The City of Edinburgh Council

Standards, Quality and Improvement Plan for Echline Primary School

Echline Primary School, in partnership with parents, staff and pupils, aspires, through a caring approach and high quality learning and teaching, to create an ethos which ensures a positive, respectful and stimulating learning environment that will nurture every child towards reaching their full potential and enable them to have the skills and confidence to be prepared for their future beyond school.

Standards and Quality Report for session: 2015-2016

Improvement Plan for session: 2016-2017

Table of contents

Section

Section title

Page

Standards and quality report

1

The school in context (short introductory paragraph)

2-3

2

Schools self-evaluation

4-16

Improvement plan

3

Key areas for school improvement

17-20

4

Cluster improvement plan (reflecting three year CfE implementation)

21

Standards and Quality Report

1. The school in context

Echline Primary School is a non-denominational school built in 1977 serving the west of Edinburgh enjoying a striking setting with a dramatic backdrop of the bridges over the River Forth. The school serves a catchment area reflecting a wide range of private and council housing and attendance is above the national average.

In session 2015-16, Echline Primary had 276 pupils organized across 10 classes. However, due to rising rolls, Echline Primary is growing resulting in 296 pupils across 11 classrooms in session 2016/17. We have a purpose built nursery accommodating 30 children in the morning and 30 children in the afternoon adjacent to the school with its own outdoor learning space. There are plans to further improve our nursery grounds to develop quality outdoor learning experiences. Echline Primary benefits from a Support for Learning base, gym hall, library area and active learning areas. The school grounds have been developed over the years and now include a trim trail, amphitheatre, wild-life garden, climbing walls, woodland and ponds.

The school benefits from a very active Parent Staff Association (PSA) and Parent Council.

The school management team comprises of the Head Teacher, one Principal Teacher with a Support for Learning role, one Principal Teacher with a part-time class teaching commitment and a part-time Business Manager. Last session our pupils benefited from specialist teachers of PE, music and Drama. We also had visiting instrumental tutors of Woodwind and Strings.

We are very fortunate in Echline to have a very strong teaching team who are dedicated to growing their leadership through professional development opportunities, as well as an enthusiastic, well-trained Pupil Support team. All Echline staff are dedicated and highly committed to providing the very best learning experiences and additional support for each and every learner.

Echline nursery has recently employed a highly experienced nursery teacher who is supported by four skilled Early Years Practitioners. Our nursery team are highly committed to building the ambition for our three to five year olds. Mrs Borwick, one of our EYPs has completed training this session and is now working with key professionals to help deliver a Psychology of Parenting Project (PoPP) group for parents in the Queensferry community. We have recently appointed an additional PSA who will support the nursery teacher and EYPs.

This year the school has actively sought out ways to engage parents and plans to increase these opportunities next session. We have been providing parental engagement groups to share aspects of our improvement plan to enable parents to better support their child at home. Next session we plan to work with Representatives of the Parent Council to actively engage them in school improvement priorities and self-evaluation exercises.

The local high school is Queensferry Community High School. The Queensferry cluster schools have a strong working partnership with good communication which benefit pupils at transition. Our participation in Queensferry Team Around the Cluster has resulted in highly effective partnership working that has enhanced transition for Queensferrys more vulnerable Primary Seven learners.

2. Schools self evaluation

1.1 Improvements in performance

Standards of attainment over time

Overall quality of learners achievement

Impact of improvement plan

Echline attainment has shown a steady rise over the last three years as evidenced through the Standardised Assessment scores in PIM and NGRT. Learners achieving the expected level in P1 numeracy have risen from 89.5% in 2014 to 97.8% in 2015 which is more than 23% above the average across Edinburgh P1 pupils. There is a similar trend in P1 literacy with 95.7% achieving the expected level compared to 69% in the city.

Our 2015 Literacy results evidenced that in Echline, 90% of P4 learners achieved their expected level compared to 64% in the city and in P7, 85% of pupils achieved their level compared to 62% in the city.

We have raised the attainment of those learners, as well as those at risk of missing out, by identifying needs early in P1 then putting in place programmes of early intervention which has impacted positively on their progress. SEAL scores, CEC Literacy assessments and scores in PIM (Progress in Maths) confirm this.

Our attainment trends compare well with similar comparator schools in Edinburgh.

Impact of the Improvement Plan

The priorities in our school improvement plan have had a measurable impact on improving the attainment, achievement and wellbeing of our learners.

SEAL continues to have a very positive impact on learners in P1, P2 and now P3 as well as a group of underachieving pupils in P6/P7. Targeting support for learners in the lowest 20% group using maths recovery or SEAL strategies as well as literacy support has improved the attainment of most of these children as shown by in their standardised assessment scores.

We ensured consistency by providing induction for all new members of staff to introduce them to SEAL at August in-service and have embedded into practice over session 15/16.

We have shared Mental Agility guidelines and Difficulties in Numeracy guidelines into school Maths and Numeracy programme, particularly P3-P7 and written into policy.

A whole school maths and numeracy policy has been written and developed with staff.

We have continued to improve and strengthen the support for learning that our children receive. Forward plan and Attainment meetings with staff have been used to ask challenge questions from HGIOS4 to raise attainment and promote high expectations.These Termly attainment meetings with individual members of staff identify learners who would benefit from additional support from the ASL Teacher, class teacher and Pupil Support Assistant.

Mr Moir has been released from class on Thursdays to support lowest 20% of pupils with numeracy. We have considerable evidence through self-evaluation and assessment to confirm that this had a positive impact on our attainment.

Additional Support has been improved by training support staff in programmes of support for learning that can be delivered on a daily basis.

A range of professional partners such as Barnardos and ASL service have provided in-house training to improve the programmes of support being delivered.

We have continued to improve learner participation and engagement through responsive planning, cooperative learning and higher order skills pedagogy.

All pupils are benefitting from more active learning experiences and focused tasks to develop their higher order skills in literacy and numeracy across learning.

We further improved participation and engagement by increasing opportunities for children to be involved in planning and evaluating their learning and ensuring that strategies of AifL are embedded from Nursery to P7.

Teachers have benefitted from CAT sessions on how to develop responsive child led planning with focus on skills development through their interdisciplinary topics. Katherine McAllister led a session on creating and using talking tubs and floor books effectively. Tubs and books were ordered for staff to use and feedback indicates that learners are playing an increasing role in creating key questions and have greater responsibility for what they will learn and how they will demonstrate their learning. Staff in upper primary are primarily using learning walls for responsive planning.

As a result of bundling Experiences and Outcomes together, staff have developed meaningful contexts for interdisciplinary learning, IDL, to develop skills and deepen learning. Staff have worked collegiately to consider Echlines rationale, local area and planned the learning with a focus on skills for learning, life and work from nursery to P7.

We have created more opportunities for learners voice and engagement. After CPD on Time to Talk, all staff are now planning opportunities to have meaningful conversations to ensure pupils know how well they are learning. These are recorded in learners folio jotters which will be shared with parents three times each year.

We have held three very positive HWB Cluster sessions for all staff to increase their awareness of HWB as a responsibility for all: positive relationships, resilience, self-esteem and confidence. Health & wellbeing is a weekly focus in assemblies and ongoing in classrooms. We have shared our work with parents at parental engagement sessions and have also been running a 6 week Raising Children with Confidence course in t