linked to qi/theme web viewworking within curriculum for excellence, we endeavour to provide the...

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT REPORT AND PLAN

School: Ben Wyvis Primary School

Head Teacher: Tania Mackie

Date submitted: May 2017

School Vision, Values and Aims:

At Ben Wyvis Primary School, we are committed to delivering an ethos of respect for all in our school community. We aim to provide happy, positive environment where everyone is listened to, supported, valued and nurtured through fun learning experiences. At Ben Wyvis our school a motto is; ‘be the best you can be’.

Our vision is for the whole school community to work together to provide the highest quality learning experiences for children, enabling them to attain and achieve their full potential. Ben Wyvis Primary School is a place where:

We respect and care for everyone in our school communityWe learn and work together as a teamWe act responsiblyWe aim to be the best we can be

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Working within Curriculum for Excellence, we endeavour to provide the highest quality learning and teaching. We strive to ensure that all our children attain and achieve their full potential and acquire the full range of skills and abilities relevant to growing, living and working in the contemporary world. We aim to get it right for every child and to provide a caring environment in which all children feel safe, healthy, active, respected, responsible, included and nurtured. We are committed to setting high expectations for behaviour and attainment within a positive ethos which celebrates success and achievement in all forms. We continue to develop and promote positive partnerships with parents, carers, professional agencies, visitors, volunteers, partner centres and the wider community.

We aim for all pupils to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

SIP 2016 – 17 Curriculum Rationale S&Q Report 2016 – 17

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Standards & Quality Report 2017 - 18

Context of the school: Our school supports the communities of Maryburgh and Conon Bridge and is a community school, which opened in 2012. We work in partnership with the Leanaig Centre, based at the school and Highlife Highland facilitates community use and shares our resources. ‘Team Ben Wyvis’ is supported by a Head Teacher, Depute Head, Principal Teacher and Childcare Manager. The DHT and PT are both class committed. As of August 2017, Staffing is stable, although the school has had a number of long term absences including senior managers which have been challenging to cover. The school consists of 10 classes, an early years base, a nurture base (The Hub and the Wee Hub) and a small sensory room. Each classroom has access to an outdoor area and our children benefit from a large playground, a courtyard which we use for learning and growing, an all-weather pitch and a community facility, which is a canteen space at lunch. Infrastructure and housing in the local area is rapidly expanding and currently the school is at capacity. Extension work is planned for 2017 – 18. Building works and snagging issues have been on-going since the school opened and the gym hall has been closed for periods of time. Despite this, our school continues to thrive especially within the areas of sports and expressive arts. The last quality assurance visit to the school identified that pupils are confident, articulate and are engaged actively in learning.

Class Contact Reduction (CCR) time is provided by specialists, including teachers from Dingwall Academy. This supports both transition and progression through the curriculum.

We provide a flexible childcare and early learning service which operates from 8am till 6pm and will be well placed to offer 1140 hours in 2018. A visit from the Early Years Support Officer, highlighted that our children are motivated, engaged and enjoy their learning, that staff are committed to ensuring the flexible model works for children and the leaderships of senior managers and their vision for continued improvement is a strength.

What have we done to close the attainment gap?Our focus on parental engagement and development and investment into digital technologies from early years to P7 has been a focus of the 2016 – 17 school improvement plan. Now children in the school have a learning profile on-line, which tracks both attainment and achievement. Our school has consistently engaged and still engages with parents to develop this and as a result most parents are more engaged with their child’s learning. Our school has now moved to continuous reporting and opportunities are provided on a regular basis for parents / carers to visit classes and be directly involved in supporting their child.

During 2016, identified staff were trained to support nurture groups and our Nurture Base, ‘the Hub’ was opened in February 2016 and the ‘wee Hub’ was opened in December 2016. Individual needs and groups of children are supported through a

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targeted and staged approach. Our nurture bases are registered with the Nurture Group Association and resources support interventions for social, emotional and behavioural needs.

A flexible childcare service has been introduced this session which supports families who work, provides quality early learning and childcare for our young people and has provided staff opportunities to develop their own career paths and professional qualifications.

Our overall evaluation of the school’s capacity for continuous improvement:

* We are confident in our capacity for continuous improvement ☒

* We have some concerns about our capacity for continuous improvement ☐

Comment:We work hard as a team to provide a positive learning environment across early years to P7 and we all support our school ethos where most pupils, parents and staff feel respected and listened to. Our pupils are confident, articulate and most strive to ‘be the best they can be’.

A high level of pastoral care is experienced by all pupils and our class teachers and a small number of support staff, who where appropriate and where possible support children with well-planned interventions.

A wide variety of opportunities are offered to pupils to develop skills for life, learning and work and many children achieve personal success within and outwith school.

Learning experiences across our curriculum are active and engaging. Our outdoor learning facilities provide children with many opportunities for learning and health and wellbeing is a focus of the school day.

We are developing the use of digital technologies and are one of the first associated schools group in Highland to be updated in line with the Highland Council ICT strategy. We are a community school and we build on positive partnerships with local communities and partners.

Lessons are well planned, well-resourced and there is a good level of challenge in tasks. Pupils have many opportunities for collaboration and our school is well supported by parent volunteers.

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The Head Teacher and Childcare Manager continue to support the development and growth of the flexible childcare service, in line with the introduction of 1140 hours in 2018.

Quality Indicators from How good is our school? (4th edition) and where appropriate How good is our Early Learning and Childcare?

How are we doing?What’s working well for our learners? (what are the features of effective practice in our school?)

What are we going to do now?

What actions will move us forward?(improvement priorities highlighted in this area)

How would we evaluate this QI using the HGIOS?4/HGIOELC six-point scale?

1.1 Self-evaluation forself-improvement

Collaborative approaches to self-Evaluation

Analysis and evaluation of intelligence and data

Ensuring impact on learners’ successes and achievements

committed to professional engagement and collegiate working

Parent Council members are taking an active role in school

Staff have opportunities to self-evaluate daily

We are developing our approach to collating data

Continue developing our approach to self-evaluation by including all partners as appropriate.

Plan to include actions from the visioning sessions

Change the spreadsheet for data

Liaise with Dingwall Academy to ensure data collated and analysed is done in a similar format.

Very Good

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1.3 Leadership of Change

Developing a shared vision, values and aims relevant to the school and its community

Strategic planning for continuous improvement

Implementing improvement and change

We listen to each other and value each other

We always do our best to get it right for every child.

Teachers plan together

Our professional development and training is focused

The Pupil Equity Fund discussions with the whole school community have made our school improvement more real

Develop our shared vision, values and aims with all partners focusing on listening, valuing, supporting, having fun in learning, being happy, positive and respected.

Continue to build on our nurturing schools ethos and with a focus on health and wellbeing for all,

On-going review and development of the schools approach to developing the young workforce

Continue to collaborate with all partners to develop strategic planning, implementing improvement and change.

Develop further programmes to support children and families will be delivered after staff training

Very Good






2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment

Learning profiles P1 – P7 and Learning Journeys in early years have been introduced this session

Move towards pupil ownership of the profile (P1 – P7) and develop the use of the digital profile

Good / Very Good

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Learning and engagement

Quality of teaching

Effective use of assessment

Planning, tracking and monitoring

Our school library provides an invaluable resource for all learners in the school.

All teachers have a class I-pad and access to a bank of I-pads.

Transition planning has been planned earlier this session

Progression week once a term has been successfully recorded as part of the online profile

Our quality assurance visit identified that there was a positive learning environment across the school, a good level of challenge and pupils demonstrate good individual and paired learning skills

For all children to be able to responsibly use google apps for education and new technologies when appropriate.

To develop children’s use of reflective vocabulary

To facilitate more learning visits and peer learning opportunities for staff

Invest further in digital technologies and resources Teaching policy

Continue to develop monitoring and tracking

The school is targeting literacy this year as an area for improvement and staff are involved in ‘words up’ training and emerging literacy






3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion

Wellbeing

Fulfilment of statutory duties

Inclusion and equality

An increasingly large number of children attend our ‘Hub’ on either a daily or weekly basis.

The Wee Hub supports individual children who require an alternative base to the classroom

Our Sensory Room is used by a number of children

Staff training to continue to develop our targeted approach e.g. Seasons for Growth programme / Big Bear Banter group / Movement Group

Continue to develop our nurturing ethos as a whole school

Support where appropriate high quality universal support and work with agencies

Very Good

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Regular staff and PSA meetings to update on need

Support from Mid Area for training – de-escalation / promoting positive behaviour

HT oversees all ASN meetings and child plan / solution focus meetings

Our school has been working to develop its nurturing ethos and has been working with Educational Psychology to achieve this

We work effectively with a number of agencies to support identified need e.g. Speech and Language Therapist

Staff increasingly promote an emotionally literate classroom

to facilitate this

Develop parental engagement further and offer parental support groups e.g. adult literacy / ICT

Re-organise clerical time to enable administration support for GIRFEC

Plan with the Highland Council for the new build and ASN base

Share the equality policy with the Parent Council

Develop the whole school approach to outdoor learning, targeting need. (Orienteering / pond project)

Staff HWB meetings focusing on wellbeing



What are we going to do now?What actions will move us forward?(improvement priorities highlighted in this area)


3.2 Raising attainment and achievement

Attainment in literacy and numeracy

Attainment over time

Overall quality of learners’ achievement

Equity for all learners

Tracking of attainment

Learning Journey’s on-line track progress over time

Our end of level percentages are above both the local and national averages in all areas

Continuous reporting to parents has increased our engagement with parents

Continue to grow our approach to tracking and monitoring

Support effective interventions when identified by targeted support in numeracy and literacy

Work with Dingwall Academy to target literacy (Literacy Ambassador programme)

Make a sustained effort to link with local business and enable our children to be

Good / Very Good

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FOR ELC3.2 Securing children’s progress

Progress in communication, early language, mathematics, health and wellbeing

Children’s progress over time

Overall quality of children’s achievement

Ensuring equity for all children

We are improving our use of data in the school to inform judgements

more involved in the world of work / positive destinations

In early years ensure there are many opportunities to develop numeracy and literacy

Ensure our curriculum is numeracy and literacy rich through class observations and learning visits across the school and other schools

2.2 Curriculum: Theme 3 Learning Pathways

Early Years follow children interests. In the main school we follow a 3 year rolling programme which allows flexibility to vary context for learning in length and also to change according to the children’s interest. Early Years and P1 work together to support transition. Dingwall Academy Teachers support delivery of PE / languages in the school P4 – 7. Technology project in P7 supports transition to S1

Continue to develop our approach to the World of Work

In P1 – encourage flexibility across early years and use the early years as a base for learning

Create different outdoor learning areas

2.7 Partnerships – theme 3 Impact on Learners

The impact of parental involvement on improving children and young people’s learning.

Parent volunteers in the school support reading and numeracy.

Our Librarian is a parent volunteer

Communication with parents has been improved this session

Our staff have an open door policy

Parental contribution to policies

Continue to develop parental input into school

Ensure all parents are aware of our volunteer policy

Encourage parents with specialist knowledge to become involved e.g. Storyteller

Continue to develop parental support groups

Continue to develop Seesaw / Social Media

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New Parent Council has formed

Continuous reporting provides more opportunity for parental engagement

Continue to work with the Parent Council to support the development of the school

School Improvement PlanSummary: Key School Improvement Priorities:Improvement Priority TitleLiteracyLinked to QI/Theme: 1.3 Leadership of Change / 3.2 Raising Attainment and Achievement / 2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment

Literacy Ambassadors – Dingwall Academy Senior StudentsEmerging Literacy Approach and ‘Words up’Targeted literacy support

What are we going to do (subject to change and supported by the Pupil Equity Fund):

Senior Students twice weekly to BW to work with 20 children – basic literacy skills.Staff training – Emerging Literacy and Words UpLibrary – continue to grow and develop resource.Each class to be provided with resources for writing corner (play based activities – early years to P7)Continue tracking through Big Writing Scottish Criterion ScaleSchool Storyteller to start working with classes / groups – identified through staged approach

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Eden Court Outreach to work with specific classesBoardmaker – purchase and ensure all classes have visual timetables / symbols as appropriateDevelop ‘The Reading Bus’ / literacy groups – identified through staged approachUse digital technology e.g. chrome-books to scaffold approach to emerging literacyHomework ClubTargeted support in main school – improvement in attainment – writing - from baseline (tracked from school summative tracking sheet)Updated approach to supporting literacy skills within the classroom and early years

Numeracy

Linked to QI/Theme: 3.2 Raising Attainment and Achievement

The World of Work – EnterpriseTargeted numeracy support


Invest in active maths resources to support numeracy across the schoolTargeted approach in numeracy – groups working on mental arithmetic / practical maths activities outwith class (identified through staged approach)Enterprise Café – small groups of children to work weekly – baking / preparing / budgeting / selling – link with local shops

Health and Wellbeing

Linked to QI/Theme: 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion

Whole School Nurturing EthosEmotional LiteracyOutdoor Learning in Action

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Staff trained to deliver Health and Wellbeing programmes of work e.g Seasons for Growth / Resilient Kids. Work with partner agencies to support as existing arrangements. Continuing to develop our nurture base and approach to nurture as a whole school

Group of children to work with external provider – set up orienteering course in school grounds and also participate in team building / adventure sports. Young People in group to lead activities for other classes / groupsSkillforce – Prince William Award with one class – weekly.Sports Coach to run regular football activity at lunchtimeAll classes – emotionally literate resources used and mindfulness / yoga activitiesYoga/Mindfulness activities for staff and pupilsBuild a Green Gym in the school groundsStaff training sessions in Evanton Woods – to support our use of the school grounds and developmentFisheries Scotland – supporting development of the school pond as a learning environment

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linked to qi/theme web viewworking within curriculum for excellence, we endeavour to provide the...

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