A primary school in Buckie has been graded “weak” in every inspection category.
St Peter’s Roman Catholic primary school in Buckie has been graded weak across the whole board following an inspection from Education Scotland.
The inspection was carried out in November with results and feedback now available.
Inspector David McKellar’s letter to pupils’ parents or carers highlighted a number of ways in which “staff should improve”.
Staff were advised to improve their leadership across the school, quality of learning and teaching, improve approaches to learning, teaching and assessment.
Enhancing support for children with additional support needs was also identified, including setting targets to “help children make progress in their learning”.
The educational agency also called on all staff to have a “clear focus” on raising the attainment of all children attending the school.
The following areas have been identified to make improvements.
- Leadership across the school, with children, parents and partners supported to participate in evaluation activities.
- The quality of learning and teaching to ensure children are actively involved.
- Approaches to planning of learning, teaching and assessment to ensure children’s knowledge and skills build on what they know as they move through the school.
- Planning of learning that supports better children with additional support needs.
- Raising attainment across the school.
‘Ensure actions for improvement are progressed’
Mr McKellar believes the school needs “additional support and more time to make necessary improvements.”
In the meantime, Education Scotland will “liaise with Moray Council regarding the school’s capacity to improve” and another inspection will be carried out within a year.
Vivienne Cross, Moray Council’s head, of education said: “Many of the issues raised by inspectors had been identified through the school and nursery’s own improvement processes.
“The quality improvement officer and primary advisor linked with the school will continue to ensure that key actions for improvement are progressed at pace, ensuring positive impact on children’s learning and achievements is realised.”
In January, a council report showed Moray schools have fallen well behind the national average for literacy and numeracy in every single measure.
Moray Council vowed to address the problem by hiring more teachers, though concerns were raised over the affordability of this measure amid the teachers’ pay deal.
In December, teachers went on strike in Elgin over pay, with some also raising concerns regarding pupils’ behaviour.
Fleur Stewart, who teaches modern languages at Elgin Academy, told the P&J she regularly looks for other jobs after suffering constant physical and verbal abuse from pupils.
She said: “I’ve been hurt by a pupil twice since September. You don’t want to come into work and think you’re going to be in danger at any point, this is not normal.
“The pupils are also getting more vocal, you go to work and get abuse every single day, even for just asking them to remove their jacket.”
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