Headteacher: Allan's School is situated in the city centre of historic Stirling. It's a school with a great tradition and a great past. It's been a Victorian building, it had its centenary a few years ago and it's moved into the 21st Century through a lot of hard work. Both from the physical environment of the school and in terms of the development of the learning and teaching in the school.
The thing that makes Allan's Primary School an excellent school is that it's a place where children are happy. They want to come and learn, they want to share their learning and they want to celebrate their success and their achievements.
Excellence in Planning
Headteacher: We are using WALT and WILF - 'We Are Learning To' and 'What I'm Looking For' and because of that the children are motivated. They understand that it doesn't matter if they don't do the whole page of sums, what's important is that they've demonstrated that they understand what it was that they were looking for in the first place, and as children are given the opportunity to do that, they've gained confidence and an interest in engaging in their learning.
Teacher 1: We very much look at the needs of the child in our planning. The teachers look at the children that are in front of them, they don’t look at a textbook and decide that it's page whatever today, they very much look, when they're planning, at the outcomes that they want to achieve. They look for where the children are and they plan where they want to take the children to in the next steps. Part of that planning that the teachers and the staff do is very much related to the children's learning goals - what they feel they should be doing next, how they're going to self-improve.
Headteacher: I've seen a lot of even younger children in the school be able to, confidently, talk about the excellence of their work because they know that they’re measuring themselves against what they’re looking for in the first place. They know that the learning intention was shared with them and they can tell, therefore, if they’ve actually managed to achieve it, and they'll tell you, 'I did really great work today!' because they know what they were supposed to achieve in the first place. The children themselves, I believe, are confident because of that and I also think they are able to contribute more about how they learn those things and when they share, for example, in Mental Maths when they go over 'How did you get that answer?' and three different children in a class can tell you three different ways that they got the answer, the learning and the sharing that's going on within that class - because somebody else realises that, actually, there's not one way to learn, there's not a right way to learn - there's lots of different ways to learn. That's opened up children's engagement with learning, because they feel more confident to have a go, they feel confident to make mistakes and say 'Ah, right!' and to think about it in a different way.
Excellence in Promoting Values
Teacher 2: The children do feel, I believe, that they're part of a little thriving community in its own right and I think what I particularly find quite impressive was recently the school devised its own set of values, and this was really put together in partnership with parents, with the pupils themselves, with the teachers - it was a real community effort. They came up with a very impressive list. It was something like: Respect, Courage, Love, Endeavour, Integrity... and I think that, in itself, is a list that can hardly be bettered, and not only have they come up with that list, I think they do seek to try and to live those values, and that comes from the top down.
Headteacher: One of the five key values that we've just agreed for Allan's Primary School is Respect, and one of our main ambitious targets that we have in our school is to distil that into behaviours and what that looks like for children and for the people in the community of Allan's Primary School and we've probably begun that by linking it to what already happens in this school. We have a thriving Eco Schools group who have secured the Green Flag, so the children have an understanding about respect beyond themselves and respect for their immediate environment but also the global environment.
Teacher 3: The children were greatly involved, because I remember Sally Kennedy, the headteacher, coming to the board and saying this was a proposal that would be needing everyone to become involved, we'd sit down... and that's exactly the way it was. Then when they'd put the road aspect and it showed where it all links in, the reality of it linking in, the kids come home and they talk about it and it's real. It's not about coming from on-high and saying 'This is what we are doing today' and yes, the kids would conform, but this isn’t about conformity, it's about them taking ownership and doing because they want to.
Pupil 1: Love would be... if somebody is way behind at work you should tell the teacher if your fellow student.... you could ask if you could help them.
Headteacher: We have established, as I said, a culture of values where the children and the staff in the school know what behaviours are demonstrating respect and well-being and one of the things that we do is to ask the children to reflect on that and to actually commend other people for showing respect and how they did that. I think it’s hard to talk about values and it's hard to talk about things like respect to 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds without talking about what it looks like.
Pupil 2: In our class, integrity's made a change because more people are handing in their homework and being loyal to the teacher and things... also if we make a mistake, we don't scream and shout but we just laugh and learn from it.
Pupil 3: If you're in the dinner hall and somebody's left their dish not cleaned, you could clean that for them and that would be showing respect.
Headteacher: When they can then verbalise and make reference to how somebody has done something, then they're able to understand it a bit more and that's the journey that we are taking just now.
Pupil 1: It's been good 'cause we've been able to make our own decisions and make ours a better school.
Excellence in Working with Parents
Headteacher: Parents are central to the life blood of the school; we have parents who help in all manner of ways in the school. From coming in and actually helping in classes, Golden Time, they're on Terrific Tuck, they take after-school sports clubs, they take children to the football tournaments that we're involved in, they are really making a difference in Allan's Primary School.
Parent 1: Initially we got involved with The Tops, which is an after-school club that they do on a Tuesday evening and it gets the children active for an hour and it's a voluntary thing but that helps us to get involved with the school, with the Primary 2s and 3s and it's a great club and it's good fun. We're also encouraged to come and help with Golden Time which we do on a Friday afternoon with the Primary 1s and 2s and there's a variety of creative activities that they get involved in - I think the muckier the better, but it certainly helps them to enjoy their week and they know that if they work hard, that it's a treat for them at the end of the day, and it's nice to get in and work with your own class and your own children. I've also been involved in the Eco Schools group and we've just attained our Green Flag in the past year as well, which is a tremendous achievement.
Headteacher: The parents in the school are consulted on the work of the school through focus groups. We had a focus group recently on developing values, and that was a very successful involvement and partnership with parents. The parents also have the opportunity to fill in, to complete a questionnaire that asks them about the work at the school and gives an opportunity for free comment as well and that feeds in to how we develop and plan for improvement in the school. We try to improve, constantly, the ways that we communicate with parents and the ways that we give them opportunities to be involved, that we share information.
Teacher 3: It's a family school... now that's easy said, but to me it really is a family school. I think that the difference is that they go beyond the rhetoric here, so if I can break down 'family' what does it mean... the teachers are the family, the teachers get to know the families who attend. That encourages involvement and once they're involved, they take ownership.
Parent 2: It is, primarily, a community. The teachers work as a team, but the pupils are part of that team and, indeed, I - as a parent - am part of that team as well. From day one, I have been welcomed in this school; there is an open door policy. I am welcome to phone the headteacher or, indeed, the class teacher at anytime and I can approach with any fears of concerns... but I know that my fears and concerns will be taken seriously, if I have any.
Excellence in Self-evaluation
Teacher 4 (to class): Okay, so it should solidify - it should become harder... and what's going to happen around about inside the cup?
Headteacher: It's sometimes a difficult task to look at yourself, to analyse yourself against criteria, especially when you've got a lot of local and national drivers that you think 'We have to attain this and we have to be this...' We know that we are continually improving; we know that we do some things really well, in fact, we do some things excellently. But there are also areas that we need to improve on and through the self-evaluation process, we identify them and I think when you've established a culture of continuous improvement as not a deficit model, that that's alright, it's alright to be looking at what we need to be looking at next. That creates a really positive atmosphere in which to take things forward. It's like taking your family on a trip; you spend all your time driving along telling your children to look out for the wonderful things around about and all they're interested in is the usual 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' And I think in schools, for a long time, we've thought, 'We're never going to get there.' Every time we think we get there, there's something else. Whereas now, with Assessment for Learning and a lot of the new developments; Curriculum for Excellence and The Journey to Excellence, I think a lot of people are now more ready to look at constantly improving things for the benefit of the children.
Teacher 1: I've always believed, and it's always something I've said, that to be an effective teacher you have to be a reflective teacher. The very best teachers, in my mind are reflective, they are able to evaluate and alter their practice, they're always looking for the next step in their own learning - they don't just do something and think 'That was excellent; I'm not needing to do anything about it ever again.' They very much believe that 'yeah, that went really well but how could I still improve it further?' Because there's still that other step on the journey, if you like, that you can still go further and you can still take another step to do things even better. I think in school we are very much reflective. We are always, as a staff, as a senior management team, as a community, looking to be reflective; we are always reflective and we want to be effective as we possibly can.
Towards Excellence
Headteacher: I believe that Allan's Primary School is an excellent school for several reasons. First and foremost, I think we are a school that isn't afraid to look at ourselves and look at where we need to go, how we need to get there and continue to strive for improvement through self-evaluation. I think it's excellent because of the commitment and the dedication of the staff, the parents and the children in Allan's Primary School who, together, create a culture and an ethos that, I think, excels. This is built on trust, it's built on open, honest relationships, it's built on the ability to be questioned, to stand up to scrutiny, to be able to have everything underpinned by very clear values which really help to give you a point of reference for the judgements that you make and for working with other people.
Parent 1: In summary, for me Allan's Primary is a fantastic school because they look after the needs of the children first and foremost. They work together as a team of parents and of children and of teachers and, at the end of the day it’s a great place for everyone to be.
Journey to Excellence: What's new RSS