Top marks for Whiteness school from inspectors

Whiteness Primary School and Nursery Class has received a glowing report from inspectors who arrived to assess the school just a week after a new acting head teacher had been put in place.

The 108 primary and 26 nursery children are friendly, well-behaved and eager to learn and there is mutual respect between children and staff, according to the HM Inspectorate of Education findings published on Tuesday.

Staff are committed to giving the children a wide range of learning experiences and there are strong partnerships between the school and parents and the community in general. The school also has an “oustanding” orchestra and excels in international and financial education.

The inspectors visited Whiteness five months after head teacher Jennifer Wadley left to become head teacher at Bell’s Brae in Lerwick and Patricia Stewart had become acting head teacher. The inspectors praised Ms Stewart for her “high level of support to staff and children”. They also singled out for praise Cheryl Spofforth, who took over from Ms Stewart as acting head teacher. New headteacher Lyn Boxall will take up her post in August.

Head of schools service Helen Budge described the report as “very good overall” and thanked Ms Stewart and Mrs Spofforth. She said the new head teacher now had “an excellent platform on which to build”.

The inspectors gave the school/nursery three very goods, four goods and one satisfactory in the nine different categories they used to evaluate performance.

However, they said more work needed to be done to raise attainment in writing and on providing a more challenging environment for higher achieving children.