High praise from inspectors for Carnegie Primary School

Carnegie Primary School, in Dunfermline, has been rated Very Good across the board by Education Scotland inspectors, following a recent visit.

Inspectors found strong leadership and vision, high-quality learning and teaching across the school and nursery, and “respectful, kind and articulate children”.

The school and nursery were rated as very good in each of the four quality indicators, which are:

• Leadership of change (school and nursery)

• Learning, teaching and assessment (school and nursery)

• Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion (school and nursery)

• Raising attainment and achievement (school)

• Securing children’s progress (nursery)

Education Manager, Sarah Else, congratulated all those who contributed to such a successful inspection, saying: “We are delighted that Carnegie Primary School’s recent school inspection report has been overwhelmingly positive, reflecting the dedication and hard work of the entire staff and that they have recognised the headteacher, Mrs Journeaux, and her team for their strong leadership and vision. This report is testament to the collaboration of the leadership team, staff and wider community in providing the best possible education for learners.

Headteacher Julie Journeaux and her staff are absolutely delighted by the report published by HMIe. She said: “This report clearly reflects the values of kindness, respect and ambition held by our school community and the hard work and dedication of our staff to ensuring a high quality learning experience for all our learners.

“As such a large school community (the largest in Fife) it takes a considerable amount of commitment and co-operation from everyone, to foster strong teamwork and consistency in learning and teaching approaches so it is great to see this highlighted as a strength.

“We are a school where everyone's voice matters and we strive to ensure everyone's voice is listened to and valued. Our pupils are encouraged to be leaders of their own learning and have leadership roles across all aspects of school life and we will continue to build on this in the years ahead.”

The following areas for improvement were identified by inspectors who are confident the school has the capacity to improve and will be making no further visits.

* Continue to focus relentlessly on improving outcomes for children in the primary and nursery stages. More regular opportunities for children to lead their own learning will help to develop children's responsibility, resilience, and independence.

* Continue to develop further and embed inclusive practice. This will help to ensure that all children access wider learning appropriately and achieve their full potential.

Mrs Journeaux continued: “I would like to thank everyone who has worked with us and supported our school community on its improvement journey in recent years, particularly our incredibly supportive families.