Clackmannanshire Council Online

St Bernadette's Receives Positive Inspection Report

St Bernadette's RC Primary School has received an overall positive rating from Education Scotland during a recent inspection.

The inspection outcomes were presented to councillors at today's meeting of the Education, Sport and Leisure Committee.

The inspection found that children are developing confidence and take on challenges which extend their learning and support school improvements.

Overall, the schools' support for learning arrangements are very good in meeting effectively the needs of those children requiring extra help, according to the report. The inspection report also notes that children's success is well celebrated throughout the school and beyond.

The inspection also found the following key strengths:

• Polite, respectful and well-behaved children who are nurtured though a caring and considerate ethos built around the Gospel values
• The school's supportive relationships with parents and productive partnerships with the community which further children's learning
• Arrangements for support for learning which help children progress
• Clear and effective leadership of the headteacher

The aspects identified by the inspection team that need further work to secure improvements overall are those areas that have been identified by the school and work has already started to address through the school improvement plan.

The areas where the inspectors and the school agreed to focus on for improvement are:

• Continue to develop the curriculum to ensure that children receive a breadth of experiences, including a modern language
• Build on existing systems for evaluating and improving the quality of children's learning and progress

Committee Convener Councillor Ellen Forson said: "I am pleased for the pupils, staff and parents of St Bernadette's that the inspectors recognised the school's many strengths. I am confident, as are the Education Scotland Inspectorate Team, that the school has the capacity and the drive to continue to develop the curriculum and to increase the impact of self evaluation on school improvement activities, and on pupils' learning experiences. I look forward to seeing the school continue to develop and improve."