North Roe and Scalloway schools inspected

NORTH Roe Primary School’s strengths “just outweigh its weaknesses”, according to a new inspection report.

The school was judged to be ‘satisfactory’ in all four areas of evaluation by Education Scotland.

It was visited by inspectors in May and their report praises the school’s strong partnerships with parents the community, led by the headteacher.

North Roe was also deemed to enjoy “positive relationships” across the school which make children feel safe, cared for and valid, while a focus on reorganising success and achievement is helping kids’ confidence.

The school was also praised for its “polite, well-mannered children who are keen to learn and are proud of their school”.

Areas for improvement included raising attainment and achievement, developing curriculum in line with national guidance and creating a more robust approach to assessing and monitoring progress.

George Smith, chairman of Shetland Islands Council’s education and families committee commented: “We welcome external scrutiny in any form, to help us evaluate the quality of the services we provide to our children in Shetland.

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“Education Scotland inspectors have supported North Roe Primary School to identify its educational strengths and also areas where further improvement work needs to be targeted.

“I want to thank staff concerned for their hard work and I am sure they will take on board all the advice they have received, and continue to improve the quality of the education they are providing in North Roe Primary School.”

Scalloway Primary School, meanwhile, was also visited by inspectors in May.

It received ‘good’ grades in three categories and ‘very good’ a fourth for ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion.

It was praised for having “respectful, happy” children and staff who create an “enabling context to secure school improvement”.

The school was also judged to have strengths in supporting children overcoming barriers in their learning.

It could do better in strengthening its approach to self-evaluation, developing integrated approaches to learning and supporting greater staff confidence in assessing children’s progress.

For Scalloway Primary School’s early learning and childcare, it received two ‘satisfactory’ grades and two ‘good’ ones.