PROGRESS ON THE MAIN POINTS FOR ACTION Head of Muir Primary School was inspected in The school has been supported and monitored Staff provide more focused development of sponsored events – keep fit, street dance, active May 2007 as part of a national sample of primary throughout by the Quality Improvement and activities for small groups including theme based school sessions including cycle training, football, education. The school received a very positive Curriculum Support Teams through meetings with activities to support early literacy and numeracy. touch rugby, and taster sessions in basketball and report with a number of key strengths identified. the headteacher, staff and pupils, classroom tennis. Senior pupils from have become involved in As a result of the high performance, the strong observations and scrutiny of documentation. The school has been working in partnership with helping nursery children with some nursery record of improvement and the very effective parents and delivered various workshops on key projects e.g. the Eco group on litter pick and leadership of the school, HM Inspectors decided Attainment 5-14 issues such as healthy food options, sexual health planting their vegetable garden. This has to make no further visits in connection with the awareness, bullying and emotional wellbeing. Attainment at Head of Muir Primary was good at the encouraged the children to co-operate with their inspection. time of the inspection. Overall attainment continues peers as well as with older children. to be good with significant progress made in writing. The school continues to develop its health Her Majesty’s Inspectors identified four main Many pupils at all year stages attain levels above Nursery children have been actively involved in promoting curriculum and provides Continuous points for action which the school and the those expected for each year stage. creating an interactive year book to share their Professional Development opportunities for all authority have addressed jointly. experiences with parents. During the current staff. The school participated in the Denny Cluster Progress with each of the action points is detailed session this has included the addition of spoken pilot ‘ Resilience Building Programme’ and As part of the HMIe follow through process, Falkirk below. commentary and discussion involving groups of introduced the resource ‘Creating Confident Kids’ Council Children’s Services were asked to evaluate children. as part of its Personal and Social Development the progress made by the school in taking forward programme throughout the school. Action Point 1 The school has made very good progress with this the recommendations and publish a report on Ensure that all nursery children are appropriately action point. progress to parents. The school was awarded its Health Promoting challenged in their learning School accreditation at Level 2 in November 2007. Action point 2 Continuous Improvement Children have become more confident in the use of Four categories were evaluated as very good and Continue to encourage the development of pupil- Soon after the inspection, the head teacher, Mr ICT in the nursery class. five categories evaluated as excellent. led incentives to support healthy eating in school Barrie, was seconded to the Convention of Websites for numeracy, literacy and problem The school has made very good progress with this Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) for five months, solving across the curriculum have been identified The Health Promoting School Group comprising action point and Ms Jill Stocks, depute head teacher at Denny and are used as planned and free play activities pupils P2 - 7, staff including representation from Primary School was appointed as acting head within the playroom. The smart board is used daily catering services, community dietician and parents Action point 3 teacher. Under the leadership of Mr Barrie and Ms by the children to record days of the week and was established to take health initiatives forward. Stocks the school has made very good progress in weather. The group plays an active part in the life of the Continue to improve attainment in English meeting the recommendations made in the HMIe school. language and mathematics report in September 2007. The nursery class is timetabled within the computer suite and this dedicated time has developed The group has been responsible for taking forward Active learning methodologies have been adopted Members of the management team including Ms children’s skills and confidence in using hardware. a number of key initiatives including an initial throughout early years and in some curricular review of the tuck shop. Ann Kilpatrick, depute head teacher and principal The continued use of active learning areas this has been developed throughout the teachers Ms Linda Gibson and Ms Donna Ferguson methodologies has promoted the development of The school promotes every possible opportunity school. have taken forward with the teaching and support co-operative tasks in all areas of the nursery. The for pupils to participate in sporting events e.g. staff a planned and systematic approach to the depute head teacher has worked with groups of athletics for P6, P7 Olympics, rugby tournament, Working parties have developed guidelines on continuous improvement agenda. more able pupils to develop their language and Big Fit Walk, Walk to School Week, annual active learning and storyline development. maths skills. FURTHER LEARNING TO ACHIEVE INFORMATION A Strategy for Raising Achievement l i Target groups were identified and supported c Throughout the school the move from reading n For further information on this report or the Follow Through Report on the u o throughout school by the Senior Management c scheme to novels and extended texts and the Council’s strategy for Raising Achievement please Inspection of k r i k introduction of new reading strategies such as Team. As a result children requiring additional l a contact the Headteacher or f support have been encouraged to meet their s ‘Reading Detectives’ has continued. e c i v A new maths resource has been introduced at the targets and achieve their potential. r The Communications Officer Head of Muir e s early stages. This has had a very positive impact d Falkirk Council o o h on the pace of learning The process of pupil sampling by interview has r Children’s Services Primary School u o provided a much clearer overview of what actually b h McLaren House September 2009 g i happens in class. Children can explain how e The school had originally introduced learning logs n Marchmont Avenue d lessons/activities have been developed - discuss n to enhance the homework experience. This has a Polmont FK2 0NZ e t been developed further to take account of their involvement in setting targets and goals and a r o Tel 01324 506600 p continuity in learning experiences, Thinking Hats how they have been involved in assessing and r o c t activities and listening and talking skills. evaluating their own and others’ work. i n u Further copies of this report and the original HMIe s n o i Pupils have become more reflective and recognise t report are available from the school or on the HMIe Staff, pupil and parent feedback on learning logs a c i n website at www.hmie.gov.uk continues to be very positive - children enjoy the value of sharing work with others in order to u m homework much more and the standard of share learning. m o c Falkirk Council Children’s Services are committed presentation is consistently high. Consequently, y b d to open communication that achieves shared pupils are being encouraged to become Peer observation groups were established. Staff e n g i independent learners. were organised into trios and observed both s understanding and helps overcome barriers. This e partners with the initial observation focused on the d leaflet can be made available in other languages, in The school has made very good progress with this use of ICT in particular, interactive whiteboard. Braille, large print or on audio tape. Please contact action point Sessions were then organised to allow staff to 01324 506600 for further information. feedback to each other and share their Action point 4 experiences identifying good practice. Continue to review the roles of the senior management team to focus more clearly on The school has made very good progress with this developing the curriculum and raising attainment action point The remits for head teacher, depute head teacher and principal teachers were reviewed to ensure balance across school. Each remit has a clear departmental focus on attainment and quality assurance with leading learning and teaching central to all the senior management team’s role. .