Inverness Raigmore Primary School and Nursery making ‘insufficient progress’ on recommendations from Education Scotland, say inspector; but added that ‘some positive progress’ had still been made by the Highland school
“Insufficient progress” has been made on improvements at an Inverness school and nursery, inspectors have said.
Education Scotland had previously issued a number of recommendations for improvements at Raigmore Primary School and Nursery following an earlier inspection report published in autumn last year.
But in a follow-up visit, the findings of which have just been published, the organisation’s inspectors said that although there had been signs of “positive progress” in some of the recommendations, improvements had been insufficient in others.
During their late 2023 inspection, Education Scotland had set out four areas for improvement. These included the need for the school to ensure there is a clear focus among staff to raise attainment of all children in general, as well as in literacy and numeracy.
They also called for staff to work together to improve the "quality and consistency of learning, teaching and assessment across the school and nursery".
The organisation also recommended that staff ensure all children with additional support needs have clear plans in place which are reviewed regularly and that the role of class teachers be strengthened to meet all learners' needs.
And they also sought improvements from senior staff to improve the leadership of the school and nursery and regularly review progress on those improvements.
Revisiting the school and nursery to check on progress, inspectors said: “The school has made insufficient progress since the original inspection.
“We will liaise with The Highland Council regarding the school’s capacity to improve. We will return to carry out a further inspection of the school within one year of the publication of this letter. We will discuss with The Highland Council the details of this inspection and how the local authority will support improvement.”
The inspectors said that although progress had been made in improvements to the strategic leadership of the school, staffing changes had posed some issues for the pace of this. They said: “Although some positive progress is evident within the school, insufficient progress has been made to improve the nursery provision.
“Following the original inspection, senior leaders, with support from local authority officers, created action plans for both the primary and nursery. These plans aimed to address the main points for improvement identified in the original inspection. Staffing changes, including the arrival of a new headteacher in August 2024, limited the overall pace of change across the year.
“The new headteacher should ensure there is sufficient rigour and pace in taking forward the programme for improvement. Strong strategic and consistent guidance to support necessary improvement is required. The local authority should take prompt action to ensure that remaining important weaknesses in the nursery are addressed.
They added that work to improve quality and consistency of learning and teaching had seen “greater progress” within the school than the nursery, adding that although the children in the latter “continue to enjoy positive relationships” with the staff, who the inspectors described as “kind and caring”, there had been “insufficient progress” in meeting the recommendation.
Elsewhere, the report said that there had been "limited" progress on ensuring additional support needs children have clear plans in place, but added that moves had been made to streamline planning for additional support needs and that these had been made "more accessible".
It also added that staff were "very sensitive to the needs of identified groups of children" within the school, such as those with links to the armed forces, as well as the arrival of a “significant group” of children from Afghanistan which had prompted new tailored support such as English as a second language.
As for attainment improvements, the report noted that "greater progress" had been made in the school than in the nursery, with the former posting a 17 per cent rise in literacy and 25 per cent in numeracy in the space of a year.
"Overall, children are making satisfactory progress in their learning," they said, but added that "a minority across the school are capable of achieving more”.
They did add, however that teachers “demonstrate increasing confidence when discussing attainment data” and that “staff are beginning to implement a more consistent approach to planning”.
