Strong leadership and family ethos at Fife primary school praised by inspectors

A recent inspection report on Leslie Primary School and Nursery Class published by Education Scotland highlighted a number of key strengths at the school.

Among them were the strong leadership provided by the headteacher and depute headteacher, who inspectors said “work extremely well together”. The report said: “Together with the enthusiastic staff team, they are improving approaches to learning and teaching.

"This is having an impact on raising attainment and achievement for learners in the school and nursery.”

The positive relationships established by all staff with pupils shows children feel safe, nurtured and trusted as a result of the family ethos that has been created.

Inspectors said the children in the school and nursery are friendly, polite and welcoming and are proud of their school. They “behave well in all learning spaces and engage positively in their learning”.

The variety of opportunities for children to achieve skills for learning, life and work was also highlighted in the report as well as how staff ensure children’s achievements are recognised and celebrated.

The school was given a grading of ‘Good’ across all areas.

There were some areas identified for improvement in the report, with inspectors advising staff should continue to raise attainment in literacy and numeracy.

Staff are also asked to review approaches to planning, identifying clear plans for different groups of children to ensure that all children’s learning needs are met fully.

Inspectors said they will make no more visits in connection with the inspection as they are “confident that the school has the capacity to continue to improve.”

Headteacher Michelle McLean said: “We are delighted that the inspection team recognised the work of the school and our approaches to learning and teaching. We are also extremely proud that they recognised our children and the positive relationships they have formed through our values of Live, Love and Learn at Leslie. The areas for improvement noted by the inspection team are areas which our self-evaluation processes have already identified. We look forward to working on these areas in order to further improve outcomes for our children”.

Mary McKay, Fife Council education manager, added: “We are delighted the variety of opportunities for children to achieve, recognise and celebrate skills, for learning, life and work has been recognised. The ongoing commitment of the enthusiastic staff team and strong leadership approach is having a positive impact to supporting improved outcomes for children.”