterprise Committee led our Red Nose Day activities and our Health and Outdoor Committee promoted healthy snacks by organising a healthy tuck shop, and have also managed our mud kitchen which all pupils have greatly enjoyed using. Our Pupil Council also impacted positively on school life by reviewing our Masterclasses and suggesting new activities, while also applying for a Sports Scotland Award towards the end of the session.

Our parents are keen partners. They help to support learning in classes and deliver opportunities to pupils such as helping with Walking Bus, Credit Union, organising our Running Club and Multi-sports Club. We are always keen to build new partnerships and continue to grow our existing ones. We have linked with a new village Fellowship Group to participate in community events such as a Harvest Lunch Celebration, a village Christmas card design competition, Carols in the Park at Christmas and by singing with an African Choir. Our Parents and Friends Association and Parent Council both play an active part in shaping our school.

Our much anticipated new build got underway during this session. Our whole school community was asked to contribute to the design of a stained glass window for our new school. P4-7 children have all had the opportunity to cut pieces of glass for our window and this is starting to take shape.

Comment on strategies that have been successful in engaging with children and young people, staff, parents and the wider community.

This session, we reviewed reporting with parents and overwhelmingly parents reported that they would prefer more dialogue with staff instead of the interim report. We facilitated this by lengthening the time slot for parents at parental consultations and shall not be undertaking the short interim report in the new session.

Our Parent Council engaged with HGIOS4 and helped us to highlight good practice, as well as some areas which they felt would be beneficial to develop. We have incorporated some of their school evaluation into our plans for the new session.

Our lead inspector shared her vision of the development of music in our school (April 2016). We introduced new planning and sought to strengthen our work in this area. All are in agreement that by our continued focus on this area, and through the engagement of professionals, we have impacted greatly on the experiences and learning that pupils have received. Our aim is to continue to look for opportunities to ensure this is embedded.

Our staff team developed pupils’ self-evaluation procedures in Health and Wellbeing this session. We have monitored this termly and used learner conversations to track pupils’ wellbeing. All staff valued this work when it was evaluated and this will continue in the new session.

We continually aim to grow our existing partnerships and to forge new partnerships to impact positively on engagement and opportunities in our school. A parent who is a professional puppeteer ensured our P6/7 pupils’ engagement with and understanding of Tam O’Shanter, was strengthened through their shadow puppet performance. We have regularly engaged with a local drama student who helped to enhance our pupils’ skills and their productions. She also ran a block of Masterclass sessions for us. We were also fortunate to engage with a German student who delivered a block of language lessons to P5-7.

Staff continue to engage in professional learning and share their new skills and knowledge through professional dialogue.

Review of SIP progress session 2016 - 2017

Priority 1: Curriculum  Maintain a focus on improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy, taking account of national guidelines and the following SLC documents: Literacy Strategy, Numeracy Strategy, Languages 1+2 Strategy, Digital Education Strategy.  Develop appropriate timescales for the implementation of the new National Assessments in Literacy and Numeracy and identify any training requirements for staff.

National Improvement Framework Key Priorities National Improvement Framework Key Drivers  Improvement in attainment, particularly in literacy and numeracy;  School leadership  Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children;  Teacher professionalism Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing; and  Parental engagement  Improvement in employability skills and sustained positive school leaver destinations for  Assessment of children’s progress all young people.

 School improvement

 Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 2.3

Progress and Impact: Numeracy and Mathematics - Our focus to improve our maths programme and resources has included staff training in the First Steps in Maths Approach and their diagnostic assessments, and implementation of Talk It, Solve It, a problem solving resource. We held our annual Fun Maths Roadshow event again this year for P4-7. We believe this activity impacts positively on how pupils view maths and themselves as learners. Staff have all engaged with the new Benchmarks in Mathematics and have used these to reflect on changes that may be needed to the Lanark Learning Community Progressive Plans which we currently use. This has ensured that all staff have a good understanding of Achievement of a Level at their current stage(s). French/German – Staff have explored the uses of the Primary Languages Platform to enhance teaching and learning in their classes. Instructional language in French has been agreed for across the school and shall be embedded in the new session. Our work to enhance the teaching of German within P5-7 was positively impacted by securing time with a German MLA and one staff member delivered German for a block to P5/6 and P6/7. We developed German vocabulary mats for staff to use in future years to ensure progression in this area. Technologies – GLOW Blogs have been introduced and used from P4-7. All iPads are now part of the managed service 11

and most staff attended training within this area. Twitter has been set up and is used effectively by staff and selected pupils. Our ICT coordinator introduced Scratch to all staff and led sessions from P4-7. A follow up training session took place during our Feb in-service day and pupils were given the opportunity to participate in a Masterclass to develop their skills in programming further.

Next Steps:  Continue to develop our approaches to the delivery of mathematics and to make any necessary changes to our planning after reflecting on the finalised Benchmarks within this area.  Aim to focus on developing our learners’ skills within interactive mental maths and problem solving.  Embed the directional French language across our school.  Reflect on our current ICT planning and the development of pupils’ skills in light of the recent changes to the Technologies Benchmarks.

Priority 2: Curriculum planning and design  Develop creativity and skills for life and learning through the scrutiny of the musical skills, experiences and progression on offer at Underbank.  Health and Wellbeing will be embedded within the planning and design of the curriculum in Underbank and pupils will have opportunities to self-assess their own health and wellbeing throughout the session, while other achievements will be closely tracked to ensure all pupils have opportunities to develop their skills.

 School improvement

 Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 2.2 &1.1

Progress and Impact: Music and Musical Creativity – Staff evaluation of ABC Music led to us discontinuing its use while seeking out other opportunities to enhance our pupils’ skills. An audit of our musical instruments took place and these have been collated and are now easily accessible. Additional resources have been purchased including two keyboards and CDs highlighting different styles of music. Each class now takes a turn to share their learning within music during our assemblies to showcase skills development. We have established a school choir who have had significant impact within school and our community. We have greatly enhanced pupil opportunities in music within school and also by funding others from outwith eg Scottish Opera and Fischy Music. Our planning now reflects the Benchmarks and the development of skills over a three year period. Pupil Self Evaluation of their HWB – Staff developed and piloted a template which all pupils used to self-evaluate their HWB over the session. Staff recognised this as a valuable tool when used together with learner conversations and pupils reflected on the impact of our HWB curriculum on their own wellbeing. Our HWB programme and progressive Forest School programme was introduced to staff early in the session and has been implemented effectively throughout the session. Tracking of other Achievements - Pupils achievements continue to be tracked within school and outwith. We have again aimed to ensure that pupils across the school have opportunities to develop their skills through lunch and after school opportunities, pupil led activity groups, Masterclasses and by engaging professionals to enhance pupils’ opportunities to achieve. 13

Next Steps:  Embed our planning within music and adapt our planning within Expressive Arts to reflect the Benchmarks and skills development over time.  Develop planning for other areas of Expressive Arts while taking account of the Benchmarks within these areas.  Continue to track achievements for all pupils to reflect opportunities pupils have, and to ensure those who may miss out are considered within our planning.  Embed pupil HWB self-evaluation within our annual programme.

Priority 3: Assessment, Achievement, Profiling and Reporting  Ensure we are meeting the needs of all learners’ through familiarisation and use of the new GIRFEC approach.  We will take account of the guidance from Education Scotland on the “Achievement of a Level” and have appropriate moderation activities, processes and planned dialogue in place to support staff in making confident decisions.

 School improvement

 Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 2.3 & 3.1

Progress and Impact: Staff familiarisation and use of the new GIRFEC Approach – All teaching staff attended a CPD opportunity to gain greater familiarity with the GIRFEC approach and have used their knowledge to impact positively on learners. Achievement of a Level Guidance – a number of key staff have attended network meetings to ensure we were best informed of good practice within achievement of a level. Key staff have ensured all staff were up to date with developments through professional dialogue opportunities. As a school, we have had opportunities to moderate within and outwith our establishment, so ensuring that our understanding of achievement of a level is consistent and shared with other professionals, including staff from Lanark Grammar.

Next Steps:  Continue to seek opportunities for staff to work collaboratively within and outwith our establishment for all to develop their confidence and skill in recognising achievement of a level.

Strategic Priority 4: Communication with stakeholders  Underbank will develop and maintain strong partnership approaches which improve outcomes for learners and continued self-improvement for our establishment and the wider community.

 School improvement

 Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 2.7

Progress and Impact: Our success in maintaining and developing further partnerships has impacted positively on outcomes for learners. Our parents are key partners and many readily support and contribute to their own child’s learning but also to the opportunities available to others, such as supporting Forest School, helping to deliver Bikeability training, leading clubs and sharing their skills. This has impacted on our school improvement. We have also sought to actively engage with other partners such as the church fellowship group, the Armistice Day village group and local businesses to extend opportunities for our learners, but also to contribute positively to our own community. Through self-evaluation exercises, we recognise the positive impact partnership has both within our school community and our wider community.

Next Steps:  Continue to actively seek positive partnerships from within our school community and outwith, in order to enhance our pupils’ skills and achievements, and secure school improvement.

School Quality Areas for Self- Indicator Key Strengths Development Evaluation At Underbank, self-evaluation is integral Our learning community has We believe we 1.1 to how we work within our community started to work more effectively have major and is an ongoing feature of school life. to moderate standards. Our aim strengths in this Self-Evaluation for All staff, pupils, parents and partners are is to strengthen this work over area. There are Self-Improvement fully involved in improving the life and the coming session. a few areas for work of our school. improvement Across the year, there is focused too however, attention on monitoring and evaluating but these do not learning and teaching and children’s significantly achievements, and to taking diminish improvements forward. learners’ Underbank staff work effectively as a experiences. team. There is a strong ethos of sharing practice, and of peer support and challenge. A range of stakeholders take lead roles in aspects of school improvement. This includes pupils, parents and partners. Pupils are confidently engaged in reviewing their own learning and the work of the school. All staff have consistently high The vision at Underbank was We believe we 1.3 expectations of all learners. developed three years ago and is have major The vision of the school is ambitious and ambitious while focusing on strengths in this Leadership of focuses on improvements in outcomes improvements in outcomes for area. There are Change for all. All staff are committed to change all. Our aim however is to revisit a few areas for which results in improvements for our vision and to then ensure our improvement learners and are clear on the schools learners understand this and that too however, strengths and areas for development it is present within our ethos. but these do not based on a range of evidence. This significantly is used to create a clear rationale for diminish future improvements. learners’ experiences. The learning environment in Underbank Staff will revisit the research We believe we 2.3 is built on positive, nurturing and around the impact of high quality have major appropriately challenging relationships feedback to ensure this is valued strengths in this Learning, teaching which lead to high-quality learning and embedded across our school. area. There are and assessment outcomes. Our learners’ achievements We will also work to develop our a few areas for

in and out of school are pupils’ skills in giving high quality improvement recorded and recognised, and pupils peer feedback too however, understand how these achievements but these do not help them develop knowledge and skills significantly for life, learning and work. diminish Our learners play an active role in the learners’ school and wider community, and do experiences. 17

take on leadership roles, including leading learning. Tracking and monitoring are well- understood and used effectively to secure improved outcomes for all learners, including the most deprived children. All stakeholders promote a climate We would like our children to be We believe we 3.1 where children and young people feel more knowledgeable about have major safe and secure. We have created an equalities and inclusion. Our aim strengths in this Ensuring environment where our young people is to consider scheduling input area. There are wellbeing, equity feel listened to and are secure in their from specialists and other a few areas for and inclusion ability to discuss personal and partners to ensure pupils improvement sensitive aspects of their lives because awareness is heightened around too however, they feel cared about. these areas. but these do not Our staff and partners model behaviour eg Dyslexia Awareness Day, significantly which promotes and supports the Speaker to talk about ASD diminish wellbeing of all. Staff know individual learners’ children well. experiences. We know, understand and use the wellbeing indicators as an integral feature of school life. Our pupils use the indicators to self evaluate their own wellbeing. Staff and partners take due account of the legislative framework related to wellbeing, equality and inclusion. The curriculum provides pupils with well-planned and progressive opportunities to explore diversity and multi-faith issues, and to challenge racism and religious intolerance. Outdoor spaces are used highly effectively to promote positive relationships and wellbeing. Staff are aware of research linking benefits of outdoor learning and green space with wellbeing. Almost all pupils are attaining We will aim to build staff We believe we 3.2 Raising appropriate levels and several have confidence in using the have major exceeded these. Attainment levels in Benchmarks, SNSA and holistic strengths in this attainment and literacy and numeracy are a assessments to inform our area. There are achievement central feature of the school’s priorities professional judgement of a few areas for for improvement and are raising achievement of a level. improvement attainment over time. too however, The school’s data demonstrates that but these do not most of our current learners are making significantly very good progress. diminish Attendance levels are high across the learners’ school. experiences.

We have had no exclusions during this session. Our young people are applying and increasing their achievements through active participation in their local community. We believe our outdoor learning experiences, including Forest School, impact positively on attainment and achievement.

Overall impact of establishment’s actions to improve excellence and equity (PEF) Amount allocated: £6000 How are we doing? How do we know? What are we going to do now? (Evidence measures of success) Although we cannot comment at this stage on the impact of our first PEF spend, we are confident that the plans we have in place will lead to improvement. See the School Improvement Plan for details of our planned projects in this area.

Overall evaluation of establishment’s capacity for continuous improvement

Underbank Primary was last inspected in April 2016 and was awarded the following:

1.1 Improvements in Performance – Very Good 2.1 Learners’ Experiences – Very Good 5.1 Curriculum – Very Good 5.3 Meeting Learners Needs – Very Good 5.9 Self-Evaluation – Very Good

We have not become complacent after our inspection but were inspired by our lead inspector to continue to aim for excellence. Over the 2016 - 2017 session, we have worked on many of the areas or activities that HMIe highlighted to us. We have also moved to self evaluate against HGIOS4 and have taken into consideration the key drivers of the National Improvement Framework.

We were unable to show HMIe a three year trend of data and so are working towards this now. We are also working towards staff using our data effectively to identify necessary interventions and trends. Our aim is to ensure that through rigorous tracking and monitoring, we can impact positively on attainment within our establishment.

This year has been a fairly stable year and our NQT has been highly effective in P2/3. One class teacher moved onto an acting PT post early in 2017 and was replaced by area cover. Our CCC teacher (one day per week) has changed throughout the year and this has also impacted on consistency for classes. Permanent staff have however continued to engage in professional learning and enquiry, and PRDs have been completed allowing staff to identify their own professional targets for the coming session. The teacher undertaking the acting PT post will continue to aim towards securing a permanent PT post but as a fairly stable, committed and hardworking team, we aim to continue to strive towards further improvements in the coming session.

Head Teacher (June 2017)

Date______20 ______