Ardersier Primary School

Overview

Education Scotland inspectors visited Ardersier Primary School in November 2023, noting that the nursery class was excluded from this inspection. The report highlights a nurturing environment with strong relationships but identifies significant weaknesses in learning, teaching, and assessment, alongside satisfactory attainment. Consequently, the school requires additional support and will undergo a further inspection within 12 months.

Strengths

• Children are described as "polite, friendly" and "eager to participate in learning," working well with one another.
• The headteacher and staff have established "strong relationships across the school" and a "nurturing learning environment."
• The headteacher’s approaches to monitoring progress help staff "identify and take action when children are not reaching expected levels of attainment."

Areas to improve

• Improve approaches to learning, teaching, and assessment to ensure "consistently high quality for all children."
• Review planning approaches to ensure children’s learning time is used well to support progress across all curriculum areas.
• Improve attainment in literacy and numeracy by "targeting gaps in children’s learning" to ensure all make the best possible progress.

Safeguarding

The report does not explicitly detail safeguarding arrangements, noting instead that the nursery class was inspected separately by the Care Inspectorate within the past 18 months.