East Lothian Courier | News | School needs to improve

Friday, 16th May, 2008

Published: Thursday, 24th April, 2008 08:00

School needs to improve

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MUCH hard work has still to be done to improve standards at Prestonpans Primary School.

That’s the message from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education following a return visit to the school at the end of last year.

And the leader of East Lothian Council last week expressed concern at the situation.

Inspectors first visited the school in September 2006 and identified four key areas of performance where additional work needed to be done.

A follow-up visit by the inspectors at the end of last year found that work still had to be done in areas such as attainment by pupils, self evaluation by the school, and also in involving pupils, parents and carers in raising expectations and achievement across the school.

A report of the follow-up visit was issued last month. In it, district inspector Philip Denning commended headteacher Anne Torley, who took up her post in August last year, for making “a useful start in providing leadership to the school”.

The report went on: “A number of useful steps had been taken to improve attainment, teaching and learning in the school.”

The report was discussed by the education committee of East Lothian Council last week. During the meeting, council leader, Councillor David Berry expressed his “disappointment” with the report and added: “I really do not want to take issue with the staff, I just think this is unsatisfactory progress.”

Acting director of education and children’s services, Don Ledingham, observed that “progress is inconsistent, but it is being made”.

“I believe, in time, it will transform into an outstanding learning environment,” he said. “ I trust the next report will be better.”

Preston, Seton, Gosford councillor Willie Innes, added: “Progress has been made and that should be welcomed.

“What I am concerned about was that the original report said attainment was a weakness and this report says attainment is not yet consistent across all the year groups.”

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