HMIE on St Bride’s School, Onich

St Bride’s Primary School and Nursery Class, Onich, near Fort William, were inspected in March 2008 as part of a national sample of primary and nursery education.   The inspection covered key aspects of the work of the school at all stages. The school, which has 25 primary and 5 nursery pupils, was judged to be providing a happy and purposeful learning environment in which pupils were developing very good personal and social skills and were hard working and successful learners.  Positive relationships existed between parents, pupils and staff and parents were actively involved in supporting the work of the school.

Parents were reported to be very positive about all aspects of the school and the nursery class.   They highlighted the welcoming atmosphere and the mutual respect that existed between pupils and staff.  They also thought that this school was well led and had a very good reputation in the local community.   Pupils’ wider achievements were judged to be successfully promoted with a high emphasis on developing self confidence and self esteem.  There was good collaboration between staff, parents and other agencies to ensure that there was access to a variety of sporting and cultural activities.

Attainment across the school in English Language and Mathematics was reported to be good with pupils achieving appropriate national levels of attainment.  Overall, nursery children were making sound progress in key aspects of the curriculum and benefiting from stimulating learning experiences.

Head Teacher, Susan Kemp said that she was very pleased with this positive report which she views as being  a great credit to staff pupils and parents.

The school and the education authority will now prepare an action plan indicating how they will address the main findings of the report.  This plan will be shared with parents and within two years of the publication of this report, parents will be informed about progress made by the school.