Carolside Primary School

Overview

Education Scotland inspectors visited Carolside Primary School in May 2024, noting that the nursery class was excluded as it had recently been inspected by the Care Inspectorate. The report highlights “outstanding and inspirational leadership” which has fostered a collaborative culture, resulting in “very good” evaluations across key quality indicators. Inspectors expressed confidence in the school’s capacity to continue improving without further visits.

Strengths

• “Outstanding and inspirational leadership” by the headteacher and senior leaders, creating a culture where stakeholders are “empowered and motivated.”
• “Creative and responsive approaches to planning” that account for children’s interests and promote “active engagement in learning.”
• “Highly effective approaches to ensuring children’s wellbeing,” resulting in a “highly inclusive and nurturing environment.”
• “Very good progress” in literacy and numeracy, with “high levels of attainment and achievement” sustained across the school.

Areas to improve

• Continue with improvement priorities to build on “highly effective practice in learning and teaching” and support for wellbeing.
• Develop approaches to “tracking and monitoring of children’s wider achievements and progress in all curricular areas.”

Safeguarding

The report states that staff have worked well to develop a “highly inclusive and nurturing environment” where children’s wellbeing and learning needs are “met very well by highly skilled and caring staff.”