Kilninver Primary School

Overview

Education Scotland inspectors visited Kilninver Primary School and Pre-Five Unit in January 2024. The report highlights a “calm, inclusive learning environment” where children feel “cared for and happy,” though it identifies specific areas for improvement in primary stage teaching and leadership. The inspection concludes that the school has the capacity to continue improving without further visits.

Strengths

• Staff have created a “calm, inclusive learning environment” where children feel “cared for and happy.”
• Children are described as “enthusiastic and eager to learn,” being “polite, friendly” with a “well-developed understanding of their own wellbeing.”
• Early learning and childcare (ELC) practitioners provide “stimulating learning experiences” that build on interests and promote curiosity.
• ELC children are “motivated and engaged,” making “good progress” with the help of skilled practitioners.

Areas to improve

• The headteacher should use national guidance to “strengthen the approaches for school improvement.”
• Primary staff should work together to improve children’s “progress and attainment across the curriculum, particularly in writing.”
• The headteacher and teachers should develop “greater consistency in learning, teaching and assessment” and ensure a “brisker” pace of learning matched to all children’s needs.

Safeguarding

The report states that children have a “well-developed understanding of their own wellbeing” and that the school ensures “wellbeing, equality and inclusion” at a satisfactory level in primary stages and a good level in the nursery class.