Standards and Quality Report St Mungo's Cluster St Joseph's RC Primary School 2019-2020
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Standards and Quality Report
St Mungo’s Cluster
St Joseph’s RC Primary School
2019-2020
Operational
Guidance
Section 3
Improvement Section 1
Priorities for Context
2020 -2021
Section 2
Evaluation
Improvement
Priotities
2019-2020
1
St Mungo’s Cluster
St Joseph’s Primary
St Mungo’s Cluster consists of seven primary school and one secondary school and
operates across Falkirk Council. As a denominational Cluster we work closely
together to serve our communities of Faith and Learning.
Senior Management, staff, parents and pupils across all schools contributed to
various self-evaluation exercises to contribute to this Standard and Quality Report.
This included evaluating all improvement priorities for the session 2019/2020 using
How Good is Our School? 4 and Developing in Faith. Staff, parent and pupil views
were gathered for self-evaluation and to identify future improvements. An HMIE
Inspection of St Joseph’s in February 2020 also fed into our self-evaluation.
HMIe highlighted our Cluster Model for improvement and self-evaluation in a less
recent inspection, stating our strong approach to cluster working is practice worth
sharing. (March 2019.)
In St Joseph’s Primary all stakeholders contributed to the evaluation of the school’s
Pupil Equity Funding plan and improvement within the individual School
Improvement Plan priorities.
2
The purpose of the annual Standards and Quality Report (SQR) is to record the
successes and achievements in delivering improvement relating to the identified
priorities in the improvement plan 2019/20. Ordinarily, the SQR documents the
outcomes and impact of improvement actions over the course of four terms of the
academic session.
Due to the closure of educational establishments in March 2020, planned
improvement work was revised in term 4 of the school session to take account of the
closure. Improvement work was centred appropriately and successfully around: the
provision of distance learning for children and young people; organisation and
delivery of emergency childcare for keyworkers via Hubs and the provision of
pastoral support for vulnerable children and families.
Importantly, staff at all levels, continued in term 4 to undertake and participate in a
range of professional learning and development to support both the identified
priorities of the improvement plan and digital learning and teaching that was required
during the term 4 closure.
The unprecedented intervention of the closure of schools and nurseries reduced the
time available to progress improvement work as planned, therefore, the priorities
identified in the improvement plan for session 2019-2020 remain relevant and will
continue to be progressed in session 2020-2021.
Taking all of this in to account, this report provides a helpful summary for
parents/carers and other stakeholders of successes and achievements across three
terms of the academic session: August 2019 – March 2020.
During school closures much work was undertaken surrounding the pastoral care of
families who would benefit from frequent contact. Staff across all areas, took on
responsibility for keeping in touch with these families through a weekly dialogue by
telephone, text and email. This provided a very necessary and targeted approach to
ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and families most at risk during covid
restrictions.
We also set up a foodbank, library books and a stationery stall for parents and
children to help themselves during lockdown. During staff communication calls with
parents and Head Teacher emails, this was emphasised along with grab and go
lunch bags and kept the school in visual contact with many families as well as
ensuring home learning could be boosted with resources, including some iPads also.
In order to track health and wellbeing during school closure, surveys were
created on Forms to give the Head teacher and Class Teachers insight into
children’s experiences of home learning and could quickly identify any
areas of stress and anxiety.
Falkirk Council staff supplied an online learning platform for school staff to upskill on
the use of Glow and Teams. Short videos were made available to use for teaching
purposes, upskilling many of the children in the use of technology.
3
Teams was used, not only for teaching and learning, but also for
online collaborative work carried out by staff. Staff also met regularly
on Teams as part of a supportive community network which was
most beneficial for staff who were not able to work at the Hub.
Twitter became a real platform for collaboration and communication
with our families. We ran a twitter campaign for each year group for one
week, providing photographs of our children with their messages to our
St Joseph’s family. A video of all of the messages was made at the end
of each week too.
In Nursery and Primary One, online learning journals were used effectively to
communicate and engage with children and parents/carers. In nursery, data collated
on a weekly basis shows that, with interventions from staff and leadership team
through learning journals, parental engagement consistently increased from 0% in
the first 2 weeks of lockdown to 83% (100% for families of preschool children) by the
end of June.
St Joseph’s was located in St Patrick’s Hub as part of the Denny cluster during
school closure. This provided critical child care as well as teaching and learning for
children of key workers and families who required support during this time. This also
provided a wonderful opportunity for collaborative work with the Denny Cluster as
well as sharing creative ideas and best practices.
St Mungo’s High School provided an
excellent online transition programme
for all of the cluster Primary 7 pupils
entering S1. This ensured the children
had every opportunity to get to know
one another and be introduced to the
High school and the staff, in the best
possible way in the current situation.
4
Our Context
Respect Kindness Care
Achievement Community
At St Joseph’s, we strive to develop as a community of faith and learning;
aspiring to foster a positive environment which allows each individual child
the opportunity to reach their potential.
St Joseph’s is a Roman Catholic Primary School serving the catchment area of
Bonnybridge since 1926, approximately 5 miles to the west of Falkirk. The parish of St
Joseph’s, located beside our school, played a central part in bringing Catholic Education
to Scotland. Bonnybridge has a very strong sense of community and the school is very
proud to play a key role in our community. It is our intention to further increase our
activity and profile within our community.
We strive to Get it right for Every child by reflecting and acting upon the wellbeing
indicators (Safe, Healthy, Active, Nurtured, Achieving, Responsible, Respected and
Included) to ensure the children’s needs are fully met.
We have a varied population within the SIMD Profile as 28% of children fall in the 1-3
decile and 29% fall in the 8-10 decile. Our Free school Meal Entitlement is currently 12%
compared to the Authority average of 16.6%. We have 2 children with English as an
Additional Language. There are a number of children from the travelling community
attend the school. Our Pupil Equity Funding for this session was £24,000
We had 7 classes and a nursery class with 173 pupils in total across School and Nursery
for session 2019-2020 and our Leadership Team consists of a Head Teacher and a
Principal Teacher.
We had a very positive HMIE Inspection in February 2020. This was a short model
inspection with a focus on Literacy and Numeracy, Quality Indicators 2.3 Learning,
Teaching and Assessment and 3.2 Securing Children’s Progress (Nursery) Raising
Attainment and Achievement. The team highlighted many strengths in the school and
confirmed some areas for development.
Our Wider Achievements this year have included:
Leadership posts Charitable activities:
Walk to the Falkirk Wheel Mary’s Meals backpack appeal
House Events Poppy Scotland £132.73
Health & Wellbeing Week Remembrance Service
Financial Education D Day Landings Memorial Service
World Mental Health Day Foodbank 114.7kg
NSPCC Assembly and Workshops SCIAF £52
Christmas Show NSPCC £84
Carol Service Show Racism the Red Card £50
Christmas Fayre
Travelling Books
5
Review of progress for 2019-20
Priority 1 By June 2020, 100% of P2 learners will have the opportunity to engage in high
quality rich learning experiences within literacy and numeracy to support curiosity,
enquiry and creativity leading to improved attainment.
NIF Priority- Improve attainment in FC Priority
Numeracy and Closing attainment Gap Improving Attainment
NIF Driver- Teacher professionalism Play Pedagogy
HGIOS?4/HGIOELC? QIs Has this work been supported by PEF?
2.3 Learning, teaching and Assessment YES
Progress and impact
Staff undertook professional learning regarding play pedagogy. There was an increase
of knowledge and understanding of play pedagogy resulting in greater ownership of
environments and informed risk taking.
Staff co-created a shared rationale for quality learning within literacy and numeracy. This
has resulted in an agreed and understood framework to enable improved classroom
practice and support professional dialogue between staff at all levels.
The group initially evaluated and reviewed the modes of learning to ensure an
appropriate balance between child initiated, adult initiated and adult-led learning. Early
data demonstrates an increase in meaningful engagement with learning.
Staff collaborated through TEAMS to share planning, evaluations and provide a level of
support and challenge through professional dialogue. There was an increase in
confidence, ICT skills and collective teacher efficacy.
Early years staff across the cluster planned a practitioner enquiry with a focus on high
quality learning experiences. Due to school closures, March – August 2020, these have
yet to be implemented.
Best practice was shared across the cluster through visiting each other’s establishment.
This has resulted in stronger networking across the cluster, which in turn provided a
positive space for deeper collaboration.
Next Steps
Re-establish network taking into consideration any staff changes.
Carry out practitioner enquiry.
Continue to develop and share provocations to spark curiosity, creativity and
engagement.
6Review of progress for 2019-20
Priority2 : 100% of targeted pupils will show an increase in self-regulation and emotional
literacy by May 2020.
NIF Priority- Health and Wellbeing FC Priority
NIF Driver – Teacher Professionalism Improvement in children’s and young
people’s health and well being
HGIOS?4/HGIOELC? Qis Has this work been supported by PEF?
2.4 Personal Support Yes
3.2 Inclusion and Wellbeing
Progress and impact
Staff undertook professional learning in the Emotion Works framework for emotional
literacy. Knowledge, understanding and confidence in use of the framework has
increased.
All children in the cluster were introduced to the Emotion Works cogs and these are
being used to support dysregulation and structure restorative conversations, at all levels.
Children are now demonstrating an increase in emotional vocabulary to articulate their
feelings. This is evident across all areas of the school. Our playground cogs have been
particularly successful in helping children understand and verbalise any difficulties
encountered in relationships with their peers.
School environments reflect and support our approach to emotional literacy through
classroom and whole school visuals. Early signs indicate a shared approach being used
by children and adults across the school.
The health and wellbeing questionnaire was piloted in term 1 and the cluster working
group collaborated to evaluate, review and improve.
All schools participated in the Caring and Compassionate Communities professional
development opportunity, led by Educational Psychology Service, exploring the use of
attunement principles within the classroom.
Next Steps
Develop staff attunement and nurturing principles in order to establish and
maintain positive relationships
Embed a consistent approach to emotional literacy across the whole school to
support dysregulation and structure restorative conversations
Use the wellbeing questionnaire to identify and support appropriate interventions.
Re-establish network taking into consideration any staff changes.
7Review of progress for 2019-20
Priority 3: In each school there will be an increase of 10% in individual attainment (target
P4 group) by May 2020
NIF Priority- Improve attainment FC Priority
NIF Driver – Teacher professionalism Improving attainment
HGIOS4 /HGIOELC? QIs Has this work been supported by PEF?
2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment No.
Progress and impact
All staff participated in cluster professional development in the use of concrete, pictorial
and abstract approaches to numeracy. Early signs indicate an increase in the
understanding of the importance of concrete materials to support numeracy. The SNSA
results of November 2019 were used as a planning tool to support next steps in
Numeracy in P4 and P7 class stages. Identified P4 children were matched for Numicon
intervention, alongside an additional whole class test of change, which would be
implemented by the class teacher.
Maths resources purchased to support concrete, pictorial, abstract across the school.
This included maths through stories in whole lesson contexts. This proved highly
successful in the upper Primary stages, in contextual understanding of prime numbers
and in halving fractions (P6, Jan and Feb 2020). Similar resources purchased to
reinforce concepts of more and less, and to introduce ideas of multiplying and division as
equal sharing in language rich contexts and met favourably in lower classes. Concrete
fraction-decimal-percentage teaching materials were also bought for upper primary.
Children began to use maths facts jotters across the school. RIC created word-based
tests for first level January 2020 proved too difficult due to the word oriented nature that
presented a barrier for some of target group, therefore selecting criteria from SNSA and
classwork target areas were identified which were compatible with RIC – including focus
on time, multiplication and division concept, focusing on a selection of the FC Numeracy
cards.
In P4 class there was also the planned pedagogical intervention in maths. To ease the
tracking of this QR codes were about to be implemented to increase opportunity for
available immediate feedback. This would support efficient tracking of Falkirk Council
first level cards that was going to be implemented in class, as our reliable point of
measure. Numicon training, working alongside West Lothian Council from one of their
QIOs, was set for 29 January 2020. Sandwell’s test was used with a target group from
the P4 stage (2 pupils, selecting 1 focus) to track maths competency for planned
intervention of Numicon for an individual with a view to 2 child and then group focus once
the SFLA became more familiar with the resource, over the next 2 years.
The cluster group explored a variety of assessment tools to gather data and created an
assessment which aligned to the pressure points. This led to identification of children
who require intervention. The cluster group began to produce a glossary of mathematical
language to ensure consistency across all schools.
Next Steps
Ensure consistency of the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract approaches to
numeracy
Re-administer appropriate assessment to identify numeracy gaps within P4 and
P5.
Re-establish network taking into consideration any staff changes.
Carry out practitioner enquiry of numeracy intervention.
Complete the glossary of mathematical language by December 2020.
8Review of progress for 2019-20
Priority 4: 100% of learners will have opportunities to engage in high quality STEM
experiences across and through the curriculum.
NIF Priority- Teacher professionalism FC Priority
NIF Driver – Employability Skills Raising attainment
HGIOS4/HGIOELC Qis Has this work been supported by PEF?
3.3 Creativity and Employability YES
2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment
Progress and impact
Across the schools IDL planning had a STEM focus. Children were involved in an
increase in STEM learning which was visible across the whole school, ensuring coverage
all 5 science themes.
The resourcing of STEM was undertaken through revisiting the cluster science boxes and
STEMifying them. Stage plans were produced with a list of resources, including online
learning.
Staff collaborated through TEAMS to share planning and provide a level of support and
challenge through professional dialogue. There was an increase in confidence, ICT skills
and collective teacher efficacy.
The cluster group collaborated to produce a framework for STEM planning. This took
account of both science and technical vocabulary, acknowledging the tension between
them. This also took account of pupil voice. Due to school closures, March – August
2020, these have yet to be implemented.
Partnership was established between cluster group, Forth Valley College and Education
Scotland.
Next Steps
Introduce the STEM planning framework in term 2, leading to an evaluation of the
approach in term 3.
Continue to build on the partnership between cluster group, Forth Valley College
and Education Scotland.
Engage in STEM family learning programme.
Across the cluster, organise a celebration event to showcase and share best
practice.
9Key priorities for School Improvement Planning 2020 -2021
St Mungo’s High School Cluster:
Priority 1: Creativity
By June 2021, 100% of P2 learners will have the opportunity to engage in high quality rich
learning experiences within literacy and numeracy to support curiosity, enquiry and
creativity leading to improved attainment.
Priority 2: Health and Well Being 100% of targeted pupils will show an increase in self-
regulation and emotional literacy by May 2021.
Priority 3: Numeracy
In each school there will be an increase of 10% in individual attainment (target P4 and P5
group) by May 2021
Priority 4: STEM
100% of learners will have opportunities to engage in high quality STEM experiences across
and through the curriculum.
What is our capacity for continuous improvement?
We continue to build on our strong commitment to cluster collaboration and
improvement impacting on all children and families within our denominational
schools. Distributed leadership is prioritised, and opportunities will continue to be
provided for staff. Our model facilitates sharing of good practice, resources and
robust moderation across learning. Our drive for consistency in pedagogy, tracking
of attainment and achievement and approaches will lead to better outcomes for all.
Teachers’ agency was in action as many acted in leaderly ways to make deliberate
choices and take innovative risks for their pupils and themselves and to lead
colleagues who may have been struggling with challenges and changes.
(D Netolicky (2020) School Leadership During a Pandemic: Navigating Tensions)
This reflects the actions of staff across our cluster community during the period of
lockdown. We are now confident that staff are well placed to continue their
empowerment journey.
At St Joseph’s we have a focussed action plan for 2020-21 session, guided by our
recent HMIE Inspection. The Inspection team reported that they are confident the
school has capacity to continue to improve and documented the following strengths
across the school:
Confident, enthusiastic and articulate children who are motivated to learn
across the nursery and school. They engage well in their learning as a result
of the range of strategies used by teachers, nursery practitioners and other
staff.
Children’s progress in listening and talking as a result of approaches used by
teachers, staff and nursery practitioners.
Together with staff, the headteacher has been successful in developing
positive relationships across the school and nursery that are nurturing and
inclusive.
10Self-Evaluation of the Core HGIOS?4/HGIOELC? QIs
1.3 Leadership of Change How good is our leadership and
approach to improvement? 4
2.3 Learning, Teaching and How good is the quality of the
Assessment care and education we offer? 4
3.1 Ensuring Wellbeing, How good are we at ensuring
equality and inclusion the best possible outcomes for 4
3.2 Raising attainment and all our learners?
achievement 4
Additional QI
11Nursery Class 2019/20
Our new nursery vision statement was created at the start of session 2019-2020 in
consultation with staff and parents/carers. Our nursery aims were also refreshed to
reflect the principles of current thinking and pedagogy.
A Thematic Review was carried out by members of the Early Years Team from
Falkirk Council in September 2019. The outcome of this was very positive and
grades were given as follows:
Self-Evaluation for Self-Improvement: Very Good
Learning Teaching and Assessment: Good
Securing Children’s Progress: Very Good
An action plan was created following this review and work is in progress on making
improvements guided by this, for example:
Staff now have a clearer understanding of the responsive planning process. They
use the ‘huddle’ approach more confidently to analyse significant observations of
children’s interests and learning and respond to these appropriately, thus leading to
a more stimulating learning environment and more focussed provocations which are
clearly linked to the children’s interests and learning needs.
Our Nursery class was inspected as part of a whole school HMIE short inspection
model in February 2020. The Nursery was graded as ‘good’ across the 2 areas
assessed; 2.3 learning, teaching and assessment and 3.2 securing children’s
progress. Our action plan and improvement priorities for session 2020-2021 will be
guided by this.
12Improvement Priorities for 2019-2020:
1. Outdoor Learning
By June 2020 100% of nursery children will be able to freely access the outdoor
space within the nursery boundary at any time.
By June 2020 100% of nursery children will experience high quality outdoor play and
learning experiences within the nursery boundary on a daily basis.
By June 2020 almost all children will experience high quality outdoor play and
learning experiences out with the nursery boundary in a natural, green space, once a
week.
Progress made:
The size of the enclosed outdoor space has been increased by extending the
fencing, allowing the children more space to play. Unfortunately, the ground within
this extended area has poor drainage and therefore more work needs to be done to
resolve this problem.
Significant improvements have been made to other areas of the outdoor learning
environment and opportunities for high quality outdoor play, for example, the creation
of raised beds for planting, a small wild garden and a bug ‘hotel’ have been
developed. The creation of a new construction area with a vast array of loose parts
resources is almost complete.
Staff are familiar with current documents: My World Outdoors, Space to Grow and
Out to Play and use these when considering the improvements to be made.
Next steps:
To complete the construction area
To seek advice on improving the drainage in the extended area.
To develop skills in and provide high quality outdoor play experiences, particularly
adventurous, ‘risky’ play, out with nursery boundary e.g. in woodland area.
13Improvement Priority 2: Marvellous Meals
By January 2020 all ELC staff will be on board with the Marvellous Meals philosophy
By April 2020 all nursery children will have their lunch in the nursery setting 5 days
per week.
Progress made:
SLT and ELC staff met with ELC Team Manager and catering staff to discuss a way
forward. ELC staff visited other nurseries where Marvellous Meals was being
implemented successfully. This gave staff more confidence and a more positive
mind-set to implement change and they now have a clear understanding of what is
expected.
A catering assistant has now been appointed to work solely in the nursery.
More appropriate kitchen equipment and dining furniture have been put in place:
Industrial dishwasher
Smaller hot holding trolley
More appropriate tables/chairs
Small kitchen dresser to store plates, glasses and cutlery
Nursery staff have created a designated area in nursery setting for snack, lunch and
baking/cooking activities where the children experience a more ‘homely’ feel in line
with the Marvellous Meals philosophy and mealtimes now run smoothly in the
nursery setting.
Next steps:
Introduce regular baking opportunities
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