New Lanark Primary School

Overview

Education Scotland inspectors visited New Lanark Primary School in October 2024 and found the school to be performing well across all four quality indicators, each evaluated as “good”. The report highlights a school with strong leadership and a nurturing ethos that supports children’s progress and pride in their community. Inspectors expressed confidence that the school has the capacity to continue improving, meaning no further visits will take place in connection with this inspection.

Strengths

• The “strong and positive leadership” of the headteacher and principal teacher, who have created a “shared vision for improvement” leading to positive change.
• Children’s opportunities to “lead their own learning” and contribute to school leadership, fostering a sense of inclusion and pride.
• “Respectful and caring relationships” between children and adults, creating a “nurturing ethos” that results in good progress.
• “Effective teamwork amongst staff” who are motivated to develop skills to improve children’s experiences.

Areas to improve

• Senior leaders and staff should prioritise raising attainment and improve the use of information to track children’s progress.
• Staff should embed approaches to assessment, planning, and moderation to ensure learning is linked to national standards.
• Staff should increase communication and parental engagement to help evaluate and shape ongoing improvement.

Safeguarding

The report evaluates “Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion” as “good”, noting that the “nurturing ethos” and “respectful and caring relationships” support children’s wellbeing.