Good show by Sound School
Sound Primary School and Nursery has received praise from the HM Inspectorate of Education following a visit from inspectors in April.
During their visit the inspectors looked at several indicators. In the nursery department improvements in performance, children’s ex–perience and meeting children’s needs were described as good, while in the primary department these three indicators were described as very good.
The school’s curriculum was also described as very good and its improvement through self-evaluation was described as good.
In their report the inspectors stated: “Within an ethos that promotes and celebrates achieve–ment, children show confidence and experience success in a variety of ways. Strong examples include achievements in environmental, cultural, sporting and musical events.”
The inspectorate identified the school’s particular strengths, which are: children’s learning and achievement, including high standards in English and maths; the strong and successful focus on developing literacy and numeracy across the curriculum; high-quality support for children who have difficulties with their learning.
Staff teamwork and commitment and the impact of self-evaluation in the primary classes, strong partnerships for learning with parents and the community and the outstanding leadership of the head teacher in ensuring a culture of high achieve–ment were also included.
The two areas noted for improvement were to continue to develop the Curriculum for Excel–lence and to make more use of self-evaluation to ensure that the needs of children in the nursery are fully met.
Councillor Bill Manson, the SIC spokesman for education and young people, said: “I wish to congratulate the head teacher and staff on the tremendous achieve–ments recorded in this report. Once more this is evidence that schools in Shetland deliver consistently high quality education.”
